How a Hearing Aid may Protect you from Alzheimer’s

Look after your hearing and reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Yes, that’s right.  The Alzheimer’s Society advises getting a regular hearing check as a means to safeguard your mental health. In the same way we look after our bodies by keeping fit, so is stimulating the mind beneficial to mental health. But in order to take part in stimulating conversation and social activities, you must look after your hearing.

The Link Between Alzheimer’s and Hearing Loss

As research in Alzheimer’s progresses, one major area of interest is the link between hearing health and mental agility. Study after study shows the same thing, which is that hearing loss places a person at increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

MRI scans show the brain reduces in size, specifically in those areas used for speech recognition. It seems if you can’t hear well, those areas save energy by shutting down.

However, this shut down is a false bargain, because it places a strain on other parts of the brain. This point has been made by research that compares how people with normal hearing and those with hearing loss perform in cognitive reasoning tests.

The results show that those with impaired hearing scored lower in the tests. This is because parts of the brain used for reasoning and problem-solving get grouped into the problem of decoding muffled sounds. The brain’s resources are split, meaning that fewer brain cells are available for problem solving.

If you’ve tried to hold a conversation in a restaurant with lots of background noise, you’ll appreciate how difficult this is, especially with hearing loss. The natural reaction is to avoid situations where you know you feel overwhelmed. This can limit your social life.

Worse than that, some people feel insecure and inadequate, so they shy away from meeting people and cut back on social interaction. Researchers believe this loss of healthy social interaction can decrease mental stimulation. As with anything, be it physical or mental, the adage “use it or lose it” applies.  Unfortunately in this scenario, the price can be high and as it increases the Alzheimer risk.

How this happens is not yet proven, but one theory is that mental stimulation causes the neurones to fire more frequently, which strengthens the connections between the individual brain cells. Another way of thinking of this is like walking through a field of long grass. Keep taking the same path and it’s an easy walk. Stay at home for a month and it becomes almost impossible to cross the field.

A yearly hearing check should be part of your basic health program, just as eating a healthy diet and taking regular exercise. If you do discover that you have some hearing loss, modern technology can assist your listening and help protect your mental agility.