Your overall life can be impacted by age-related hearing loss. Not only is your ability to hear affected, but also your social connections, your professional networks, and even your mental abilities. The way your brain functions, including your memory and mood, can be substantially affected by hearing loss.
The link between cognition and hearing loss isn’t always apparent. For example, one of the earliest symptoms of hearing loss may be forgetfulness, but individuals 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 loss of hearing have to do with memory? Well, hearing loss puts a unique strain on your brain and that’s, at least to some extent, the link. Usually, when your hearing loss symptoms are successfully managed, your cognitive abilities will improve.
How hearing loss effects memory
Noticing hearing loss can often be challenging. Often, people miss the early warning signs and more subtle symptoms. For these individuals hearing loss may only become evident once it has become moderate or severe. In part, that’s because hearing loss has a tendency to advance rather slowly. Individuals frequently begin raising 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. As a result, you may not notice that people are harder to understand. This is beneficial in that you will probably experience fewer interruptions to your daily life. But it takes a significant amount of brain power to compensate like this. Requiring your brain to perform at this level for long durations can lead to:
- Chronic fatigue
- Memory loss or forgetfulness
- Unexplained irritability
We will be able to help you determine whether these symptoms are due to hearing loss or not. If it’s established that you are dealing with hearing loss, we can help you develop the best treatment plan.
Can memory issues be the result of hearing loss?
Of course, this mental exhaustion isn’t the only way that hearing loss can impact your brain. Forgetfulness is a prevalent symptom. When hearing loss has been neglected, this is particularly true. The cause and effect relationship is not fully understood, but it’s obvious that there is a link between hearing loss and the following problems:
- 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. And once more, when the underlying hearing loss has been treated, the risk factor drops significantly.
- Increased risk of dementia: People who have neglected hearing loss often have an increased danger of dementia and mental decline. When the hearing loss is effectively managed, the risk goes down significantly.
- Social isolation: Individuals with neglected hearing loss will frequently begin to separate themselves from others. They will often steer clear of conversations and will do things like going to self-checkout rather than talking to a cashier. Your brain will often alter the way it processes information as a result.
All of these problems are obviously intertwined. Social isolation can exacerbate depression and other cognitive health problems. And your risk of dementia also increases with social solitude.
Can cognitive decline be caused by hearing loss?
One of the more severe impacts of untreated hearing loss is a marked increase in your risk of cognitive decline and dementia. It’s very clear that management of the symptoms helps substantially and scientists have a number of theories as to why. In other words, managing your hearing loss has been shown to slow down cognitive decline and decrease your risk of developing dementia later in life.
How to handle your forgetfulness (and hearing loss)
The good news is, treating untreated hearing loss, if your forgetfulness is caused by hearing loss, will definitely help. Here are a number of things we might recommend if hearing loss is identified:
- Hearing protection: The utilization of hearing protection can counter further degradation of your hearing and, consequently, help prevent some of the mental strain described above.
- The use of hearing aids: You will hear better with the use of a hearing aid. Your social life can be improved and your cognitive abilities will have less strain by using hearing aids. Your risk of dementia, depression, and other possible problems can be reduced and your cognition can be improved by limiting your social isolation.
- Regular screenings: Before any problems start to happen, regular screenings can identify them. Cognitive strain can be avoided with early treatment.
You can improve your memory
If hearing loss is causing you to be a little forgetful, it’s worthwhile to emphasize that it doesn’t have to stay that way. In many circumstances, cognitive functions will come back once your brain doesn’t need to strain so hard. When you hear better, your brain doesn’t need to work so hard, and that rest can do a world of good.
Schedule an appointment with us so that we can help you substantially improve your outlook and decrease your risk of other issues.