Hearing Loss & Alzheimer
Hearing loss has been identified as one of the most important risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Older adults with hearing loss are more likely to develop problems thinking and remembering than older adults without hearing loss, according to a hearing experts.
What is Alzheimer’s Disease?
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, constituting 60-80% of all cases. Alzheimer’s disease affects memory, thinking and behavior.
This progressive disorder slowly worsens over time. Individuals with this disease will start having difficulty remembering newly learned information. As the disease advances, more severe symptoms occur, including:
- Disorientation
- Mood and behavior changes
- Increased confusion about time, events and places
- Serious memory loss and behavior changes
- Difficulty speaking, walking and swallowing
link between hearing loss and Alzheimer’s
Change in brain function
The particular part of your brain in charge of hearing and processing auditory information may simply start to work differently when the hearing part of that equation goes away (or becomes strained), causing a change to how your brain is structured, which could be related to the effects of Alzheimer’s.
Social isolation
Social isolation is a proven risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. Solitude is linked with increased inflammation throughout the body, and stress sensitivity. This symptom triggers several aging-related disorders, including dementia. Hearing loss that isn’t corrected can lead to isolation. Hearing-impaired persons tend to decrease their social activity little by little, and to unwillingly withdraw into themselves.
Cognitive load
When you can’t hear well, you have to work a lot harder to make sense of what people are saying. Every conversation you participate in requires more mental energy and work. If your everyday conversations are taking up most of the mental energy you have, then there’s less left for you to put toward memory or other cognitive functions.
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What itmeans for people with Alzheimer?
Many people begin to have trouble hearing in their senior years and manage to live out those years without experiencing dementia. But the link does suggest to us that if we can do something to minimize hearing loss, there’s a decent chance that we can also minimize the likelihood of getting Alzheimer’s or the severity of it if someone does get it.
How can hearing aids help?
With so much emphasis on the cost of hearing aids being a limiting factor for patients seeking treatment, the cost associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s far exceeds that of any modern-day hearing aid! The hope is that we can intervene as professionals early on, limiting the effects of the hearing loss on brain health.
The study also found that those who used hearing aids eliminated the increased risk of dementia. For people using hearing aids, there was no higher risk compared to people reporting no hearing loss, according to the study.
Shruti Hearing Loss Treatment Clinics in India
If you would like to learn more about the connection between hearing loss and cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s, please reach out to a Shruti Hearing Loss Clinics. If you or a loved one would like to get a free hearing test & examination, just book an appointment with our ENT specialist or an Audiologist!
References
Hearing Loss is Associated With Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease
Clinical Trial on Alzheimer Disease