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 evident. People typically don’t relate their memory issues, for instance, with hearing loss even though it’s one of the first symptoms. Unfortunately, the truth is that memory loss and hearing loss are closely connected.
What does hearing loss have to do with memory? Well, hearing loss puts a distinctive strain on your brain and that’s, at least in part, the connection. Your cognitive abilities will usually improve when you manage your hearing loss.
How hearing loss effects memory
Detecting hearing loss can frequently be challenging. Often, people fail to notice the early warning signs and more subtle symptoms. For these people hearing loss might only become evident once it has become moderate or severe. The progression of hearing loss is frequently slow over time and that’s partly why it’s initially difficult to detect. Individuals frequently begin increasing the volume on their devices more and more and tend to disregard their symptoms.
Another factor is how good the brain is at compensating for loss of sound. Consequently, you may not notice that people are harder to understand. The positive thing about this is that your day-to-day life will have fewer disruptions. But it takes a considerable amount of brain power to compensate in this way. 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 due to hearing loss or not. If it’s determined that you are dealing with hearing loss, we can help you develop the best treatment plan.
Can memory problems be the outcome of hearing loss?
Obviously, your brain can be impacted by hearing loss in other ways besides fatigue. Forgetfulness is a common symptom. This is particularly true of untreated hearing loss. Even though scientists aren’t perfectly clear as to the cause and effect relationship, hearing loss has been strongly linked to the following issues.:
- Increased risk of depression and anxiety: Studies have shown that neglected hearing loss can also cause increases in both depression and anxiety over time. Again, this risk has been shown to decrease when the underlying hearing loss is successfully managed.
- Increased risk of dementia: The risk of dementia and other forms of mental decline is greater for individuals who have untreated hearing loss. When the hearing loss is effectively treated, the risk goes down substantially.
- Social isolation: It isn’t unusual for people to disengage from social contact when they have neglected hearing loss. You’ll go out less often, talk to the cashier at the grocery store less, and so on. Over time, this type of isolation can change the way your brain is working.
These problems aren’t unrelated, of course. Mental health problems, including depression, can be worsened by social solitude. Similarly, that type of isolation can also raise your risk of developing dementia.
Does hearing loss cause cognitive decline?
One of the more severe impacts of neglected hearing loss is a marked increase in your risk of mental decline and dementia. Scientists have a few theories about why this may be, but what’s clear is that management of symptoms helps significantly. In other words, managing your hearing loss has been shown to reduce mental decline and lower your risk of developing dementia down the road.
Dealing with hearing loss related forgetfulness
If your fatigue and forgetfulness are caused by neglected hearing loss, the good news is that treating your hearing loss symptoms can definitely have a positive effect. In cases where hearing loss is detected, we may suggest the following:
- Regular screenings: Regular screenings can help you identify issues with your hearing before they become substantial problems. Cognitive strain can be avoided with early treatment.
- Hearing protection: Using hearing protection can prevent further degradation of your hearing and, as a result, 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. This can lead to less strain on your mental abilities and an improvement in your social situation. Your risk of dementia, depression, and other possible problems can be decreased and your cognition can be improved by limiting your social isolation.
You can improve your memory
You can recover strength of memory even if hearing loss is currently causing a little forgetfulness. Once the strain on your brain is relieved, your cognitive function, in many circumstances, 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 significantly improve your outlook and reduce your risk of other issues.