A recent article in the Daily Mail claimed that getting a hearing aid could stop you from developing dementia.
Professor David McAlpine, director of the University College London Ear Institute who wrote the article quoted research from a number of the studies in the USA. The studies seemed to show that people with an untreated mild hearing loss scored significantly worse in cognitive tests than those without. Their scores suggested their cognitive abilities aged by the equivalent of seven years compared to people with normal hearing.
Professor McAlpine compared losing your hearing to travelling abroad to a country where you speak only a little bit of the language. ” You struggle to understand the conversations around you and just trying to get by leaves you exhausted” he explained, suggesting that exactly the same thing happens to people who experience hearing loss.
“We know that deafness leads to a greater cognitive load. And if your brain has to make more of an effort to do one task, it will be compromised in another” says Professor McAlpine.
As a result, people experiencing hearing loss often start to withdraw from activities they used to enjoy because they find them excessively tiring or maybe just difficult and embarrassing. It is this withdrawal that the experts believe may be responsible for the low cognitive scores seen in the research.
Studies show that social interaction and taking part in activities protects against demetia, possibly because it relieves stress which is known to be harmful to the brain . So the result of gradual withdrawal from being socialable and taking part in activites because of hearing prolems may raise the risk of memory loss and cognitive problems.
In addition a growing body of research indictes that people with untreated hearing loss may be at an increased risk of depression. “When left unaddressed, hearing loss can lead to isolation and other emotional conditions that can affect both quality of life and mental health” says Sergei Kochlin, PhD and Executive Director of the Better Hearing Institute.
The link between unaddressed hearing loss and depression is compelling. For example, a large-scale study by the National Council on Aging (NCOA) in the USA found that people aged 50 and older with untreated hearing loss were more likely to report depression, anxiety, anger and frustration, emotional instability and paranoia, and were less likely to participate in organised social activities than those who wore hearing aids.
The good news is that seeking treatment for a hearing loss can result in significant improvements in quality of life and decreased depressive symptoms with a positive knock on effect on overall health.
This is an article taken from the Resound – Sound magzine Issue 3 June 2013.
