Woman with hearing loss doing dishes because she forgot to turn the dishwasher on.

Chris has been a little forgetful recently. For two months in a row, she missed her doctor’s appointment and has to reschedule. And before she went to bed she even forgot to run the dishwasher (looks like she’ll be handwashing her coffee cup this morning). Lately, she’s been letting things slip through the cracks. Oddly, Chris doesn’t necessarily feel forgetful…she just feels mentally depleted and exhausted constantly.

It can be hard to recognize that feeling until it’s sneaking up on you. Frequently, though, the trouble isn’t your memory, despite how forgetful you may appear. Your hearing is the actual problem. And that means there’s one small device, a hearing aid, that can assist you to considerably improve your memory.

How to Improve Your Memory And General Cognitive Function

So, step one to improving your memory, to get everybody’s name right at your next meeting or to make sure you arrange that day off for your dentist appointment, is to get your hearing checked. A standard hearing evaluating will be able to find out if you have hearing loss and how severe any impairment might be.

Chris hasn’t noticed any symptoms of hearing loss yet so she hesitates to make an appointment. She can hear in noisy rooms fairly well enough. And when she’s at work, she doesn’t have an issue hearing team members.

But just because her symptoms aren’t recognizable doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. In fact, one of the first signs of hearing impairment is memory loss. And strain on the brain is the underlying cause. Here’s how it works:

  • Slowly and nearly imperceptibly, your hearing starts to diminish.
  • However slight, your ears begin to detect a lack of sound input.
  • Your brain begins working a little bit harder to translate and boost the sounds you are able to hear.
  • You can’t detect any real difference but in order to make sense of sound your brain has to work overtime.

That amount of continuous strain can be really difficult on your brain’s limited resources. So you have less mental energy for things like, well, memory or for other cognitive functions.

Hearing Loss And Dementia

If you take loss of memory to its most obvious extremes, you could end up dealing with something like dementia. And there is a connection between dementia and hearing loss, though what the specific cause-effect relationship is, continues to be somewhat uncertain. Still, there is an increased danger of cognitive decline with individuals who have neglected hearing loss, starting with some moderate memory issues and increasing to more severe cognitive problems.

Wearing Hearing Aids Will Help You Prevent Fatigue

This is why it’s crucial to manage your hearing loss. According to one study, 97.3% of individuals who suffer from hearing loss who used hearing aids for at least 18 months showed a marked stabilization or improvement in their cognitive abilities.

Similar benefits have been observed in several other studies. Hearing aids really help. Your overall cognitive function increases when your brain doesn’t have to struggle as hard to hear. Sure, a hearing aid isn’t a memory panacea, memory problems and cognitive decline can be a complex combination of factors and elements.

The First Sign of Hearing Loss is Frequently Memory Loss

This kind of memory loss is mostly due to mental exhaustion and is usually not permanent. But that can change if the underlying concerns remain neglected.

So if you’re noticing some loss of memory, it can be an early sign of hearing loss. You should schedule an appointment with your hearing specialist as soon as you detect these symptoms. As soon as your underlying hearing issues are dealt with, your memory should return to normal.

And your hearing will probably get better also. A hearing aid can help stem the decline in your hearing. In this way, your total wellness, not only your memory, could be improved by these little devices.

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The site information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. To receive personalized advice or treatment, schedule an appointment.