Hearing Loss Addressed Early Can Help Protect Brain

Since mild hearing loss is considered part of normal aging it's rarely treated until the loss is at a later stage. However, now that hearing loss is known to affect our risk of developing dementia, this casual approach needs to be reconsidered. Anu Sharma of the Department of Speech Language and Hearing Science at University of Colorado and her team have applied fundamental principles of neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to forge new connections, as a way to adapt to hearing loss. "The hearing areas of the brain shrink in age-related hearing loss," Sharma said in an interview with Medical News Today. "Centers of the brain that are typically used for higher-level decision-making are then activated in just hearing sounds...these compensatory changes increase the overall load on the brains of aging adults." The study findings suggest that the portion of the brain normally used for hearing can reorganize even in initial stages of age-related hearing loss. According to Sharma, “These compensatory changes increase the overall load on the brains of aging adults…Compensatory brain reorganization secondary to hearing loss may also be a factor in explaining recent reports in the literature that show age-related hearing loss is significantly correlated with dementia," Sharma continued. Continue reading on HealthCentral for more on how hearing loss can contribute to dementia risk:   Minding Our Elders: Caregivers Share Their Personal Stories. “...
Source: Minding Our Elders - Category: Geriatrics Authors: Source Type: blogs