There are countless good reasons to treat your hearing loss. Using hearing aids has been shown to increase your confidence in social situations, help you focus while at work and make it easier to enjoy a meal with loved ones at Hemingway’s Bistro.
Research has shown that an additional benefit of hearing aids is that they may be able to strengthen your brain.
Hearing Loss Forces Your Brain To Work Harder
When you have hearing loss, your brain has to work harder to try and process speech and other sounds. The extra effort can interfere with your cognitive abilities because so much energy is being used to understand what’s being said. This can affect your ability to remember information and can lead to feeling mentally fatigued more quickly.
Additionally, parts of your brain that are responsible for processing sounds receive less stimulation the more you struggle to hear. This is due not only to not picking up on sounds in a new way, but also because people with hearing loss often begin to withdraw from social situations and spend more time isolated from others.
Eventually, this lack of stimulation may cause those parts of your brain to shrink and atrophy. Brain scan research shows that hearing loss may contribute to a faster rate of atrophy in the brain. This may be part of the reason why people with untreated hearing loss are at a greater risk of cognitive decline and dementia.
Hearing Aids Can Help Stimulate Your Mind
Though the cognitive consequences of hearing loss can be concerning, research has shown that treatment with hearing aids may help keep your brain fit.
A study published in 2020 evaluated the cognitive function and speech perception in 28 adults with age-related hearing loss both while it was untreated and then re-evaluated six months after being fitted with hearing aids. Participants showed improvement in both speech perception as well as cognitive function after being fitted with hearing aids.
Hearing aids make it easier for your brain to process sound and help provide the right amount of stimulation to your brain. They also help you reconnect with friends and loved ones as well as have the confidence to go out and have new experiences and create new relationships.
If you’ve noticed changes in your hearing, take the first step to better health and happiness by calling Charleston ENT & Allergy today to schedule an appointment for a hearing test.