Your entire life can be affected by age-related hearing loss. Besides your ability to hear, your professional life, your social life, and even your cognitive clarity can also be impacted. The way your brain functions, including your memory and mood, can be substantially affected by hearing loss.
The connection between cognition and hearing loss isn’t always apparent. For example, one of the initial symptoms of hearing loss could be forgetfulness, but people rarely think that their memory issues are associated with a loss of hearing. Unfortunately, the truth is that memory loss and hearing loss are closely connected.
What does loss of hearing have to do with memory? Well, hearing loss puts a distinctive strain on your brain and that’s, at least in part, the link. Your mental abilities will usually improve when you manage your hearing loss.
How memory is Affected by hearing loss
Hearing loss can be hard to notice. Often, people miss the early warning signs and more subtle symptoms. Hearing loss may only be detected, for individuals in this category, when it becomes more severe. The progression of hearing loss is often gradual over time and that’s in part why it’s initially difficult to detect. It’s often easy to disregard symptoms and, essentially, raise the volume on your television a little more every few days (or weeks).
In addition, the human brain is quite good at compensating for intermittent loss of sounds. As a result, you might not notice that people are harder to understand. The positive thing about this is that your day-to-day life will have fewer interruptions. However, compensating in this way requires significant brain power. Requiring your brain to perform at this level for long durations can lead to:
- Memory loss or forgetfulness
- Unexplained irritability
- Chronic fatigue
We will be able to help you determine whether these symptoms are a result of hearing loss or not. If it’s determined that you’re dealing with hearing loss, we can help you establish the best treatment plan.
Can memory problems be the outcome of hearing loss?
Of course, this mental exhaustion isn’t the only way that hearing loss can impact your brain. Forgetfulness is a common symptom. This is especially true of neglected hearing loss. Even though scientists aren’t entirely clear as to the cause and effect relationship, hearing loss has been strongly connected to the following issues.:
- Social isolation: People with neglected hearing loss will frequently begin to isolate themselves from others. They will frequently avoid conversations and will do things like going to self-checkout instead of talking to a cashier. Over time, this type of isolation can change the way your brain is working.
- Increased risk of depression and anxiety: An increase in anxiety and depression as a result of untreated hearing loss isn’t uncommon according to numerous studies. And once again, when the root hearing loss has been treated, the risk factor drops substantially.
- Increased risk of dementia: People who have untreated hearing loss have been known to exhibit an increased risk of dementia and cognitive decline. This risk drops dramatically when the hearing loss is treated and managed.
These problems are not unrelated, of course. Social solitude can worsen depression and other cognitive health issues. And your risk of dementia also goes up with social solitude.
Can cognitive decline be caused by hearing loss?
Your risk of cognitive decline and dementia is increased by untreated hearing loss, and that’s one of the more severe consequences of neglecting your hearing problems. It’s very clear that management of the symptoms helps considerably and scientists have a number of theories as to why. In other words, managing your hearing loss has been shown to reduce mental decline and lower your risk of developing dementia down the road.
How to handle your forgetfulness (and hearing loss)
The good news is, treating neglected hearing loss, if your forgetfulness is caused by hearing loss, will definitely help. In cases where hearing loss is detected, we might recommend the following:
- Regular screenings: Regular screenings can help you detect problems with your hearing before they become significant issues. Cognitive strain can be avoided with early management.
- The use of hearing aids: Utilizing a hearing aid can help you hear better. This can result in less strain on your mental abilities and an improvement in your social situation. Your risk of dementia, depression, and other possible problems can be decreased and your cognition can be improved by limiting your social isolation.
- Hearing protection: Some of the cognitive decline previously discussed can be avoided and further damage can be minimized by using hearing protection.
You can improve your memory
If hearing loss is causing you to be a little forgetful, it’s worthwhile to highlight that it doesn’t have to remain that way. Once the strain on your brain is alleviated, your cognitive function, in many instances, will improve. When you hear better, your brain doesn’t have to work so hard, and that rest can do a lot of good.
Making an appointment with us can greatly improve your outlook and reduce your risk for other problems. Call us today!