Alzheimer’s Awareness: The Unlikely Link to Hearing Loss

Alzheimer’s is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that destroys brain cells, causing your cognitive abilities (the functions of your brain to do with thinking and memory) to deteriorate over time.

Named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer, who made major breakthroughs about the disease in the early 1900s, Alzheimer’s is often marked by a loss of memory, forgetting names and places, and losing the ability to do normal tasks correctly, like eating, dressing, driving and more.

One of the major risks associated with untreated hearing loss is Alzheimer’s and dementia; the disconnect between your ears and your brain when you don’t hear or mishear the world around you can lead to further gaps in your memory.

I’d like to share with you the risks associated with untreated hearing loss and Alzheimer’s and what you can do to prevent losing your memory.

How Does Alzheimer’s Affect My Brain?

Different parts of the brain control different parts of our bodies, so with the deterioration of certain parts comes different effects.

The frontal lobe allows us to regulate our behaviour and initiate activity; with Alzheimer’s, the individual may stop enjoying hobbies as they did before, withdraw from others and appear uninterested in conversation or the event at hand.

Our temporal lobes control learning of new things and short-term memory; Alzheimer’s will lose that ability to retain memory of the recent past, and the person may not be able to recognize familiar faces or places.

Our ability to put activities in the right sequence, like following a recipe or starting and driving a car, is thanks to our parietal lobes. With Alzheimer’s, the individual may find themselves getting lost easily, forgetting how to put on their clothes in the right order or using words incorrectly.

Alzheimer’s and Hearing Loss

There are several links between Alzheimer’s disease’s effect on the brain and how hearing loss changes our brains. Social isolation, inability to recall recent events and appearing uninterested in conversations are all common traits with hearing loss and how we change when we cannot hear properly.

For more about Alzheimer’s, the most comprehensive and informative place to find it is the Alzheimer Society of Canada, including resources to help, information about the differences between Alzheimer’s and dementia and what you can do to help your loved ones with Alzheimer’s.

While Alzheimer’s is genetic, there are several studies that show how hearing aids can help you maintain your current levels of cognition and prolong dementia or Alzheimer’s symptoms. One study from Johns Hopkins found that even mild hearing loss doubles the risk of dementia.

Professional hearing care, including regular hearing testing and hearing aids, can ensure that your ears are working as needed to help your cognitive abilities remain strong as you get older.

Alzheimer’s takes so much from us and the loved ones who suffer with it – with the help of hearing care, you can take some of it back.

How Provincial Hearing Can Help

If you’re looking for comprehensive hearing care in Nova Scotia, Provincial Hearing is the longest-running independent clinic on this side of the province.

From hearing tests to hearing aids and tinnitus treatment, you can rest assured that your hearing health is in a safe place with us!