Listen up: Bellbird Hearing
Wearing hearing aids improves adult health-related quality of life, and may help stave off dementia.
Hearing is essential for maintaining relationships and connections with friends and family, as well as for fully experiencing life’s events. But as the team at Bellbird Hearing in Ilam explains, hearing loss has also been linked to a range of health problems, one of which is dementia.
“The latest research shows the two are connected,” says MNZAS qualified audiologist Caroline Smales, adding that it is leading scientists to believe that hearing loss may be contributing to cases of dementia. “In 2020, the prestigious medical journal The Lancet lists hearing loss as one of the top risks for dementia.”
Caroline adds that hearing loss can make the brain work harder, forcing it to strain to hear and fill in the gaps. That can come at the expense of other thinking and memory systems. It is also possible that because hearing loss can mean people are less socially engaged, they do not receive the intellectual stimulation necessary to keep the brain engaged and active.
How can the risk of dementia be reduced? Remediation of hearing loss, such as through the use of hearing aids in middle-aged or older-age people might be a potential way to reduce that risk. Hearing aid use has certainly been found through research to be associated with improved cognitive function. It has been suggested that over 8% of dementia cases could be prevented with hearing loss prevention.
Caroline suggests that it is important for people with loved ones in the older age range who have noticed a deterioration in the latter’s hearing, to be aware of the risk of the link with dementia. Having a hearing test and being fitted with the appropriate hearing aids for the individual’s needs, could significantly reduce the risk of developing dementia symptoms.
Another health condition that can be treated through the wearing of hearing aids is tinnitus, a condition that sounds like a recurring ringing or buzzing in one or both eardrums. The noise comes from damage to the inner ear, often because of a lack of stimulation to the brain with hearing loss.
Here instead of the ear delivering sound to the nerves, the neural fibres are left under-stimulated and begin to create spontaneous activity. There is no cure for tinnitus, but there are effective treatment options which Bellbird Hearing can discuss with you.
Caroline has recently completed ongoing study in the treatment of tinnitus. “A hearing aid makes the tinnitus less audible and removes the strain from attempting to hear, often reversing tinnitus-related changes in the brain,” she says.
Call Bellbird Hearing on 03 351 1172 to book a hearing appointment.
