The Link Between Hearing Loss and Dementia

The Link Between Hearing Loss and Dementia. Dr. Cliff Olson, Audiologist and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions in Anthem Arizona, discusses the link between hearing loss and dementia.

Globally, about 47 million people were living with dementia in 2015, and this number is projected to triple by 2050.

Up until The Lancet Commission was tasked with identifying preventable risk factors, interventions, and care of dementia, one of the more popular studies that highlighted hearing loss and its link to dementia was a paper by Dr. Frank Lin.

Dr. Lin and his colleagues indicated "In this study we found that hearing loss was independently associated with incident all-cause dementia after adjustment for sex, age, race, education, diabetes, smoking, and hypertension, and our findings were robust to multiple sensitivity analyses.”

This means that the link between Hearing Loss and Dementia was not due to any other factors other than Hearing Loss itself. Ultimately, they found a 200% increased likelihood of dementia with a mild hearing loss, 300% with a moderate hearing loss, and 500% with a severe hearing loss.

In 2017, the Lancet Commission on dementia was convened to review the best available evidence and produce recommendations on how to manage or prevent the dementia epidemic.

In their review of research involving dementia, they identified 9 potentially modifiable risk factors of dementia.

Starting at birth, genetics can play a role in your risk of dementia. if you have the APOE 4 Allele then you are at a higher risk. This is currently the only non-modifiable risk-factor in this study and contributes to 7% of your overall risk of Dementia.

As you move to early life, less education is a factor at 8% increased risk of dementia.

When we get to Midlife, you can see that Hearing loss contributes 9% to the risk of dementia. This happens to be the single highest potentially modifiable risk factor dementia.

As you move into late life, you have other risk factors like Depression, and Social Isolation, which also happen to be well documented side effects of untreated hearing loss, and you could make the argument that if you add these percentages together, Untreated hearing loss would account for 15% of the increased risk of dementia.

In total, If all of these risk factors were eliminated, the risk of dementia could decrease by up to 35%.

Furthermore, they indicated that Age 55 was the youngest average age in which the presence of hearing loss was shown to increase dementia risk.

Does this mean that if you treat your hearing loss that you won’t get dementia? NO

Does this meant that if you don’t treat your hearing loss that you will get dementia? NO

What it does mean is that with all the information we have on hearing loss and dementia today, the best recommendation is treat your hearing loss.

So whether you prevent hearing loss by using hearing protection, or treat your hearing loss with hearing aids or surgery, not treating your hearing loss is just plain risky!

[jameseubanks]

Dr. Cliff, I can see how this could contribute to dementia. In my case I could hear people talking, but I couldn't make out the words. Then I would spend a few seconds trying to guess what had been said - and usually come up with the wrong answer. That led to staying away from people, which is not helpful for an active mind.

After being fitted with my new Signia Pure Primax NX7 hearing aids, I am comfortable in groups again. And that keeps my mind working.

This is so important to me that I keep my Signia Pure Binax 7BX hearing aids programmed as a backup!

Thanks for all you do for us!

[GeorgeMinton-jbky]

Thanks Doctor Cliff. I am considering hearing aids and I appreciate these videos you are producing. You are doing a great service to the non treated hearing impaired community. Keep it up.

[gregstine]

Dr. Cliff

Very interesting. My mother had dementia. Before she was diagnosed ( probably 10 years) I noticed she had hearing aids. This was in the the mid 1980s. She almost never wore them, complaining the sound was to confusing in loud situations. She died in 2004 at age 83. I now have hearing aids (age 65) and am glad that technology has made the hearing aids better. Your video hit close to home. I hope people watch this film. Thanks for your channel.

[illbeback]

wow. my dad has had tinnitus and hearing problems since his 60s at least. he is now 89 an suffers from vascular dementia and cannot live alone anymore. i dread this dementia as my dad has it and his father did. i shall certainly take to heart this piece of advice. luckily i cannot detect any hearing loss nor do i have tinnitus at this time.

[Landis_Grant]

I’m glad I have been wearing hearing aids since 2004 and I am now 72.

[andrelochin]

I am in my early 60s and have moderate hearing loss at 4KHz, severe above 6KHz (likely from my younger motorcycling years). I often can't hear birds that friends near me can. I also noticed I have more difficulties having a 1 on 1 conversation in a noisy environment (a date in a restaurant for example). Since high frequency sounds (>4KHz) are more directional than low frequency sounds, our brain uses those high frequencies to separate sounds coming from different directions, allowing us to focus our hearing on the person in front of us. That ability to focus hearing is lost if there is hearing loss in those high frequency sounds. Consequently, the area of the brain tasked with processing audio information sees less activity not just from the loss of bandwidth, but also for the loss of the ability to separate sounds from different sources. At least that is my understanding. I experienced frustration being able to hear my partner at the restaurant, but not been able to extract her words from the background noise, therefore not clearly understanding her. Noise in general makes me more irritable. Once I took an audiogram and realized I had lost the upper frequencies, it suddenly made sense. I am considering getting hearing aid at 62...

[jh]

Great information and I liked the chart!

[Em_Dee_Aitch]

My father’s hearing had been impaired for many years. We begged him to get hearing aids, but he refused. It got so bad that at family gatherings, he would just sit and smile, without having a clue of what anyone was saying. Then dementia hit him like a ton of bricks. The rapidity of his cognitive decline was nothing short of absolutely shocking. Now, he mumbles 2 or 3 partial words in an entire day, and defecates all over the carpet.

[lumosbabe]

How does the study account for those who were born with a hearing loss or acquired early in life? Do they have the same increased risk? It seems that the study focused primarily on hearing loss later in life.

[friendsonearth]

why most Toronto clinics rush to sell you the hearing loss. is it very hard to maintain the business

[vmobile]

My job safety requirement is hearing protection . 8 hours a day I have a type hearing loss due to ear plugs . I live near a loud street noise area and wear earplugs when sleeping . That’s about 15 hours a day where I have intended hearing loss . Now compare earplugs decreases of hearing with loss of hearing .
Could older persons doing less mental exercise’s cause of dementia ?

[Michael-whee]

My mom is 87. She's developed h/loss. She is always saying she hears a motor running and a vibration. She's got this idea that it's directed at her by a neighbor to mess with her. She misplaced hearing aids repeatedly until she lost them. Would new h/a rid her of this delusional motor sound/vibrations? Thanks

[robertnicoletti]

I am totally deaf in my tight ear due to mumps. Does this type of loss contribute to dementia?

[xshadowscreamx]

I’m scared that there won’t be a hearing aid that meet my severe high frequency loss. My low and middle frequencies are normal so conversation is not a problem. My right ear is perfect. Cause of these circumstances, other technology like CI won’t be suitable for me.

[pinkplum]

To me it makes sense that if you have hearing loss it would make dementia worse, not so much that hearing loss causes dementia.

[adco]

I am very glad to have excellent treatment for my hearing loss, but have they actually shown that dementia is reduced or delayed by wearing hearing devices? Thx
PS Great content. Relevant and very well done as always 👍

[harrykP]

My Mom shows signs of dementia. Her mother suffered from it severely before her death. My Mom went to a free lunch seminar where her hearing was tested, and she was told about this link. She is freaked out and trying to come up with thousands of dollars for this "limited time deal". As a nurse, this seems like a complete scam.

[tumpalleonardosinurat]

I can only hear with my left ear, so my hearing loss is high or severe? Or it didn't affect me?

[bobblount]

If dementia is present, can hearing loss treatment help reduce its affects? Thanks

[CottonBoxer]

can treatment of hearing issues reduce current dementia symptoms???