Are you forgetting something? It isn’t your imagination. Remembering day-to-day things is getting harder and harder. Memory loss 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 normal occurrence of aging. Losing the ability to process memories always has an underlying reason.
Neglected hearing loss is frequently that reason. Is your hearing impacting your memory? By identifying the cause of your memory loss, you can take steps to slow down its advancement substantially and, in many cases, bring your memory back.
This is what you should know.
How memory loss can be triggered by untreated hearing loss
They’re not unrelated. Cognitive issues, like Alzheimer’s and memory loss, were 24% more likely in individuals who suffer from hearing loss.
The reasons for this higher risk are multi-fold.
Mental fatigue
To begin with, hearing loss causes the brain to over-work. You have to struggle to hear things. While this came naturally before, it’s now something your mind has to strain to process.
It becomes necessary to utilize deductive reasoning. When attempting to hear, you remove the unlikely choices to figure out what someone most likely said.
Your brain is under additional strain because of this. It’s especially stressful when your deductive reasoning abilities lead you astray. The outcome of this can be misconceptions, embarrassment, and sometimes even resentment.
How we process memory can be seriously affected by stress. When we’re stressed, we’re spending brain resources that we should be utilizing for memory.
And something new starts to occur as hearing loss advances.
Feeling older
This stress of having to work overtime to hear and asking people to repeat what they said makes a person “feel older” than they actually are. This can start a downhill spiral in which ideas of “getting old” when you’re actually not become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Social withdrawal
We’ve all heard the trope of somebody who’s so lonely that they start to lose touch with reality. Humans are social creatures. Even people who are introverted have difficulty when they’re never with others.
Untreated hearing loss slowly isolates a person. It’s more difficult to talk on the phone. You need people to repeat what they said at social events making them a lot less enjoyable. Family and friends start to exclude you from conversations. Even when you’re in a room with a lot of people, you may zone out and feel alone. In the long run, 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 now because you feel older than them even though you’re not.
This frequent lack of mental stimulation makes it harder for the brain to process new information.
Brain atrophy
As somebody with neglected hearing loss begins to isolate themselves either physically or just mentally, a chain reaction starts in the brain. Parts of the brain are no longer being stimulated. When this happens, those regions of the brain atrophy and stop functioning.
Our brain functions are very coordinated. Abilities like problem solving, learning, speech, and memory are all linked to hearing.
This lack of function in one area of the brain can slowly spread to other brain functions like hearing. Loss of memory is connected to this process.
It’s just like the legs of a bedridden person. When they are sick in bed for an extended time, leg muscles become very weak. They could stop working entirely. They might need to get physical therapy to learn to walk again.
But with the brain, this damage is a great deal more challenging to rehabilitate. Shrinkage actually happens to the brain. Doctors can see this on brain scans.
How a hearing aid can prevent memory loss
If you’re reading this, then you’re still in the beginning stages of memory loss. It might be barely noticeable. The great news is that it’s not the hearing loss that leads to memory loss.
It’s the fact that the hearing loss is neglected.
Research has shown that individuals with hearing loss who regularly wear their hearing aid have the same chance of developing memory loss as somebody of the same age with healthy hearing. Individuals who started wearing hearing aids after symptoms appeared were able to slow the progression significantly.
Stay connected and active as you age. Keep your memories, memory loss is connected to hearing loss. Be mindful of the health of your hearing. Schedule a hearing test. And if there’s any reason you’re not wearing your hearing aid, please talk to us about solutions – we can help!