Age-related hearing loss can have diverse impacts across your entire life. Not only is your ability to hear affected, but so too are your social connections, your professional networks, and even your cognitive abilities. Over time, hearing loss can profoundly impact the way your brain works in ways that immediately impact your mood, your memory, and more.
Sometimes, the relationship between hearing loss and cognition is subtle. People typically don’t associate their memory issues, for instance, with hearing loss even though it’s one of the very first symptoms. Unfortunately, the truth is that memory loss and hearing loss are closely linked.
What does hearing loss have to do with memory? Well, hearing loss puts a distinctive strain on your brain and that’s, at least to some extent, the connection. Your mental abilities will usually improve when you manage your hearing loss.
How memory is impacted by hearing loss
Hearing loss can be hard to notice. It isn’t unusual for individuals to miss the more discreet and early signs. Hearing loss might only be identified, for individuals in this category, when it becomes more extreme. The advancement of hearing loss is often gradual over time and that’s in part why it’s initially hard to notice. People often begin raising the volume on their devices more and more and tend to ignore their symptoms.
In addition, the human brain is very good at compensating for periodic loss of sounds. As a result, you might not notice that people are harder to understand. This is beneficial in that you will probably experience fewer disruptions to your daily life. However, compensating like this requires considerable brain power. Requiring your brain to execute at this level for long durations can lead to:
- Memory loss or forgetfulness
- Chronic fatigue
- Unexplained irritability
We will be able to help you find out whether these symptoms are due to hearing loss or not. In instances where hearing loss is present, we’ll work with you to formulate a treatment plan.
Can hearing loss cause memory problems?
Obviously, your brain can be impacted by hearing loss in other ways besides fatigue. Forgetfulness is often a prominent presentation. This is particularly true of neglected hearing loss. The cause and effect relationship isn’t 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 have an increased danger of dementia and cognitive decline. This risk drops dramatically when the hearing loss is treated and managed.
- Social isolation: Individuals with neglected hearing loss will often begin to separate themselves from other people. They will frequently steer clear of conversations and will do things like using self-checkout instead of talking to a cashier. Your brain will often alter the way it processes information as a result.
- Increased risk of depression and anxiety: Research has shown that neglected hearing loss can also result in increases in both depression and anxiety over time. And once again, when the underlying hearing loss has been managed, the risk factor drops significantly.
All of these problems are obviously intertwined. Mental health problems, including depression, can be worsened by social solitude. Similarly, that type of isolation can also increase your risk of developing dementia.
Can cognitive decline be caused by hearing loss?
Your risk of mental decline and dementia is increased by neglected hearing loss, and that’s one of the more serious outcomes of neglecting your hearing problems. Scientists have some theories about why this might be, but what’s clear is that management of symptoms helps considerably. In other words, managing your hearing loss has been shown to slow down mental decline and lower 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 certainly help. Here are a few things we may suggest if hearing loss is detected:
- The use of hearing aids: You will hear better with the use of a hearing aid. Your social life can be improved and your mental abilities will have less strain by using hearing aids. Your risk of dementia, depression, and other possible issues can be reduced and your cognition can be improved by limiting your social isolation.
- Regular screenings: Before any problems start to occur, regular screenings can detect them. Treating your hearing loss early can prevent cognitive strain.
- Hearing protection: Some of the cognitive decline previously mentioned can be avoided and further damage can be minimized by using hearing protection.
You don’t have to stay forgetful!
You can regain 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 your brain doesn’t have to work as hard to hear, the rest can be really helpful.
Schedule an appointment with us so that we can help you substantially improve your outlook and decrease your risk of other issues.
