Ask Dr Mark
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Our GP on lactose intolerance, traces of blood in urine, thumb arthritis and the link between hearing loss and dementia
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illustration NICK RADFORD
Is it true that wearing a hearing aid can protect against dementia? My hearing has been going downhill over the past 20 years and I do have aids, but tend not to wear them unless I am going out to meet others. My wife gets fed up shouting at me when it’s just the two of us at home, but I would wear them more often if they were good for my brain.
There is a link between uncorrected hearing loss (no aids) and dementia, and the greater the loss the stronger the association. According to the RNID, if you have mild hearing loss in middle age or later life you are about twice as likely as your peers to develop dementia – five times more likely for the most severely affected. The reason for this link is not completely clear, but hearing is an important part of brain function so it’s no surprise that it might reflect general brain health. And even if there is no direct association, struggling to hear without an aid puts an extra load on the brain as it has to divert more resources to working out what people are saying. Last, but not least, having poor hearing means you are more likely to miss out on what’s going on around you and become socially isolated – another risk factor for dementia.