Your overall life can be affected by age-related hearing loss. Not only is your ability to hear impacted, but also your social connections, your professional networks, and even your mental abilities. Over time, hearing loss can profoundly impact the way your brain works in ways that immediately impact your mood, your memory, and more.
The relationship between cognition and hearing loss isn’t always obvious. People normally don’t associate their memory issues, for instance, with hearing loss even though it’s one of the very first symptoms. Sadly, the truth is that memory loss and hearing loss are closely connected.
What’s the connection between memory and hearing loss? Well, the connection is at least in part the result of the unique ways that hearing loss can strain and stress your brain. Your mental abilities will normally improve when you manage your hearing loss.
How memory is impacted by hearing loss
Hearing loss can be hard to notice. Often, people fail to notice the early warning signs and more discreet symptoms. Hearing loss might only be recognized, for individuals in this category, when it becomes more severe. In part, that’s because hearing loss has a tendency to develop quite slowly. Individuals frequently begin increasing the volume on their devices more and more and tend to ignore their symptoms.
Another aspect is how good the brain is at compensating for loss of sound. You might not detect that it’s becoming harder to understand what people are saying as a result. The positive thing about this is that your day-to-day life will have fewer disruptions. However, compensating like this requires significant brain power. Here are a few consequences of asking your brain to do this over long time periods.:
- Chronic fatigue
- Unexplained irritability
- Memory loss or forgetfulness
We will be able to help you find out whether these symptoms are a result of hearing loss or not. In instances where hearing loss is present, we’ll work with you to establish a treatment plan.
Can hearing loss result in memory issues?
Obviously, your brain can be impacted by hearing loss in other ways besides mental exhaustion. Forgetfulness is often a notable presentation. When hearing loss has gone untreated, this is especially true. The cause and effect relationship is not entirely understood, but it’s obvious that there is a connection between hearing loss and the following issues:
- Increased risk of dementia: People who have untreated hearing loss have been known to exhibit an increased risk of dementia and cognitive decline. When the hearing loss is effectively managed, the risk decreases significantly.
- Increased risk of depression and anxiety: An increase in anxiety and depression as a result of neglected hearing loss is not uncommon according to multiple studies. Again, this risk has been shown to drop when the root hearing loss is effectively managed.
- Social isolation: It isn’t unusual for people to disengage from social contact when they have neglected hearing loss. They will frequently avoid conversations and will do things like going to self-checkout instead of talking to a cashier. Your brain will often change the way it processes information as a result.
All of these issues are obviously intertwined. Mental health problems, including depression, can be worsened by social isolation. Similarly, that type of isolation can also increase your risk of developing dementia.
Can mental decline be caused by hearing loss?
One of the more serious impacts of untreated hearing loss is a pronounced increase in your risk of mental decline and dementia. It’s very clear that management of the symptoms helps considerably and scientists have a few theories as to why. In other words, treating your hearing loss has been shown to slow mental decline and lower your risk of developing dementia later in life.
How to handle your forgetfulness (and hearing loss)
If your fatigue and forgetfulness are caused by untreated hearing loss, the good news is that managing your hearing loss symptoms can absolutely have a positive impact. In cases where hearing loss is detected, we may suggest the following:
- Hearing protection: Some of the mental decline previously mentioned can be avoided and additional damage can be reduced by using hearing protection.
- The use of hearing aids: Using a hearing aid can help you hear better. Your social life can be improved and your mental abilities will have less strain by using hearing aids. By preventing and limiting social isolation, your cognition can improve, lowering your risk of dementia, depression, and other issues.
- Regular screenings: Regular screenings can help you detect problems with your hearing before they become significant issues. Treating your hearing loss early can prevent mental strain.
You can improve your memory
You can recover strength of memory even if hearing loss is currently causing a little forgetfulness. In many cases, mental functions will come back once your brain doesn’t need to strain so hard. 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 significantly improve your outlook and decrease your risk for other problems. Call us today!
