Dementia is a health condition that affects your brain and makes it hard to remember things, think clearly, or take care of yourself.
Many older people around the world experience dementia. There isn’t a cure yet, but researchers are always studying ways to slow it down or even prevent it from happening in the first place.
One common problem for older people is hearing loss. A lot of the time, they don’t get hearing aids because they might not be able to afford them or they might feel too embarrassed to use them.
However, some researchers have found a fascinating link: treating hearing loss might help prevent dementia!
The Study
A group of scientists in the U.S. did a big study to understand this better. Professor Frank Lin, who works at Johns Hopkins University, led the study.
His team wanted to find out if using hearing aids could slow down cognitive decline. Cognitive decline is when your brain doesn’t work as well as it used to. You might have trouble remembering things or solving problems.
This study was the first of its kind. It involved almost 1,000 older adults from different places across the U.S. It lasted for three years, and the findings were recently published in a scientific journal called The Lancet.
What They Discovered
The study found that in general, using hearing aids and getting help for hearing issues didn’t slow cognitive decline for everyone.
But, for some older adults who were already at a higher risk of dementia, treating hearing loss did help. It slowed down the cognitive decline they were experiencing.
Age-related hearing loss is pretty common. In fact, two out of three adults over 60 have it. But a small number of people with hearing loss actually use hearing aids.
Especially in poorer countries, less than one in ten people with hearing loss have hearing aids.
According to some estimates, about 8% of all dementia cases globally are linked to untreated hearing loss. That’s about 800,000 cases of dementia every year!
There are several theories about why hearing loss could lead to dementia. One is that the extra effort to hear can overwork the brain. Another theory is that hearing loss can make the brain shrink faster.
And a third theory is that people with hearing loss might not socialize as much, and this lack of mental stimulation could hurt the brain.
Details of the Study
The study participants were divided into two groups. One group was part of a different long-term health study, and the other group was made up of volunteers who were generally healthier.
Some people in both groups were given hearing aids and counseling to help with their hearing problems. Others in both groups got counseling on healthy aging but not hearing aids.
The researchers found that the hearing aids didn’t slow down cognitive decline in general. But in the group from the other health study, who had more risk factors for cognitive decline, the hearing aids did make a difference.
In this group, cognitive decline was slower for those who used hearing aids compared to those who didn’t.
Looking Forward
These findings are very exciting! They mean that hearing aids might be a simple way to help protect against dementia, especially for those already at risk.
The researchers are planning to keep studying this issue to learn more. But for now, this study gives hope that treating hearing loss can be a step toward preventing dementia.
This study also supports some recommendations made by the 2020 Lancet Commission on Dementia and the 2022 United States National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease.
Both of these reports suggested that treating age-related hearing loss could be a good strategy to reduce the risk of dementia.
Even though this study was very important, it wasn’t perfect. The researchers knew whether the participants were getting hearing aids or not, and this knowledge could have affected the results.
Plus, a couple of the tests they used to check brain function were based on sound. So, people with untreated hearing loss might have done worse on those tests.
Still, this study offers hope for a simple solution to a big problem. We’ll need more research to know for sure, but it seems that hearing aids could play a big part in preventing dementia in older people.
If you care about dementia, please read studies about walking patterns may help identify specific types of dementia, and common high blood pressure drugs may help lower your dementia risk.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about this tooth disease linked to dementia, and results showing this MIND diet may protect your cognitive function, prevent dementia.
The study was published in The Lancet.
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