Hearing affects more than just your ears. Dr. Stacy Chalmers, Au.D. explains how untreated hearing loss can impact brain health, cognitive function, and overall wellness, and why taking proactive steps to manage hearing can protect your mind and quality of life.
James in Pontiac asks, “What role does hearing play in overall wellness and brain health?” Well that IS an important question. Hearing DOES affect our overall well-being, both positively and negatively. For example, hearing loss has been associated with depression. For someone who has hearing loss, it can limit their social connections and make them feel more isolated. In relation to healthcare, sometimes a person with hearing loss may not even be able to understand clearly everything a doctor is explaining to them, for example. Particularly if the healthcare provider might have to wear a mask or turn away to look at their computer. So hearing loss can strain our cognitive resources and surpass our ability to compensate. Someone with hearing loss, for example, is focusing more of those resources on auditory processing tasks, and that makes it harder for the brain to keep up with important things like working memory, problem-solving, and attention. Over time, these can lead to cognitive decline. So this is another reason why managing hearing loss is so important. We really want to help you hear better and improve your quality of life, but it can also, over time, help to reduce some of those bigger, long-term consequences. So yes, hearing does play an important role in your overall wellness and brain health, and the good news is there ARE proactive steps you can take to keep hearing the most important sounds of your life. I’m Dr. Stacy Chalmers at Bloomington-Normal Audiology, and we’re ‘hear’ for you.