“We test everybody’s hearing as a newborn,” says Allred, audiologist and owner of ACI Hearing and Balance Center. “So the idea is that the sooner you treat it, the sooner you aid it, then in on all likelihood the less of a decline.”

 

According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, even slight hearing loss can put a patient at two times more risk for cognitive decline that dementia.

 

The risk goes up from there. Patients with moderate hearing loss are three times more at risk and those with severe hearing loss are five times more ar risk.

 

 “Research has found that older adults with hearing loss the brain tissue deteriorates at a much faster rate than it does for people with normal hearing,” says LeMaire, also an audiologist.

 

“Because I’m working so hard to hear and understand what’s going on, I’m taking away sources from memory and storage tp understanding ability and processing and noise,” Allred said. “Because I’m concentrating so hard on just not only detecting the sound of trying to make sense of it and processing it.”

But hearing loss can be hard to detect.

 

“We hear with our brain not with our ears and so when we have hearing loss the connections in the brain that respond to sound become reorganized,” added LeMaire.

 

Dr. Allred says family members are usually the first ones to notice.

 

“People asking to repeat or turning the television up or they’re complaining that everyone is mumbling or you’re not speaking clear,” Allred said.

 

So what can folks do to protect their hearing now? Get a hearing test.

 

Checking your hearing may be what keeps your brain happy and healthy.