My invisible scars

My latest hearing test 👀

Left side dead 💀 Right side following closely behind! 

Ways hearing loss can lead to dementia, something I've been thinking about a lot over the past few years.

After contracting Meningitis at the age of two, I was left with:

 
Memory loss/lack of concentration/difficulty retaining information.

Clumsiness/co-ordination problems.

Headaches.

Deafness/hearing problems/tinnitus/dizziness/loss of balance.

Seizures.

Weakness/paralysis/spasms.

Speech problems.

How might hearing loss contribute to cognitive problems and dementia?

 Here are four possibilities: 

The most obvious is a common physiological pathway that contributes to both hearing loss and cognitive decline — something like high blood pressure for instance. But researchers used statistical methods to take into account the factors known to be associated with both conditions.

Another possibility has to do with what researchers refer to as "cognitive load" — essentially, that the effort of constantly straining to understand stresses the brain. This one makes intuitive sense.

"If you put in a lot of effort just to comprehend what you're hearing, it takes resources that would otherwise be available for encoding [what you hear] in memory,"  Research in labs has shown this effect on a short-term basis.

 The big question, for me, is whether years of drawing resources away from brain functions such as working memory will eventually reduce the brain's resilience.

There are ways to test the hypothesis that treating hearing loss in those with dementia will help to optimize communication, with positive effects on everyday well-being for the patient and caregivers. "I do not doubt that if a CI [cochlear implant]/ Hearing aids make it easier for a person to listen, then they will be able to spend more of their power to do other cognitively demanding tasks."

 
A third factor is that hearing loss may affect brain structure in a way that contributes to cognitive problems. Brain imaging studies show that older adults with hearing loss have less grey matter in the part of their brain that receives and processes sounds from the ears. "It's not necessarily that you're losing brain cells,". Certain structures of brain cells can shrink when they don't get enough stimulation. This raises the question, whether getting clearer speech signals to the brain through the use of a modern hearing aid might allow these brain structures to recover their previous size and function.

Finally, it seems very likely that social isolation plays a part. Being hard of hearing/ Deaf tends to isolate people from others: When you have to struggle to converse, you're less likely to want to socialize in groups or just as a pair, go out, engage in activities that put you in situations where you feel forced to converse. Also, being socially isolated has long been recognized as a risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia.

It will probably take much more research to tease out what factors might be at play. Most important, is to find out whether providing state-of-the-art hearing loss treatment can prevent or delay cognitive decline and dementia. "watchful waiting." Over the following years, I hope researchers will tackle the cognitive functions.

In the meantime, if you have hearing loss, it makes sense to get it treated as well as it possibly can be. There's lots of room for improvement — fewer than 15 to 20 per cent of those with a clinically significant hearing loss even use hearing aids 😱 me being one of them. 

Wearing my hearing aids, unfortunately, doesn't help me much, it causes me more pain.

One thing it does help with is my tinnitus 👌🏼 tips for fellow suffers. 

I hope you are all well and keeping hydrated whether it's with a gin or water 😋

Love to all my readers and those suffering in silence 💚💜

AK