Study Shows Wearing a Hearing Aid Could Help Protect Brain Health

January 28, 2020

Nearly 20% of Americans, or 48 million people, report having some degree of hearing loss. After age 65, that percentage continues to rise. In adults, the most common causes of hearing loss are noise pollution and aging. As you get older, changes occur in the inner ear that may trigger a slow and steady loss of hearing. To help, many turn to hearing aids to amplify the sounds in their environment. According to a new study, hearing aids may also offer an added benefit.

To conduct the study, researchers divided 25,000 people aged 50 and older into two groups — one group wore hearing aids and the other did not. Both groups took annual cognitive tests over a period of two years. The study showed that the group who wore hearing aids performed better on the tests in measures assessing attention and working memory, compared to those who did not wear hearing aids.

Lead author Dr. Anne Corbett explained, "Previous research has shown that hearing loss is linked to a loss of brain function, memory and an increased risk of dementia. Our work is one of the largest studies to look at the impact of wearing a hearing aid, and suggests that wearing a hearing aid could actually protect the brain. We now need more research and a clinical trial to test this and perhaps feed into policy to help keep people healthy in later life."

Fellow researcher Clive Ballard added, “We know that we could reduce dementia risk by a third if we all took action from mid-life. This research is part of an essential body of work to find out what really works to keep our brains healthy. This is an early finding and needs more investigation, yet it has exciting potential. The message here is that if you're advised you need a hearing aid, find one that works for you. At the very least it will improve your hearing and it could help keep your brain sharp too."

Actively working to protect you hearing can help reduce your risk of experiencing problems later on in life. Nutrients that can help protect and improve hearing include:

Carotenoids, especially astaxanthin and vitamin A
Folate
Zinc
Magnesium

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