Scientists and doctors have long since documented that our brains shrink in size as we gain entry into our senior years. It turns out, though, that taking care of your hearing health can have a positive effect on other areas of your body –your brain in particular. There are many clear benefits to protecting your hearing but it’s even more crucial now, in light of a new study that links hearing loss with increased rate of brain atrophy, which is essentially shrinkage of the brain. Protecting your ears is certainly beneficial in the long run as you face aging into your senior years. You can even combat the risk of dementia and other similar disorders by staying on top of your hearing health. Here we go into details about a new study and find out how you can further guard your hearing.
Hearing Loss: Leading to Cognitive Disorders
Due to a recent study that administered annual MRIs and physicals for a group of 126 people over two decades’ time, researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute on Aging detected a bond between hearing loss and brain size. They even found that a link exists between the rate of brain shrinkage with those who have hearing loss. Over 20 years, researchers noted that individuals suffering from hearing loss experienced a much quicker rate of brain atrophy than individuals without hearing loss. Brain shrinkage is a common feature of old age. That has always been known. But did you know that taking care of your hearing health can help curb atrophy in the brain? This can in turn guard against cognitive disorders like dementia as you age. Being in a higher risk group for brain atrophy means that hearing impaired individuals need to be even more proactive about their hearing health than ever before.
Brain atrophy occurs because when damage occurs to part of the brain, it attempts to make up for the loss, leading to damage to the gray matter. This in turn can bring about massively decreased brain sizes, which is exactly what researchers in this study observed among those with hearing impairments.
Get Regular Hearing Tests
One main takeaway from the Johns Hopkins study? Researchers caution people to avoid neglecting their hearing health, with the first step toward healthy ears is getting them tested every year, no matter how young or old you are. Hearing health starts with youth. Your doctor can then keep an eye on your hearing and provide treatment should he or she detect any kind of change. This is important when it comes to curbing hearing loss and even in some cases reversing its effects.
Don’t assume incorrectly that because you’re a young person, hearing loss and brain atrophy later in life can’t affect you. In fact, it’s even more crucial for young people to maintain their hearing so this doesn’t happen. Even young people need to visit their doctor at the first sign of changes in their hearing capacity, and those who already have hearing loss should be increasingly diligent about keeping up with regular doctor visits.