While it is commonly known that hearing loss can have serious emotional and social consequence, reduce job performance and diminish a person’s quality of life, what is less apparent is how hearing loss can interfere with cognitive abilities and the toll it takes on the brain.
If a person’s hearing is impaired, they may be able to figure out what other people are saying, but that comes with a cost. They may actually be using the majority of their cognitive resources – their brain power – in order to figure out what they are hearing.
For somebody with hearing loss and who is still working, they are spending a lot more of their brainpower just trying to focus on listening. As a result, they may not be able to perform their job as well. Or if they can, they’re exhausted because they are working so much harder. At the end of the day, they are more tired and this affects their quality of life.
As people age, basic cognitive skills – working memory, the ability to pay attention to a speaker in a noisy environment, or the ability to process information quickly – begin to decline. But a recent study* by a professor at The University of Texas at El Paso found that hearing aids can actually improve brain function in persons with hearing loss.
The study involved a group of individuals in their 50s and 60s with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss who had previously never used hearing aids. They took cognitive tests to measure their working memory, selective attention and processing speed abilities prior to and after using the hearing aids.
After two weeks of hearing aid use, tests revealed an increase in percent scores for recalling words in working memory and selective attention tests, and the processing speed at which participants selected the correct response was faster. By the end of the study, participants had exhibited significant improvement in their cognitive function.
The reality is most people will experience some hearing loss in their lifetime. Studies show that hearing loss affects more than 9 million Americans over the age of 65 and 10 million Americans ages 45 to 64, but only about 20 percent of people who actually need hearing aids have them.
But the good news is with all the new advancements in hearing technology over the last two years, there are more options and procedures to choose from than ever before – from invisible extended wear hearing aids to implantable devices and revolutionary fully implantable hearing restoration systems like the Envoy Esteem.
No need to make your brain work overtime anymore!
*Study conducted by Jamie Desjardins, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the speech-language pathology program at The University of Texas at El Paso. Source: http://www.newswise.com/articles/utep-professor-shows-that-hearing-aids-improve-memory-speech