How Hearing Aids Help Reduce Cognitive Decline
Hearing aids can help reduce the severity of cognitive decline in some individuals who experience hearing loss.
Studies have shown that hearing loss is associated with cognitive decline and an increased risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, which are neurodegenerative diseases that affect the brain structure and function.
Common symptoms of these conditions include memory loss, communication problems, change in behaviour, difficulty performing everyday activities and confusion and disorientation.
One of the most common age related changes you experience as you get older is a person’s ability to complete cognitive functions properly. While it can be a part of normal aging, there are some ways to maintain brain function as you get older.
When hearing loss is treated with hearing aids, it can improve communication, social engagement, and cognitive function which in turn helps those experiencing cognitive decline.
Communication To Improve Mild Cognitive Impairment
Communication can help reduce cognitive impairment in older adults in several ways. Communication involves using language, memory, and cognitive processing, all of which are essential for maintaining cognitive function.
Here are some ways communication can help improve mental function:
- Stimulates the brain: Communication challenges the brain to process information and respond in a meaningful way. This helps to keep the brain active and engaged, which can help maintain your thinking abilities and reduce the risk of cognitive decline.
- Language processing: Communication involves processing and understanding language, which is a complex cognitive task. Regularly engaging in communication can help maintain brain health, language processing skills and reduce the risk of cognitive decline.
- Memory: Communication often involves recalling information, which can help maintain memory skills. Memory training is an important aspect of cognitive function, and regular communication can help keep memory skills sharp.
Overall, by staying socially engaged and regularly engaging in communication, individuals can help reduce their risk of cognitive decline.
Wish to reduce your risk of developing mild cognitive impairment or potentially develop dementia? Contact our specialists at ACE Audiology to get starting on your hearing aid journey.
How Social Engagement Helps Improve Cognitive Abilities
In older adults, it is easy to become more socially withdrawn, and social engagement has been shown to be a powerful tool in reducing age-related cognitive decline.
Social engagement involves maintaining social relationships, participating in group activities, and being part of a community. Here are some ways social engagement can help reduce cognitive decline:
- Emotional support: Social engagement provides emotional support, which can help reduce stress and anxiety. Stress and anxiety have been linked to cognitive decline, so reducing these feelings can help protect cognitive function.
- Sense of purpose: Social engagement provides a sense of purpose, which can help to improve mental health. A sense of purpose has been linked to better cognitive function and a reduced risk of cognitive decline.
- Physical activity: Social engagement can often involve physical activity, which has been linked to better cognitive function. Aerobic exercise such as dancing, walking, and playing sports can all help to maintain cognitive function and reduce the risk factors associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
- Cognitive reserve: Social engagement can help to build cognitive reserve, which is the brain’s ability to compensate for damage and adapt to new situations. Building cognitive reserves can help to reduce the risk of cognitive decline.
Overall, social engagement is an important tool in reducing cognitive decline. By staying socially engaged, individuals can help maintain cognitive function and reduce the risk of cognitive decline.
Ways To Help Maintain A Healthy Brain
In conjunction with using hearing aids, there are many other ways to maintain your general health to reduce the risk of developing early alzheimer’s disease:
- Exercise regularly; regular physical activity helps improve many medical conditions that can be linked to memory problems
- Blood Pressure; exercise helps lower high blood pressure, which in turn helps slow the development of neurodegenerative diseases.
- Sleep problems; sleeping problems can also speed up the process of subjective cognitive decline, exercise helps regulate your sleep cycle, therefore slowing the process of cognitive impairment.
- Maintain a healthy diet; eating healthy foods, and foods high in omega 3 fatty acids and antioxidants (such as salmon and avocado) help improve cognitive health.
- Complete mentally stimulating activities; to ensure that a person’s thinking skills are up to scratch, as a part of daily living it is important to do cognitive training such as puzzles and quizzes to test your brain functions and improve cognitive health.
Overall, maintaining good health and using a hearing aid will ultimately help lower your risk factor of developing mild cognitive impairment and improve your daily life.
Contact ACE Audiology Today
Wish to reduce your risk of cognitive impairment from hearing loss? Reduce your modifiable risk factors by getting in touch with ACE Audiology to book an appointment to get your hearing aids today.