How Hearing Aids Keep Your Brain Fit

One of the greatest benefits of wearing hearing aids is that they help keep your brain active by improving your communication skills. When a person hears well, they don’t necessarily think about the way they communicate. But when you experience hearing loss, you find you are no longer communicating with others. Your brain begins to rewire itself to help you hear better. This leads to exhaustion and a lack of socialization. It can also cause your brain to struggle with everyday life including memory. You may find yourself wanting to spend more time alone at home rather than struggling to socialize and communicate with others.

 In doing this, you often miss out on healthy social interactions and conversations because you don’t hear everything you need to feel included in your social group. Hearing aids not only amplify the surrounding sounds, they help your brain re-learn how to recognize and process the sound that you have been missing in your life. Like when you are learning to do something, if you don’t practice, you will forget what you have learned.

Your hearing and brain work in the same way, if you don’t practice what you hear you forget. You don’t remember the sounds of birds or outside noise; you forget the value of everyday sounds. By wearing hearing aids, you will hear a world full of sounds that you may have forgotten existed.

A Healthy Brain Needs Stimulation

To stay healthy, your brain needs stimulation from outside sources. It relies on outside stimulation to grow healthy neurons. When you experience hearing loss, the brain receives less stimulation from the auditory system. This lack of engagement can cause the brain to forget how to process sounds, like speech. Hearing aids help you process sounds the way your hearing was designed to. Your brain can let go of overworking itself and rebuild healthy pathways that keep your mental health at top performance.

If your brain isn’t getting enough stimulation through social interaction, it can shrink. When the brain shrinks, it causes cognitive decline and even dementia. Studies have shown that using hearing aids can help improve cognitive function or the way you think and reduce the risk of cognitive decline which includes memory loss. Your brain is healthier with hearing aids.

Hearing Loss Can Be Isolating

When you don’t hear well, it is less likely for you to want to socialize with your family and friends. Hearing loss can be a very isolating experience resulting in depression and anxiety. The brain needs social interaction with others to continue to build healthy neurons. Isolation counteracts a healthy brain. It’s important to communicate with others to stay active.

Wearing hearing aids will allow you to hear conversations and speech again, giving you a chance to socialize again. You can talk to friends and engage in activities that you may have been avoiding because you couldn’t hear them.   Having a healthy social life helps keep your brain fit and strengthens it against cognitive decline.

Hearing aids help you communicate again

You may have some concerns about wearing hearing aids. It might feel like people will judge you for being old and no longer useful to society. The truth is hearing aids help keep you active among your friends and family so you can enjoy life to the fullest as you mature.  Hearing aids come in a variety of styles with varying levels of technology. Some hearing aids even come with bluetooth capabilities.

If you or your loved one is experiencing the following hearing loss symptoms, you should schedule an appointment to visit your local audiologist.

• Difficulty hearing conversations and picking out who is talking
• Sounds seem to be muffled
• You speak louder or ask people to speak up
• The volume on your TV is too loud for your family

It’s important to call your audiologist and set up an appointment for an exam. Diagnosing hearing loss in its early stages will keep your brain healthy. You will continue to build relationships and create positive communications with your friends and family. A life filled with social activity is a healthy and vital way to live. .  

When you hear well, you continue to build personal relationships, feel better about yourself, and stay independent. Properly fitted hearing aids help you keep the way of life you enjoy living.

At El Dorado Hearing, we are here for you. We will give you a quality hearing evaluation and determine the best hearing plan that fits you and your personal style. We will provide professional fittings to ensure you are hearing at your best so you can get back to communicating with your family and friends.