Does One with Noise Induced Hearing Loss Need to Worry About Dementia?

Hi all!

So I came accross a few articles that say if you have hearing loss, you are at a greater risk for dementia. Exactly what I needed for my stress, lol...

I have a little hearing loss, at high frequency, so it doesn’t seem to affect my day to day hearing and conversations with people. But darn, that sounds worrisome. Supposedly with hearing aids this can be fixed, so that’s comforting but I don’t want to wear hearing aids at my age! Shoot...

Any thoughts on the subject?

 

I have read that also, they did a study on this in Australia but only on men, not sure why... and it concluded there was a 69% more chance of getting Dementia if you were male, had hearing loss and did not wear hearing aids.

https://www.hear-it.org/new-study-confirms-relation-between-hearing-loss-and-dementia

I would not worry about this too much, there are lots of factors that increase your chances of getting Dementia, age and genetics are just two of them... Enjoy your life now, because even if you do get Dementia, you certainly will forget about any hearing loss, tinnitus and stress.

 

I have profound hearing loss, I need hearing aids, and I have always been somewhat of a lunatic.
When I am older, if I get really demented, I hope my kids will give me lots of drugs and let me die in peace.

It’s kind of morbid, but I've been thinking they could keep my skull as a keepsake, or to put candles in.

 

I've read the same thing and I think it is one of those statistics that was sort of "invented." I've learned in the past few years from statistics on other subjects, such as historical market statistics, that statisticians can literally manipulate or warp about any statistic around to say whatever they want the outcome to be.

In statistics look for words like "connected" or "associated." This or that illness or condition was associated with X% of all cases of dementia. Well does that mean that this or that condition caused the dementia? Likely not.

There are various prescription medicines that are "associated" with dementia. A nurse I know said that many many dementia patients in the memory care unit she works in are prescribed meds, like Xanax. It is given to them to get them to sleep vs. walk the halls all night, (sundowner's). So you may find a stat somewhere that says Xanax is associated with X% of dementia patients. That may lead some readers to not take Xanax for fear of dementia.

If you are ever in a nursing home or memory care unit talk to an Alzheimer's patient. Notice how many just look at you and don't respond. They aren't deaf. It's their illness.

 

Don't worry about tomorrow. Today has enough worries of its own!

Just try and stay healthy and hold on to the good.

 

You make a good point and I was wondering the same thing. Something invented by hearing aid companies to push sales of their devices perhaps...

 

If you lived in Naples Italy this could be a possibility, I went to visit this cemetery last year, some people say it is morbid but I love everything about Naples including the Neapolitans love of life and their respecting of the dead.

The link below shows you the cemetery.

Disclaimer to @John Mahan do not look at these pictures before bed, otherwise your wacky dreams could turn into nightmares.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4522002/Macabre-bone-yard-cemetery-Naples-human-skulls.html

Vedi Napoli e poi muori

Ciao

 

Stress is another contributing factor towards dementia, so worrying about it seems counterproductive.

 

Eh, without dipping a toe into the "hearing aid cos do agressive dumb marketing", there is a wealth of data linking decline in auditory processing to decline in other cognitive function, coming out of research institutions mostly without direct hearing aid industry ties.

This makes a good deal of sense -- audio precepts cause all kinds of other areas of the brain to fire. When a sensory feed gets cut, this is going to cause atrophy in downstream brain regions. Additionally, hearing disabilities in particular can make people more socially withdrawn, and there is an equally compelling set of data indicating that people who become less engaged with other humans in their older years, suffer faster cognitive decline.

So, I'd say this is absolutely a real phenomenon we should be aware of and do whatever we can to reduce our risks for; it's just not something to "worry" about, because whatever goan' happen, is what goan' happen.