Your whole life can be impacted by age-related hearing loss. Besides your ability to hear, your professional life, your social life, and even your cognitive clarity can also be affected. Over time, hearing loss can intensely impact how your brain works in ways that directly impact your mood, your memory, and more.
The link between cognition and hearing loss isn’t always apparent. For instance, one of the earliest symptoms of hearing loss could be forgetfulness, but people rarely think that their memory troubles are linked to a loss of hearing. The unfortunate truth is that hearing loss and memory loss go hand-in-hand.
What does hearing loss have to do with memory? Well, hearing loss puts a unique strain on your brain and that’s, at least in part, the link. Usually, when your hearing loss symptoms are effectively managed, your mental abilities will sharpen.
How hearing loss effects memory
Hearing loss can be difficult to notice. Often, people miss the early warning signs and more discreet symptoms. For these individuals hearing loss may only become noticeable once it has become moderate or severe. In part, that’s because hearing loss has a tendency to progress rather slowly. Individuals frequently begin raising the volume on their devices more and more and tend to dismiss their symptoms.
Another factor is how good the brain is at compensating for loss of sound. Consequently, you may not notice that people are more difficult to understand. This is beneficial in that you will most likely experience fewer disruptions to your daily life. However, compensating like this requires considerable brain power. Here are some consequences of asking your brain to do this over long periods of time.:
- Unexplained irritability
- Memory loss or forgetfulness
- Chronic fatigue
If you’re having these symptoms, we’ll be able to tell you whether the root cause is hearing loss or not. In instances where hearing loss is present, we’ll work with you to formulate a treatment plan.
Can hearing loss lead to memory problems?
Of course, this mental fatigue isn’t the only way that hearing loss can affect your brain. Forgetfulness is frequently a notable presentation. When hearing loss has gone untreated, this is particularly true. Although scientists aren’t perfectly clear as to the cause and effect connection, hearing loss has been strongly connected to the following issues.:
- Increased risk of dementia: Individuals who have neglected hearing loss have been known to exhibit an increased danger of dementia and mental decline. This risk declines considerably when the hearing loss is treated and managed.
- Increased risk of depression and anxiety: Research has shown that neglected hearing loss can also lead to increases in both depression and anxiety over time. And once again, when the underlying hearing loss has been managed, the risk factor drops significantly.
- Social isolation: Individuals with untreated hearing loss will often begin to isolate themselves from other people. You’ll go out less frequently, talk with the cashier at the grocery store less, and so on. Over time, this kind of solitude can alter the way your brain is functioning.
These issues aren’t unrelated, of course. Mental health issues, including depression, can be worsened by social isolation. Similarly, that kind of isolation can also increase your risk of developing dementia.
Does hearing loss cause cognitive decline?
One of the more severe 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 substantially and scientists have a few theories as to why. In other words, treating your hearing loss has been shown to slow down cognitive decline and decrease your risk of developing dementia down the road.
Dealing with hearing loss induced forgetfulness
The good news is, managing neglected hearing loss, if your forgetfulness is caused by hearing loss, will definitely help. Here are a few things we might suggest if hearing loss is detected:
- Regular screenings: Before any problems start to occur, regular screenings can detect them. Treating your hearing loss early can prevent cognitive strain.
- Hearing protection: The use of hearing protection can counter additional degradation of your hearing and, as a result, help prevent some of the mental strain outlined above.
- The use of hearing aids: Using 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. By avoiding and reducing social isolation, your cognition can improve, decreasing your risk of dementia, depression, and other problems.
You don’t have to stay forgetful!
You can restore strength of memory even if hearing loss is currently causing a little forgetfulness. Once the strain on your brain is alleviated, your mental function, in many cases, will sharpen. When you hear better, your brain doesn’t need to work so hard, and that rest can do a lot of good.
Make an appointment with us so that we can help you substantially improve your outlook and decrease your risk of other problems.
