Losing our hearing as we age is scary. It causes changes beyond just the ability to hear things properly. Hearing loss modifies the way we perceive the world, and it may even alter our brains in dramatic ways over time. Discover how hearing loss might indicate cognitive decline and what you can do to try to prevent this from happening.
Cognitive Decline and Hearing Loss
Scientists aren?t precisely sure how hearing loss relates to cognitive decline and dementia, but there are studies that show a correlation between both events. What scientist found is that people with hearing loss have greater chances of cognitive decline versus those that don?t show any hearing difficulties.
Johns Hopkins Study
A study published in 2013 by Johns Hopkins University followed nearly 2,000 people with an average age of 77. Researchers found that people who had deafness that interfered with normal conservations were 24 percent more likely to have diminished cognitive functions. This particular study followed participants for six years. The basic conclusion was that hearing loss, especially in older adults, may speed up dementia and the decline of the brain.
Factors of Hearing Loss and Decline
A 2011 study, also by Johns Hopkins, determined that worse hearing loss led to greater cognitive decline. Patients with moderate deafness were three times as likely to develop dementia in older age versus those with normal hearing. Although scientists aren?t sure why there?s a connection, they have
3. Humans are born with approximately 10,000 taste buds. After the age of 50, seniors can begin to lose taste buds. Additionally, many seniors lose their sense of smell. This can make enjoying food and getting enough calories difficult for some elderly.
The term ‘dementia’ describes a set of symptoms which can include loss of memory, mood changes and problems with communication and reasoning. These symptoms occur when the brain is damaged by certain conditions and diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Age is the greatest risk factor for dementia. Dementia affects one in 14 people over the age of 65 and one in six over the age of 80. However, dementia is not restricted to older people: in the UK, there are over 17,000 people under the age of 65 with dementia, although this figure is likely to be an underestimate.
Long-term noise exposure is an example; this is due to the damage that the noise exposure can have on the sensory hair cells. Sensory hair cells are what allow you to hear and if damaged the ability to hear is reduced and these hair cells do not grow back. As Colin was a car mechanic this meant he will have been in contact and close proximity to loud equipment and machinery daily, this could have had a detrimental effect to his hearing and prevented him from hearing Mary. Other environmental factors include ototoxic drugs, genetic factors and cell damage and neural degeneration which are common effects of aging. Ototoxic drugs can effect hearing as they can damage the inner ear including the hair cells and also the auditory nerve, this is important as it carries the sound information to the
The parietal lobe of the brain if affected by dementia affects language skills. This means that communication skills could be reduced. The person may not be able to ‘find’ the appropriate words to use, or may not understand questions asked of them. They may not relate ‘words’ to the correct ‘objects’ for instance if they pick up a cup, but call it a ‘pot’.
Dementia is more likely to develop as people get older; it is also thought that it may be hereditary and that there is a link between different genes. Dementia is not a normal process of getting old. It is caused by diseases that affect the brain and kill brain cells. Research is starting to show that there may be other risk factors that are influenced by our lifestyles and health conditions. It is thought that there may be a link between serious head injury and the future risk of dementia so it is important to protect your head.
The purpose of this paper is to consider and appropriately determine the undeviating correlation of hearing loss to dementia. Hearing loss is a prevalent, multifaceted issue that many individuals struggle with, especially the elderly population. Furthermore, one of the many negative consequences that these individual’s battle with is the inevitable cognitive decline that accompanies hearing loss. Many studies and clinical trials give rise to awareness and implication of cognitive decline linked to a progressive hearing loss. Such fundamental quantitative data provides sufficient evidence to validate the increasing correspondence of dementia and hearing loss as well as provide critical knowledge to the public eye.
Hearing loss is one of the most common ailments faced by American seniors. In fact, nearly 36 million seniors have at least some hearing loss, with the majority of those individuals being more than 65 years of age. On the surface, the consequences of hearing loss may seem to be about the loss of a physical sense. In reality, the actual loss of hearing is the least of a senior's concerns.
There are various types of dementia that are caused by different things. As stated above, Alzheimer’s disease is the most common case of dementia, though the cause of
Even normal aging brings necessity to work out additional strategies for smoothing everyday activity and communication (Ferraro, Wilmoth, 2013). The old people lose the ability to focus on the subject and to switch from one kind of operations to another, while performing multi-task activities (Roščina, 2015). Researchers consider the speech failures in AD to be a manifestation of the impairment in the different cognitive domains. The damage is widespread, so cell connections are disrupted; the neuron network fails to provide informational retrieval and coordination of different operations in the domains. The authors of the studies based on the results of the different tests found out in the
A topic I learned more of this semester in regards to the older population was dementia. Some loss in memory function is an inevitable consequence of aging, and as one ages, it takes more time to process information and retrieve memories. However, "Dementia is a general term that refers to progressive, degenerative brain dysfunction, including deterioration in memory, concentration, language skills, visuospatial skills, and reasoning, that interferes with a person's daily functioning" (Mauk, 2014, p. 377). This loss of mental skills affects the ability to function over time, causing problems with memory and how one thinks, impacting these individual's overall quality of life.
As age increases, we can expect some loss of heart, lung, joint, and sexual functioning. Some loss of brain cells and mental efficiency is a normal part of
Many studies have been broad, studying the vocabulary, reasoning, memory, and speed of the person, but zoning in on one thing specific may lead to further understanding. Studying the effects of cognitive aging in relation to memory possibly will open so many more areas of study. Studying specific age groups could also be helpful when attempting to understand cognitive aging as a whole. Learning about how speed, memory, vocabulary, and reasoning all work within a child, 10-15 years old, might be helpful when comparing that data to that information of an adult. between 50-60 years
Age is the most common factor in increasing hearing loss. About 30 percent of people between 65 and 74 experience some difficulty in hearing. That percentage and the severity of the loss increase with age.
Hearing impairment can lead to other serious illnesses, which might escalate as a person’s hearing loss grows worse. In fact, the risk increases three-fold or five-fold if it remained neglected and becomes severe. This is why it is critically important to get early diagnosis to determine what should be done.
In previous studies, researchers were unable to distinguish the effects of age and hearing loss due to issues of sample size. Gallun et al. (2013) conducted a study to investigate the effects of age on SRM. Four