Feel like you may be forgetting something important? You’re not imagining it. Remembering day-to-day things is getting more and more difficult. Loss of memory seems to develop fairly quickly once it’s noticed. It becomes more incapacitating the more aware of it you become. Did you know memory loss is linked to hearing loss?
And no, this isn’t just a natural part of getting older. There’s always a root cause for the loss of the ability to process memories.
Disregarded hearing loss is frequently that reason. Is your ability to remember being impacted by hearing loss? By identifying the cause of your loss of memory, you can take steps to slow its advancement considerably and, in many cases, bring back your memory.
Here’s what you should know.
How neglected hearing loss can result in memory loss
There is a relationship. As a matter of fact, scientists have found that people with untreated hearing loss are 24% more likely to experience dementia, Alzheimer’s, or other severe cognitive problems.
The reasons for this higher risk are multi-fold.
Mental fatigue
At first, hearing loss causes the brain to over-work. Listening to things takes extra effort. While this came naturally in the past, it’s now something your mind has to work to process.
It becomes necessary to utilize deductive reasoning. You try to determine what people probably said by eliminating unlikely possibilities.
Your brain is under additional strain as a result. And when you can’t accurately use those deductive reasoning skills it can be really stressful. The outcome of this can be misunderstandings, embarrassment, and sometimes even resentment.
Stress has a significant impact on how we process memory. Mental resources that we should be using for memory get tied up when we’re experiencing stress.
And something new begins to occur as hearing loss worsens.
Feeling older
You can start to “feel older” than you actually are when you’re constantly asking people to repeat themselves and straining to hear. This can begin a downhill spiral in which ideas of “getting old” when you’re actually not become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Social withdrawal
We’re all familiar with that narrative of somebody whose loneliness causes them to lose touch with the world around them. Humans are social creatures. When they’re never with others, even introverts have a hard time.
Untreated hearing loss slowly isolates a person. It’s harder to talk on the phone. You need people to repeat what they said at social events making them much less pleasant. Family and friends start to exclude you from discussions. Even when you’re in a room with a lot of people, you may zone out and feel secluded. Eventually, you might not even have the radio to keep you company.
It’s just easier to spend more time by yourself. You feel as if you can’t relate to your friends anymore because you feel older than them even though you’re not.
When your brain isn’t regularly stimulated it becomes difficult to process new information.
Brain atrophy
As a person who is coping with untreated hearing loss begins to isolate themselves either physically or even mentally, a chain reaction initiates in the brain. Parts of the brain are no longer being stimulated. They stop functioning.
There’s a high level of interconnectivity between the various regions of the brain. Hearing is linked to speech, memory, learning, problem-solving, and other skills.
This loss of function in one area of the brain can gradually spread to other brain functions including hearing. Loss of memory is linked to this process.
It’s exactly like the legs of a bedridden person. When they’re sick in bed for a long time, leg muscles get very weak. They may possibly just stop working completely. They may have to have physical therapy to learn to walk again.
But the brain is different. Once it goes down this slippery slope, it’s difficult to undo the damage. Shrinkage actually happens to the brain. Doctors can see this on brain scans.
How a hearing aid can prevent memory loss
You’re likely still in the early stages of hearing loss if you’re reading this. You may not even barely be aware of it. It isn’t the hearing loss itself that is contributing to memory loss, and that’s the good news.
It’s the fact that the hearing loss is neglected.
In this research, those who were using their hearing aids on a regular basis were no more likely to have memory loss than a person of a similar age who has healthy hearing. The advancement of memory loss was delayed in people who began wearing their hearing aids after experiencing symptoms.
Stay connected and active as you get older. Keep your memories, memory loss is linked to hearing loss. Don’t ignore your hearing health. Schedule a hearing exam. And talk to us about a solution if you’re not using your hearing aid for some reason.