A 2020 New York Times article headlined “Can Hearing Aids Help Prevent Dementia?” covers a lot of things we’ve known — and have been sharing with you — for years. Like that hearing loss is very common, that it’s a risk factor for things like cognitive decline, social isolation and dementia, and that too few people take it seriously.
Obviously, given the headline, the article focuses primarily on this link between hearing loss and dementia, digging into recent research published by the Lancet that concludes that managing hearing loss in midlife is one of 12 modifiable risk factors that may help prevent or delay dementia. In fact, hearing loss tops all 12 risk factors.
Experts Suggest More People Should Take Hearing Loss Seriously
Based on that new science, and evidence of the hearing loss/cognitive decline link, experts suggest more people should take hearing loss seriously and deal with it earlier rather than later, with the expectation that it may help prevent, delay or minimize the cascading effects of losing your hearing.
That’s another thing that we’ve known and have shared — but it can never be said enough, so expect to keep hearing it from us.
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Original source can be found here.
