Can Hearing Aids Help Prevent Dementia?
Hearing loss has been identified as one of the 12 lifestyle risks associated with cases of dementia, according to studies carried out in Australia. The research used data from the Sydney Memory and Aging Study and found that hearing loss accounted for 40 percent of dementia cases.
In Australia, 74 per cent of people over the age of 70 are affected by hearing loss, and the researchers found a significant association between hearing loss and mild cognitive impairment, which is a precursor to dementia. Hearing aids can help prevent dementia by providing the auditory stimulation necessary for brain health.
How Do Hearing Aids Help To Prevent Dementia?
Health experts know that dementia is less likely in stimulated brains, and when people have healthy social lives it adds to cognitive health. Since hearing loss lessens auditory stimulation, it follows that a hearing aid can help prevent dementia by offering people better communication abilities, which in turn helps them have better social connections and lessens the risk of cognitive decline.
When people suffer from even moderate hearing loss they are less likely to want to socialise, possibly due to embarrassment or frustration due to their inability to contribute to a conversation or to hear and keep up with what is happening around them. With hearing aids, people are more inclined to socialise, which can help prevent dementia.
Don’t Allow Hearing Loss To Raise Your Risk Of Dementia
Since our human brains evolved for social interaction, the best way to stimulate our grey matter and prevent dementia is by protecting it against the risk of memory loss. Brains can be stimulated through social activities, among other things, including puzzles and exercise. This can help to reduce the risk of cognitive decline, and any of the 100 or more diseases that cause dementia including Alzheimer’s disease.
If you are staying away from others due to untreated hearing loss, it is a significant risk factor for developing dementia. So, the best way to protect your brain, restore your social life and prevent dementia is to have a hearing test at ACE Audiology and if necessary let the audiologists fit you with a hearing aid. This applies to older people with hearing loss as well as people of any age struggling with all the challenges that come with hearing loss.
Suffering From Hearing Loss? Here’s What You Can Do
Keeping your ears clean is a good start towards preventing hearing loss, but make sure you don’t poke cotton buds or anything smaller than your elbow into your ears. Our experts at ACE Audiology can show you how to clean your ears without damaging them or causing wax blockages which can contribute to hearing loss. Your GP can also be helpful in this regard.
If you have hearing loss and need hearing aids, don’t say no because you think they look ugly or make you look older, or even if you think they’re uncomfortable or worsen your hearing loss. Properly fitted and adjusted hearing aids will be unnoticeable and when you get used to them they can feel like normal hearing.
Some more tips to help your hearing and to maintain brain health and lessen the risk of cognitive decline and prevent dementia include:
- Wearing your hearing aids.
- Speaking up and getting your hearing aids fixed if they’re not working correctly.
- Don’t sit back passively; no matter how old you are, get out and about, socialise, go dancing classes, take up a sport or just get sociable doing other activities.
Follow these tips and you might just find that you get much more enjoyment out of life despite your severe or mild hearing loss while reducing your risk of developing cognitive decline and preventing dementia.
The Sooner You Get Hearing Aids the Better
Hearing experts are well aware that correcting hearing loss with a hearing aid in middle age is better than when you reach 80, which may lessen the risk of dementia by up to nine per cent. Also, GPs who work with older adults who have severe hearing loss know that hearing aids prescribed to patients over 80 are more often than not left in the chest of drawers at the bedside.
But the earlier people start using their hearing aids, the more likely they are to continue using them and gain healthier cognitive and other benefits including preventing dementia and avoiding social isolation.
Contact ACE Audiology Today
If you’re middle-aged and notice you’re turning the TV sound up higher than normal, and you can’t distinguish what people are saying when there is loud background noise, you may have mild hearing loss, so come and see our experts at ACE Audiology.
If you’re an older person suffering from severe hearing loss and your hearing aids are not working as they should, contact ACE today and book an appointment. We’re here to help you deal with the use of a hearing aid so you can participate in your community and live surrounded by the wonderful sounds life offers while preventing the development of dementia.
Contact ACE Audiology today at Bulleen on 03 9850 8888 or Ivanhoe on 03 9440 9409 or email us at reception@aceaudiology.com.au.
References:
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13825585.2020.1857328?journalCode=nanc20
- https://audiology.asn.au/Tenant/C0000013/Hearing%20Health%20and%20Dementia%20Position%20Statement%20-%20Long%20Form%20[20220725].pdf