Dementia and Hearing Loss are Tightly Linked
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- Опубликовано: 19 дек 2022
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Getting older is difficult. So it may not seem like good news that hearing loss and dementia might be linked, but there is a silver lining here.
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Will Hearing Aids Help You Avoid Dementia?
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Ok but what about people who were born with a hearing impairment
What if the dementia is causing the hearing loss? What if there is something we are missing?
@@malikrath9503 That's a much more likely interpretation. I really don't understand how the author of this video could argue with a straight face that the correlation between dementia, an age related general neurodegenerative disease, and age related hearing loss, a degradation of a specific part of the nervous system, would be best explained by the hearing loss causing the damage to the rest of the nervous system, despite giving evidence to the contrary. Unless of coarse, they themselves had severe dementia. P.S. I find the sponsor to this video very ironic due to the illogical argument.
@@phyricquinn2457 Yeah, like hearing loss is totally a thing, but what if some mystery thing was causing both the dementia and the (dementia related) hearing loss. Or something?
probably social isolation, or relative social isolation is a main contributing factor to dementia in hearing loss cases. anyone who has experienced hearing loss, knows that people with average hearing ability are often unsympathetic to repeating themselves when asked and this can lead to just not asking, which is effectively a kind of social depression ... depression and anxiety of course also being main factors in dementia progression probably as allostatic load factors.
Getting a hearing aid could help either way, but more importantly, we need to disestablish psychosocial barriers and this pervasive lack of empathy that is literally taught into people as they are taught to value normal thing and devalue things outside the average.
*cue rainbow*
"THE MORE YOU KNOW"
If only we could get grandma to admit that she needs hearing aids
FINALLY my grandma did after like 1.5 years of pressure and yes she has dementia
Both my grandmas are gone now, but I’ve been saying for years that their dementia was getting worse (for both) as they didn’t wear their hearing aids as often!
“What? I can’t here you honey, could speak up?”
@@WeyounSix Only eighteen months? That’s impressive! Good on her.
@@WeyounSix my future step grandma has needed hearing aids for 7+ years. No dementia
I believe this because we finally convinced my grandma with dementia to get hearing aids, and though she still has slow processing time, her ability to hear has sharpened her up quite a bit.
That's good, but please be careful. As my Grandad's dementia got worse, he stuck several of those little hearing aid batteries in his ear. No one knew for days, he was in a lot of pain by the time we figured out what he had done.
How to get on the testing group
@@buffster948 There are hearing aids that an audiologist places in the ear canal, and leaves them there for 7-8 weeks, then replaces. No need for the wearer to do anything except visit the audiologist periodically for the replacement and a check of the ear canal for irritation. (And don't run excessive water in the ear, and take them out for an MRI.)
@@bearcubdaycare Interesting, wasn't aware those exist so that's why my recent MRI had a question if I had hearing aids.
It seemed obvious to me such things shoudln't go into the magic magnet machine but figured the technicians would instantly spot them and it was a silly question form item.
@@buffster948 you can get rechargeable aids where the battery is not accessible or if you want aids with standard batteries they can be organised with a child like proof door.
This is fascinating. There's a history of dementia and Alzheimer's on my dad's side of the family--and as he aged he got quieter, less talkative, seemed to struggle with focus and memory. I didn't understand why. Years later he got tested and finally got hearing aids and it was like the bubbly, sharp, humorous man I knew was back. It's only personal experience but it's wild to see this as a possible connection with his aging.
It is deeply isolating.
My dad suffers similarily, and it progresses over the years.
And the harder it gets for him to understand, the less willing he seems to interact - understandeable - but also the more stubborn and socially abrasive he becomes.
It is hard to witness, since he always was a talkative, social mediator-type person, who by now seems to rebuff one friend after the other from his life.
And gets really p***ed off when heither he doesnt understand, accusing other of mumbling and not telling him stuff, or if people dont understand him, since he often seems to just guess where the conversation is going and goes off some half-understood fraction into the wrong direction.
I fit hearing aids for a living, i see it all the time. When we put aids on a patient its like we flipped a switch. Very interesting
@@FadeRunner13 I think you get the same reactions with people putting on glasses for the first time.
@@magnetospin so i was actually a registered optician before becoming a hearing instrument specialist in CA… the difference is significantly more pronounced when you fit hearing aids vs glasses IMO
@@nilesbutler8638 Oh my God ! This sounds just like how my dad was , I really feel for you .❤️
Not being able to hear made my grandfather literally go mad for a solid 4 months(he got kicked out of quite a few public places for making scenes. He couldn't tell what was going on, get frustrated, and would explode)
He made a full recovery thanks to my deaf aunt.
She listens to music through feeling the vibrating in speakers.
She showed him how to listen to the vibrations in that song gimme shelter. Which is by one of his favorite bands.
After about a week of doing that with songs he knew. He stabilized and was "normal" again for the rest of his life. He still couldn't hear. But he had an outlet he was familiar with.
I wish there was a way to study something like that.
I wonder if they could do a study with people who know sign language in order to figure out if it's caused by the decline in communication or a physical cause.
This! I was wondering about deaf people and cognitive decline. I wonder if there's been any studies on this aspect. Would make a good companion study to the ones the host mentions in the video.
Good idea. This theory needs a lot more proof, imo.
Push out the boat and get some Makaton users together, too!
Yesss, amazing question. Of course, I don’t have the answer since i’m no scientist, but my guess is that it’s indeed the lack of communication that could be linked to dementia… I frequently communicate with Deaf people around me that use sign language. And let me tell you: these people are intelligent and do not lack any stimulation or language access, since sign language is a complex language, letting you express as much as english or italian can.
Thank you for bringing that up! I'm Deaf and am almost 50 years old. Been Deaf since the age of 3. My IQ actually increased AFTER I stopped wearing hearing aids at age 17 and started communicating more in sign language. Now I build aircrafts for a living. (No hearing aids or cochlear implants)
My husband does wear digital hearing aids and he is very comfortable with them. I think it depends on each individual what works best for them. Some Deaf people choose to get cochlear implants as adults, some don't. (It also depends on if they are a candidate for one or not)
I think that these studies need to differentiate between Deafness as a lifelong condition as opposed to hearing loss experienced later in adulthood.
@@lisabudinich4371 agree!
My grandmother was one of the most stable people I had in my life growing up. She was always calm, collected and so sweet. She never cursed. She developed geriatric psychosis due to her hearing loss. She would wander around the outside of her house at night in the middle of fall in New Hampshire because she was convinced her sister was trying to sell her house out from under her and those “jackasses” would take her house. It was more than enough to convince me to use hearing aids when I get older.
So sorry. Similar story in my family
Sorry but why is this geriatric psychosis linked to hearing loss? It may sound silly, but why don't all deaf people eventually develop the condition?
Why and how does the hearing aids then help?
It's not clear at all to me even after watching the video. I am in fact, totally confused.
I mean, this is new information for me, but from your experience, it seems like it was somewhat obvious and that's the part I don't fully understand. Even if the whole point of the video was that we need more research, I'm more interested in a personal experience like yours.
@@IsuiGtz I appreciate your curiosity! Geriatric psychosis is actually a symptom of dementia, so that was my grandma’s overall condition. The way I had it explained to me is that as hearing deteriorates, our brains begin to fill in what we can no longer hear. It’s like the mind is trying to fill the silence with sounds it thinks it’s hearing. This leads to auditory hallucinations, a symptom of psychosis. As their dementia progresses, the psychosis often becomes more pronounced. Thankfully, as the video mentions, hearing aids can help alleviate symptoms, as can medication. Both really helped my grandma improve in her final few months. This video is basically confirming that if she had worn hearing aids sooner, she may not have suffered from her psychosis in the first place.
That’s also why this doesn’t apply to deaf people. If you’ve never heard before, or if you’re used to not relying on your hearing at all, your brain no longer attempts to pour energy into that process. The reason hearing people can get dementia from hearing loss is that they are receiving input from their ears, but their brains can no longer process what they’re hearing because the sounds are coming to them extremely muffled. This in combination with the brain filling in gaps of input with false information (auditory hallucinations), is what leads to psychosis. Because deaf people receive no input from their ears, there are no sounds to scramble. Deaf people can experience dementia, but it wouldn’t have anything to do with losing their hearing.
I hope that makes sense! If there’s anything else I can clarify, let me know.
This might mean that the recent decision to allow hearing aids to be OTC could help a lot more people stave off dementia for longer
That would be a great help. The current costs for hearing aids is $2,000 to 7,000 US. That is more than most phones which can also take pictures, play movies, show the text of a book or magazine, and even make phone calls and texts.
Considering how expensive they are, I doubt it. Besides, thugs could mug old folks for their hearing aids and sell them on the black market.
@@brindlekintales The OTC hearing aids should be a lot cheaper, they won’t require a visit to a specialist. It’ll be more akin to buying reading glasses at the drug store vs. going to an optometrist (though I think most will allow or require you to adjust them somewhat yourself). As far as hearing aid theft becoming a problem, wouldn’t it already be happening if there was money in it? After all lots of old folks already wear them.
@@Sashazur I hope most criminals don't watch scishow...
It's legal to sell hearing aids OTC? When does that take effect? I suppose I could Google this, but yeah lmk.
Insurance does NOT cover hearing aids in all but 3 states, so it is no wonder why in the US, dementia is so prevalent. Maybe proving this will encourage those companies to consider coverage. It's far less expensive than dementia care.
Hearing aids should be covered by medicare.
Dementia prevalence is significantly lower in the UK than the US, where the NHS covers audiological intervention. First issue is free and if hearing aids are lost / damaged there is a small fee for replacement. The NHS is far from perfect but I am so glad it covers audiology.
Actually what would be far less expensive than dementia care is to learn sign language. Lack of communication is a large contributing factor in isolation. Family and friends and especially medical personnel need to learn sign language. They don't need to be Deaf to use it. It helps bridge so much of the communucation gaps that exist around us.
Sounds like something an insurance company would say… have you met people? Like, generally, have you ever seen a person? They don’t want to learn an entire language just to be able to function. Any older adult who’s willing to do that is probably curious and/or wealthy enough that they’re not the ones who are most vulnerable to dementia.
The average person is not smart. The average person is not stupid. The average person is of average intelligence. They just want to be able to spend time with their friends and have something to say. Hearing aids can help them do that, without mandating that they learn something.
@@lisabudinich4371 even though I agree in the importance of sign language (I learned enough to help a deaf person find their bus once and had my daughter signing since she was a baby) I think the beauty of hearing aids to someone who lost their hearing also includes being able to hear familiar voices that trigger memories, hear music, walk around and hear familiar sounds. I’d imagine that helps people stay grounded.
Gasp! One of my favorite channels is talking about my field!
This is a really well researched video! I think it’s an excellent intro to the topic! (Asside from most of the stock footage of hearing aids depicting hearing aids that are around 20 years old :D)
What would help most I think is making Medicare cover hearing aids. Private insurance companies wouldn’t like that though so they’ll try to prevent that from happening.
One caveat is that some hearing aid dispensers might cite the connection with dementia dishonestly in order to “sell” the hearing aids. IE, telling a borderline hearing aid candidate “If you don’t get these hearing aids right now, you will get dementia”. It’s not that simple of course, and it is something to keep in mind, but like any information it can be wielded dishonestly.
If this is your field, can I ask you a question? If hearing loss is correlated with dementia, how do we know that hearing loss isn't caused by dementia, rather than the other way around? For that matter, how do we know that they're not both separately caused by an unknown third factor?
@@salaufer children can have a hearing loss.
@@salaufer you've asked the question I had..
also what about deaf people with dementia? do deaf people get dementia? it would be interesting to study how the deaf and hearing brains experience dementia differently
@@user-qq3my9fm2r I was going to ask this too - I'm severely deaf, but it's genetic and has always been a thing, not something that happened due to age. I don't use my hearing aids often tho, bc I also have APD, so it doesn't really help.
My dad's side of the family (where the deaf genetics spring from) to my knowledge, never had any issues like that despite the female side living to grand old age. (the men developed heart issues and died early. My dad is the first one to reach 80...) My non-deaf/HoH mum's family, my grandmother developed alzheimers in her 90s, but my mum is in her late 70s and already showing cognitive decline.
Im rather curious too. I might now have a reason to convince my dad to go and get his hearing tested (his mom has dementia already)
FYI for someone looking for a profession. Audiologists are often rare and are desperatly needed as we get older. Maybe it's a profession that is attractiv to you? Audiologists have a lovely mix in work between fitting hearing aids, counseling customers, conducting tests, programming hearing aids and in my country communicating with health insurances. As hearing loss is individual and the profession still advances it should be realtivly save from digitalisation.
I don't know which country you are in but I'm an unemployed audiologist in mine. I'm volunteering in a hospital in order not to lose my clinical skills
@@EmmaAbaya come to Southern California I’ll hire you :)
I wouldn't be surprised if the hearing aid thing panned out. My neighbor lived to be 96, but as she hit about 93ish, she refused to wear her hearing aids. And let me tell you, this woman was as sharp as they come - could kick your ass at poker, knew every answer on Wheel of Fortune, and regularly did the Sunday crossword and every Sudoku she could get her hands on when she wasn't putting on parties. But at some point she stopped wearing her hearing aids b/c they were uncomfortable, and I watched over a two year period as the woman I saw daily struggled to remember me, recall what day of the week it was, and generally became more foggy and unable to properly hold a conversation. It was heartbreaking. It could've been just old age, but there was such a rapid decline in her mental state that I swore I'd start wearing hearing aids the minute I needed them.
A lot of people don’t realize they have hearing loss until it’s progressed and it gets more noticeable. You might want to get a hearing test ASAP even if you think it’s too soon.
or maybe it was the reverse - the dementia started slowly kicking in and she started to act weird (ex. stopped using the hearning aids)
I believe we should expand our focus beyond only those with hearing LOSS, and to also examine those who experience difficulty separating/focusing on ALL sounds around them. My hearing issues have been lifelong, and I clinically "passed" a hearing test (around age 30). However, this clinical setting is NOTHING like the real world that we exist in, and now at age 36 my care team diagnosed me with sensory processing issues (amongst other things)--- I am unable to drown out/process out unimportant or ambient noise in my environment, which causes a great deal of suffering when it comes to conversations. I suspect that this is more neurological than just hearing *loss*.
Hey! You might want to check out Auditory Processing Disorder if you haven’t already @angeliquecollins5425
Talk to an audiologist about APD - audio processing disorder. I have it, and it renders what little I *can* hear (I'm also severely deaf) unintelligible. I struggle to understand anything a lot of the time, and it's incredibly frustrating and exhausting. That might be part of what's going on for you?
I hear everything, all at once. Every conversation, creaks in the house and outside sounds. I have a air purifier that makes the right noise, so I can sleep a few hours at night. I have a rare disorder where I live in fight or flight, twenty four hours a day. Even when I sleep. I don’t have REM sleep either. This disorder causes seizures as well.
I have complete sensory distortions/disruptions caused by antidepressants/antipsychotics I was put on for work burn out,. My hearing often is weird in similar ways to what you describe.
To all of you in this thread. There is this company that makes these earbuds, that are designed to help with ambient sound issues. I’ll try to find a link, my gf bought them for many of the reasons you have all explained above.
Also maybe get tested for ADHD if you have trouble drowning out excess noises or hear everything.
Because I hear everything, and I mean everything, but I have Stupid high levels of ADHD, and have know this is why I can hear these all these things. No idea why I don’t need to tune them out tho, they just don’t bother me for some reason.
Seems to be true, my uncle has like. 5-8 brothers (I'm bad at keeping track okay? Don't judge), and out of all of them. He's the only one who "wussied out" and got hearing aids, he loves them because it syncs to his phone and he can control his phone from afar, have private calls, etc (even if they aren't 100%, trust me. Bob, Bob, BOB, BOB! 😂) But he's the only one out of them who isn't diagnosed with dementia out of his brothers, he's the 3rd oldest (so either middle child or one of the older ones). He said the earliest any of his brothers was diagnosed was 68, and the oldest was 75. He's 77
Fascinating anecdote for sure
I wonder how this compares to people who have been deaf all their lives. Later in life. Or at an age too young to remember, but old enough for the body to remember
Thank you so much for making this video! My dad (70) has been really worried about possibly being at the beginning stages of dementia. He has been hard of hearing for the vast majority of my life. The past few years his memory has gotten worse. He recently got hearing aids and to say they have been life changing is an understatement! This is great information. I am excited to show him this video. I know he will find it very interesting and comforting knowing that he's on the right track by being proactive about his hearing loss!
I'm 60 and have been wearing hearing aids for several years. They aren’t perfect but I wouldn’t want to be without them. Based on my experience & research here’s some advice (note I'm in the USA and some of this may not translate to other countries):
- Hearing aids won’t restore normal hearing, compared to the way glasses can restore normal vision. They certainly help but I still have problems with certain people's voices especially in noisy environments. Also they make my mild tinnitus less noticeable and let me hear many more environmental sounds like crickets and birds.
- They need to be worn all day, every day; not just when visiting people or going to the movies etc. This ensures your brain adjusts and you get the maximum benefit.
- Cheap "hearing aids" are just amplifiers. To be real hearing aids they need to be programmed for your specific hearing loss based on a hearing test, and fitted to the size and shape of your ears. This is usually done at an audiologist office but some now let you test & program with an app, and they can send you the bits that fit your ears if needed.
- The FDA recently approved over the counter hearing aids which let you skip going to a professional to get them. It’s helped to reduce prices, but it’s just starting, so for now it can still be confusing to figure out if what you're shopping for is legit vs. a cheap amplifier. As of early 2023 if it’s under a few hundred USD that’s pretty sketchy. Do your research!
- If you can, it’s a good idea to see an audiologist when you first notice hearing loss. There are a bunch of things which can cause it, some as easy to fix as earwax, and all that you would hopefully want to know about. This is especially true if you’re young, or your hearing loss came on quickly, or is only in one ear, or affects low frequencies, or includes other symptoms.
- Most hearing aids look better or are less noticeable than the ones in the video. Behind the ear models usually are smaller and have a thin wire instead of a tube, or you can get less obvious in-ear ones. You also usually can choose from a range of colors to match your skin or hair.
- If you want hearing aids that can stream audio and do hands free calls, you'll need to pay extra - and music quality may not be great. iPhone users who want to stream should get hearing aids that are designated MFI (Apple approved) which integrate better with iOS.
- Lower cost hearing aids use disposable batteries that last anywhere from a few days to a week or so. More expensive ones are rechargeable and go for a day or two on a charge, and are much more convenient (esp. for those who may have trouble replacing tiny batteries). Streaming significantly increases power usage.
- One good place to get hearing aids is Costco, they carry several brands and their prices are significantly less for equivalent hearing aids to those you can get elsewhere. I’m on my 2nd pair from them I've been happy with them.
- Nearly every place that sells hearing aids offers a generous evaluation period during which you can return them for a full refund. The price often also includes at least several months of free adjustments and one time free replacement of lost hearing aids.
- Related to the above, if you know someone who has hearing aids but isn't using them, find out why. Maybe they’re broken or the batteries are a hassle, maybe they need adjusting (most can be reprogrammed if your hearing loss changes), maybe they don’t fit well or they look bad. It’s possible and worth it to fix any of these problems!
+
This is excellent information! I an now 61. I had put off getting hearing aids for quite a few years because they were insanely expensive. Circumstances recently forced me to seriously consider getting hearing aids, even though I could hardly afford them. My dad has had hearing aids for decades, but his come from the VA without extra cost to him. He actually told me about Costco hearing aids. I finally decided to join Costco and get their cheapest, store-brand hearing aids. They are amazing! The price was $1,399, which is just over half the lowest price of a nearby audiologist. The technician who evaluated my hearing and adjusted my devices was excellent. The devices have a great guarantee as well.
If Costco prices are too high for some, hopefully the new OTC hearing aids authorized by the FDA will be affordable.
I strongly advise people NOT to use really cheap (
Yes on all points!
My hearing in my right ear is starting to go, along with tinnitus getting worse. This is great advice. Thanks!
This is excellent information, thank you! My dad got his hearing aids from Costco and is satisfied. I'm proud of him for getting hearing aids as soon as he realized he was having issues. I hope our society gets rid of any stigma associated with needing support for once hearing. Why should it be any more shameful than wearing glasses or needing to wear a coat when it's cold outside?
As a student of Audiology and Speech Language Therapy, there are some piece of information that must have been mentioned in the video, however the video itself is great. The thing is that Hearing tests like PTA are also followed by Speech Threshold/ Understanding tests like SRT, SATs etc. They give a percentage as to how much an individual is able to understand, as PTA tests assess your hearing thresholds, whereas Speech Audiometry assess your understanding score, understanding is related to hearing, but they are not the same. Any score under 80% has much higher risk of Social Isolation, and in some cases are recommended to go to Cochlear Implant rather than hearing aid, even if their hearing thresholds might easily get covered with a hearing aid. Anyways, Speech and Language ability in some researches is actually directly linked to Cognitive ability, and most of assessment and intervention plans of Speech therapy are based on these cognitive related abilities like play stages etc. Therefore, as Hearing Loss occurs it causes decreased Language Stimulation of the brain and reduced ability to communicate effectively and efficiently, therefore causing a higher strain of brain to focus on the auditory stimuli, and there are a lot of auditory skills required in order to hear effectively in different environments, like in Noise vs Quiet, close vs far etc. Thus, when Language Stimulation decreases, it also causes added strain, and reduced cognitive abilities, as now experiences also become limited to visual, tactile, and other senses. Thus, indirectly leading to dementia. All of this information is mostly conceptual based and some information is mentioned in books, like Language disorder by Rhea Paul. And, you also mentioned that PTA thresholds are not yet decided, because the reason is that hearing thresholds are also based on other tests like Speech Audiometry tests, Aided vs Unaided and more.
Do you know about how ADHD/autism and the resulting sound hypersensitivity and lack of subconscious sound preprocessing relates to what you are studying?
I technically hear too well, but it is overwhelming and I struggle to process it all.
I know from experience that hearing aids directional and frequency specific noise cancelling has dramatically reduced the amount of focus and energy required to focus on one person. I would be interested to know if there are any other things that could help.
@@logancowie As per my information, hypersensitivity in ADHD/Autism is usually treated through Auditory therapies or Sound Therapies like Tomatis method, or Auditory Integration Therapy.
But, as for general hypersensitivity or people who just hear way too much, there are specific earplugs made by Phonak like Phonak Serenity Choice, that reduce noise and there are different versions like motorsport, sleep, comfort, work etc, and they are relatively inexpensive around $60-70, so just try like a comfort version, and see if it helps.
misread the title initially as “will hearing aids help you avoid december?” and i was momentarily super intrigued, to say the least.
If I could afford hearing aids I would get them. Always thought the vanity arguement was silly. No one thinks less of people wearing glasses for sight loss so why should they care about hearing aids? Anything that would drown out the tinnitus I would jump on in a heartbeat.
Keep an eye out, 2 months ago they became over the counter. So give it a little time and the price should drop significantly (assuming you're in the US)
Over-the-counter hearing aids will not be as cheap as a lot of people are expecting them to be, also there are plenty of hearing aids with tinnitus therapies your hearing care provider can program onto them. I have been rather successful in treating different types of tinnitus for different clients different manufacturers have different strategies. It really just depends you should talk to a hearing care provider who is well-versed on different manufactures.
The cost is awful.
vision problems happen at all stages of life whereas hearing loss is usually reserved for the elderly. thatnis why people care more, they don't want to be perceived as old and weak. I guess that is a form of vanity.
They help you hear the voices in your head
As a person with hearing loss and a family history of dementia, I'm also concerned about the prospect of that the The inflammation or other underlying causes of hearing loss also affect the brain.
Yeah, called growing old. Brilliant correlation there.
Absolutely wonderful thorough look at this issue!! Taking apart pros and cons of the studies towards the end ... *Chef's kiss
You forgot the build-up of wax and skin that a simple visit to the doctor can cure.
That's awesome. Thank you for this information 😊👍
I got my first hearing aids at 46 (hearing loss runs in my family) and they were life-changing. Not as good as naturally having good hearing, but a whole lot better than smiling and nodding along with a conversation and hoping nobody asks you to actually contribute because you can't hear what's going on.
I'm still working on my mom, but at least I can set a good example.
It strikes me that if increased brain function/focus to compensate for loss of hearing leads to increased susceptibility to dementia, then the same would apply for eye-sight loss and not getting/wearing corrective lenses.
Having been prescribed glasses 5 years ago, but only last week actually ordering my first pair (following a second test), it may be clear why this comes to mind quickly.
Personally, I'm skeptical about there being a connection with eyesight. This is because when I'm conflicted between trying to see something small or blurry and concentrating on some other mental task, I get to choose when to switch my attention between them. But when the conflict comes from trying to understand someone talking, I don't get to choose, I must dedicate my brainpower to processing that audio signal as it arrives, so it immediately degrades my cognitive power for other tasks.
@@tgeliot That's a reasonable point, though I'd counter that our eyes are constantly scanning around, checking blind spots are being filled correctly and our brains processing all of that. The blurrier the images being received, the harder it'll be working to try to compensate.
I'm sure there would, (if hearing is an indicator) be variance between hearing and sight as indicators for dementia, but as an immediate thought, a correlation with sight does seem likely as well.
But, I do only having passing knowledge in such fields (along with many, many others).
I can see where vision and memory go hand in hand. If you start to lose your vision you could begin to forget where you put things and start to doubt yourself or even start to distrust and accuse others and claim them to be thieves or trying to mess with you.
@@1MarkKeller I dunno about that. Blind people seem to rely on their memory significantly to navigate [relatively] efficiently.
🤷♀
@@ChrispyNut Maybe it depends on when you lose your sight. A lifetime of using sight and memory together would make the link far stronger than one with less of that crosstalk going on.
My father is 85 and has been mostly deaf for a few decades. His job required him to occasionally be in very loud environments and he never wore hearing protection. He refuses to regularly wear his various very expensive, personally fitted, hearing aids. Still his brain is fine and not yet demented.
this helps me with my apd issues, it helps me retain information easier. Probably makes sense since it takes an added load on my mind to focus on listening.
Would be interesting to see how learning and using ASL affects the results.
I'm 38 with Tinnitus, Audio Processing Disorder, and mild hearing loss.
Just had an Audiologist appointment TODAY to get hearing aids, this (dementia risk) and Tinnitus being the primary reasons for today's appointment.
How timely this video =oD
Good for you. I’m sure hearing aids will help. I have mild tinnitus and even though my hearing aids aren’t programmed for tinnitus masking, they definitely make me notice my tinnitus less. I think that’s simply because when I’m someplace quieter, the hearing aids make background sounds more noticeable so tinnitus isn’t the only sound I can focus on.
@@Sashazur you should consider Signia’s notch therapy for tinnitus relief, a relatively effective tinnitus treatments that can be used in addition to masking. You just need to find a competent hearing care professional to administer the testing and programming… like me ;)
@@Sashazur As a student of Audiology and Speech Language Therapy, I'll explain this. The tinnitus when occurring simultaneously to Sensori-neural Hearing Loss, usually is caused by the hearing loss, and when hearing aids gives you the appropriate amplification, your Tinnitus gets masked by the amplification rather than it picking on noises. Yes, picking up noises from background may also help not to focus on the Tinnitus. It is just inner ear physiology that if appropriate amplification is provided then subjective tinnitus gets masked or reduced.
Hearing loss, in many cases, causes a lot more problems than just "a risk of dementia". Tinnitus, hyperacusis, distorted hearing etc are just a few of the problems that people with hearing loss deal with. And all of those are equally horrible to dementia, if not more. Also, incurable or at least nothing that hearing aids can help with. Most people think that there's only hearing loss that is fixed with hearing aids and that's it, but that's just the surface unfortunately.
Yea your right- and if you look at pediatrics, in children with inner ear disorders, with associated hearing loss, there is an increased likelyhood that that child will develop ADHD, and most of the time thats just temporary hearing loss (ie ear tubes get put in drains fluid and you can hear again)
@@90klh Well, I don't want to underestimate ADHD in children, ADHD is a serious disorder, but not as serious as severe tinnitus or hyperacusis is. Here I'm talking about disorders that make life a suffering and there is very little to no awareness about them. And more importantly there is nothing you can do about them.
Tinnitus is nowhere near as bad as dementia. I've had it as long as I can remember, and it's vastly preferable to what I've seen happen to my family members.
@@Adahop Tinnitus is vastly different for every person who experiences it. For one person it might be a silent hissing only heard in very quiet rooms, while for other it might be an 100 dB siren that reacts to external sound and doesn't let you sleep, concentrate or even distort outside sound.
The point here is that most people pass these ear ailments like "it must not be that bad", because they might have a mild version themselves, while there is a whole spectrum of severity. And falsely think that hearing aids are the cure of all ear things.
@@OmenAhead well im quite aware of hyeracusis (not on spelling tho probably lol) and tinnitus, can i ask do you suffer from these disorders? I have occasional tinnitus but its quite mild and i still take the tags off my clothes- but FOR ME they are not bothersome. But i do know adhd and the hyperacusis thing are often a comorbidity of on3 another- is a child distracted by a buzzing light or sounds hyperactive or just overly aware of their senses
Bravo well presented and important data
I believe this fully, my grandma lost a little bit of her hearing, and she denied it and denied it, and slowly her dementia got worse and worse to coinciding with the hearing loss
Interesting research, but my first thought/question is how does this affect those born deaf and or cochlear implanted people.
If it's about mental stimulation, lifelong familiarity with non-audio-dependent communication and entertainment should help some. And if it's about mental resources, total deafness shouldn't be an issue at all. Definitely needs study though.
If you look at pediatric studies of children with lots of inner ear infections there is an increased risk of developing ADHD and that hearing loss if permanent or undiagnosed can be MISdiagnosed as ADHD
@@90klh Most hearing parents who have deaf children are steered away from learning sign language. That is one of the main causes of deaf children who are denied access to full language developing behavorial problems. The medical field is very anti-sign language and that needs to be atudied much further.
Thank you for this video! I'm sharing it with older relatives as a way to convince to go for audiometric testing
As a person born with a sever hearing disability, I wonder if hearing being normal then declining has something to do with the dementia correlation
Actually yes, people born with hearing loss, or at substantially less risk for dementia than those with normal hearing, and develop hearing loss throughout their life. Very interesting how the brain is wired differently.
Great research in this video. Medicare should really cover hearing aids and exams, especially with this data.
So there's correlation between hearing loss and dementia. There's no causation, though.
They have helped me improve my overall mood. I was starting to feel increasingly isolated, especially at work. A lot of what I attributed to generational differences were simply me being on guard so to speak; while struggling to understand what was being said to me.
I had suspected something similar, as my dad started becoming forgetful and disoriented as his hearing went untreated before he passed last year (which very well could have been other factors. Medication, general health, etc). And my grandma acquired a sort of rapid onset dementia over the course of about 2 years. We didn't realize until just a few months ago, when we got her an automated medicine tray, that she couldn't hear the high pitched beeping from the machine and she may now be tone deaf. I don't know if it could be a cause, but definitely think it is a contributimg factor for cognitive issues for some people. Which may present in a variety of ways.
I'm actually working on research about this right now
My Mom refuses to get a hearing aid or even discuss it. She's had hearing loss for decades and she's nearly 80 now. It went from her saying "Pardon?" to "what?" and now it's just "hmm?" for everything I say in a quiet room. Hearing aids are very expensive usually $5,000 each! At least the US allows over the counter sales of hearing aids but here in Canada that's not a thing.
The isolation could be a big factor!
I had some hearing loss from infancy due to an ear infection, but as I got older my hearing ability really declined to a point where i had to advise others to speak louder because I was hearing impaired. After a few years of this frustration, I finally got in ear hearing aids when I turned 70. I don't know about the dementia aspect, but it sure was a big improvement to my quality of life. With the new policy which should make hearing aids much less expensive, I would recommend anyone who is suffering from hearing loss to get hearing aids. You'll be glad you did.
This enlightening video emphasizes the strong connection between dementia and hearing loss, highlighting the importance of addressing hearing impairment as a crucial step in promoting cognitive well-being. It's a compelling reminder of the impact hearing health can have on overall quality of life and cognitive function.
One of the 14% checking in! 36 and have severe hearing loss. Worried when im 60 my hearing will be totally gone 😮
Can’t imagine life without my hearing aids.
Is true, my dad starter to lost his hearing at first, and then about a year after, he started to forget things, a little bit at first but then even stuff already he said or did minutes ago. It's sad and emotionally wearing for him and for the ones around him
Never made the connection until this post. In her sixties, my wife started to have hearing loss and had a hearing aid. Then increasing memory loss was diagnosed as Alzheimer's disease.
If true, preventing dementia by correcting hearing loss will be game changing and very impactful.
It won't be a game changer for dementia as a total because most dementia isn't caused by hearing loss.
@@Methylglyoxal perhaps not, or hearing loss is a symptom of dementia, so treating the hearing loss is just a symptomatic treatment.
Always a fan of the seamless segue.
Also Big fan of smart adverts, like Brilliant, in my science vids
Some extra good news this week now because I just got approved for the bonebridge implant. I’ve always been deaf on one side though.
My mom was experiencing what appeared to be dementia but after we got her some hearing aids she got a LOT better. We're actually going through this right now again due to her having to be in the hospital and she doesn't have her hearing aids(for fear she'll lose them and they'll accidentally get washed by hospital staff).
So how do we find a way for people not to forget how to hear.. 🤔
I wish they had something that would help tinnitus.
Sometimes hearing aids can help. It depends on the device and type of hearing loss, but it’s worth checking out.
@@lamemechose7072 They told me I have no hearing loss, just tinnitus from a head injury. Drives me nuts.
In your case, it’s less likely. But if you have health coverage, it might be worth asking about. I have tinnitus and hearing loss, both from an assault. But I also have two grandparents (one on each side) with significant hearing issues & a parent with both, but from age.
I have mild tinnitus. Even though my hearing aids are not programmed to do anything about it, they definitely have helped me notice it less. I think that’s because when I’m in a place that’s fairly quiet, I can hear more of what’s going on around me, so my tinnitus isn’t as noticeable.
I had excellent hearing until the last two times I had my teeth cleaned...and had a severe attack of vertigo after each cleaning. Since the second cleaning, I now have tinnitus in both ears 100% of the time...and a declining level of hearing, and have been told I will over time become deaf. However; NO ONE has explained the links to dental work, vertigo, tinnitus and hearing loss. As a matter of fact, the doctors I've explained it to don't want to hear it. Frustrating!!
I'm sorry you've had to go through that! It sounds awful.
I'm not a medical professional, but I did some Googling about it, 'cause I find all the ways dental work can mess up so many other parts of the body fascinating. I've known several people who ended up with bronchitis after dental work and I remember when I had brain surgery I wasn't allowed to have any kind of dental work done for several months before or after surgery because it's so easy for bacteria to enter the bloodstream through the mouth. That could possibly be what caused your issues. From what I've read, tinnitus, feelings of fullness in the ear, and dizziness can be caused by inflammation (could be bacterial) after receiving dental work or could be an existing infection was irritated by the drilling/cleaning. It also seems that tinnitus from dental work isn't that uncommon due to using the drill on teeth because "the sound is transmitted by bone conduction directly into the inner ear" which could cause damage. Apparently "ultrasonic cleaning tools" are a big cause of tinnitus as well, so if your dentist uses that, you could ask them to use the traditional tools instead.
There are a couple of cases about permanent hearing loss that come up if you search "Bilateral Sensorineural Hearing Loss after dental work," if you're interested in further reading. I understand how frustrating it is for you. I hope you're able to find a doctor who will listen and work with you toward a better outcome! Sending you well wishes.
@@_brimac Thank you SO much Briana! I've copied and pasted your reply so as to be able to keep your information. I will most certainly be doing more reading up on it! I never realized there has been history between the two. Thanks for caring enough to share your information with me! 🙏💛
I really appreciate your empirical approach, and source critique. I was typing up 3-4 different comments while watching to contest different aspects of what was said, only to have you answer them, and having to backspace.
A thought though, people who actually wear hearing aids might have access to more resources to begin with. Be they social, economic, or cognitive.
Do any of these studies include socio-economic data? Does everyone in the US have access to hearing aids? 14% of those who need it seems like an extremely low number.
For comparison about 300.000 people in Denmark wear hearing aids, out of a population shy of 6 million, so just over 5% of the entire population, of course with the caveat that they're free.
hearing aids cost a lot here in the US and we don't have free healthcare for all. add on top that there's a distinct culture of not wanting to admit you're disabled here.. yeah, I can believe 14%
3:35 Canadian audiology student here - Audiologists actually now use (amongst others) a hearing loss classification including a new sixth category: very mild hearing loss.
Its threshold is at 16 dB of loss. It's actually a very important category because exactly as you say, even that "small" of a hearing loss can have big impacts on people. Great video, keep up the good work guys! 😁❤️
i'm interested to know if there are any studies on dementia and people who were born deaf/hoe, or who became that way when young and how that compares to people who have hearing loss related to age. i wonder if it maybe has to do with brain plasticity or something like that?
47 year old me nudging down the volume on my headphones...
I think a conclusive study would definitely need to start with participants who can provide hearing test scores from earlier in their life. Are there any professions that do routine tests for hearing acuity?
Yes, the military and commercial drivers physical do a basic whisper test. I hope pilots are tested in their flight physicals, too. Any profession requiring voice communication for safety should be tested.
Occupations only screen for hearing loss they don’t actually perform hearing evaluations theres a big difference
My mom had hearing loss and never could used to her expensive hearing aids. My brother who took care of her for 8 years observed a definite decline in her memory during the last ten years of her life. In mid 2020 she passed away not from Covid but from vascular dementia.
No family history of dementia but my 40 year old aunt got hearing aids because of some issues understanding people and said it changed her day to day life
I'm almost 70, I need hearing aids, medicare doesn't pay for them. The cost is twice my monthly income
Keep an eye out for over the counter hearing aids. They are a new category the FDA just approved and you will start seeing them at pharmacies etc. I don’t know the prices but they will be much much less than typical hearing aids you get at a specialty clinic.
My grandma is 100% deaf but she has photographic memory, how about that? She remembers thousands of food recipe with great detail and can make perfect handwritten copy on demand. She is 87 by the way.
For folks of working/employment age with hearing impairment: check with your state's services; there are some that help with adaptive devices to support the ability of people to work (in Texas, it was the Texas Workforce Commission; not sure what the service is called now). One of those devices includes hearing aids. It's how I got mine, at no out of pocket cost to me. (Yes, I know, I paid for them via taxes. I'm fine with that.)
While the right hearing aids for the patient is ideal, using nothing until then isn't. I found that a new conversation tube worked really well in communicating with my grandmother. Also, it has a very low cost, and works in a similar way as acoustic stethoscopes.
How likely is it that since the primary auditory cortex is located in the temporal lobe, that they may correlate with dementia?
I can imagine decades of mis-hearing people could wear on your sanity.
I’ve been avoiding this video in my feed because I knew it would scare me- and it did. My mom has had some hearing impairment for a while, and it’s been getting noticeably worse the past few years. I keep on telling her to get her hearing checked, but she doesn’t think it’s that important. To make things worse, she already lives a fairly isolated life, and in the next few years it is likely to become even more isolated as her friends and family have plans to move out/away. I struggled so hard with my grandmother’s dementia, and I don’t know if I could hear to see her go through that.
Even though these are highly preliminary studies that suggest a correlation but don’t prove any causation, I still think it’s definitely time to ask her to get her hearing checked for our, her family’s, peace of mind.
I have a feeling this doesn't apply to people who were deaf when they were children as their brains had developed in a world with little to no sound, but I wonder if those people losing some sight would have similar effects?
That would be super interesting!
As someone who's been deaf since early childhood, it frustrates me to see SciShow saying this...as many of the comments have mentioned, I have a feeling there's more to it than simply "deaf people lose their minds more!". Being consistently left out in social settings and denied basic accessibility, I'm sure, can't be great for the mind. :(
I wonder if it has to do with social isolation. The greater the more conversation you miss, becoming more isolated
That’s a good hypothesis. There’s also the “use it or lose it” factor which is another one: if your brain stops hearing certain sounds or intelligible speech, after long enough the parts of your brain that do those things will atrophy.
If only we could get my dad to finally use hearing aids. He knows he should at least try them but continues to find excuse after excuse. It's hard to have conversations w/ him as he now assumes what you say, not what you really said, and it makes conversations go off the rails real fast. He never realizes others are trying to talk to him. And you have to constantly repeat everything. The biggest worry is his cognition is declining steadily the past decade. He needs to try hearing aids before it's too late!
The cost for hearing aids is NOT covered by Medicare and they are very expensive. Many seniors can't afford to buy them.......
I already hear voices already. I always have music stuck in my head as well.
The stigma gap between wearing eye glasses and hearing aids can be closed. The price gap for affordability needs to narrow also. The OTC rules is a step in the right direction. Thanks for this information SciShow.
My aunt had young onset Alzheimer's and downs syndrome. She definitely had hearing issues for many years, but while living with family in Sydney it was deemed too difficult (for them) for her to have hearing aids and glasses (sight issues as well). They didn't want the responsibility of helping her put them in, take them out, change the batteries etc. When she moved in with my mum and I, she finally got hearing aids and glasses which definitely helped slow the decline early on, and had covid not interfered, she likely could have lived a few more months. February will mark 2 years since she passed away, and until the final 4 months of her life, she was still quite independent and had a great quality of life.
A link to the 2011 study would be great; also it’d be interesting to note how cognitive decline was defined and measured.
Hi! They have their sources linked in the description, though they are towards the bottom so you have to scroll a bit. Hope this helps!
I spent 25 years drumming. To be honest everyone around me is getting worse hearing because they don't wear ear protection. I know the exact frequency I'm plateaued at, and don't want to lose more. I always have ear plugs.
I'd like to see if this isn't correlated to alcohol abuse, because bars, concerts and sports arenas are where I see a ton of "eff nah" levels of decibels.
Yeah. I consider myself hard of hearing but concerts and such are unbearable. Movie theatres and race events too. I'm pretty sure my hearing loss is mostly from going to drags and forgetting to take plugs. Those cars are loud enough to rattle your chest. I've started to practice my lip reading but nothing is going to replace an entire other sense.
Remember, doctors recommend that you only listen to digital audio anywhere between 40-60% max volume in order to preserve your hearing
no point in living then
@@treehouse7861 Considering most youtubers already shout in your ear, I think you'll live.
That's utterly useless as a metric. My current computer has a base volume 9 decibels higher than my last, which was 3 DB lower than the one before it. My phone's base DB level is still lower than my current computer, and my friend's phone is different still, despite both being made in 2021. That's like a recipe saying it needs half a "nearest container to your left" of flour. the "40%" of my computer is TWICE as loud as my husband's, if a doctor actually told you this I'd seriously consider a different doctor. Assuming you're not just repeating something you vaguely remember reading once as fact.
40-60% volume is completely meaningless, different amps and different headphones or speakers all mean 40% on one combination could be 100% on the next
@@treehouse7861 I disagree. Mainly because unless I’m jamming, aka really jamming, then there no need for 100%.
But if your just being melodramatic for melodramatics sake, or just for the lolz, I got you
Well great. I'm 59 and have had tinnitus (a loud chorus of electronic tones in the key of C) since my 20's; I have no idea why. The audiologist said I have mild hearing loss edging into moderate, particularly in the range of human voices, and that was a couple of years ago. I get along fine, except when people try talking to me with background noise (like my husband insisting on talking to me when the TV's on 🙄). Don't know how I'll afford hearing aids, but I should start thinking about it.
Unfortunately hearing aids are insanely expensive and people with dementia are prone to losing them. Insurance companies are often also of the opinion that they aren't medically necessary when it's convenient for them to say so.
My dad had early onset dementia but his hearing was incredible
As a HearingCare professional, I can’t tell you how many people thought they had incredible hearing, but actually had substantial hearing loss in particular frequency range. If early onset dementia runs in your family I would encourage comprehensive evaluations annually
@@FadeRunner13 thank you. My dad’s dementia was caused by excessive drinking of diet sodas. He was drinking over 4 liters a day. My mom cannot hear women’s voices well. She has the hearing aids that go inside the ear.
what? Nevermind, I'm off to fold the dishes.
So when will Medicare cover the cost of hearing aids ???????
putting in my long hated hearing aides now.thanks
Good. Now do a video about olfactory loss and dementia. See work of Johannes Attems and Richard Doty (especially the UPSIT test). Also, this is very relevant post-covid.
It's very important. It's hard about a dementia.
Which flavour of Dementia? Vascular? Lewies Body? Which? Also ..is the Learning difference known as Central Auditory Processing be connected to the loss?
As a practicing Audiologists we believe this and site the John Hopkins University Study from 2011.
Being able to receive environmental feedback keeps you grounded, so loss of hearing being related to cognitive decline makes sense.
My hearing aid got attacked by mice a while back and can't afford a new one
Your video is excellent - my mom has hearing loss and I was the one who got her to have that checked. However, I will make some comments:
1) The main cause of hearing loss is enviromental polution and metabolic problems. I have bilateral tinitus and it was caused by excess insulin excess due to metabolic syndrome.
2) Correlation is not causation (2011 paper) - since the what senses the sound inside our cochlea are nerve cells, if something damages the nerve cells there it can damage the nerve cells in our brains.
3) The global level of hearing loss (white noise, let's say) is not the important aspect. People may have a good hearing for most things but notice they can't follow dialogues that well - thtat's because when we loose the ability to hear higher frequecies we also loose the ability to hear consonants. Consonats are what carry information is speech and from a sound perspective they require high frequencies to be represented. (check the Fourier transform of a square wave and compare a square wave with the consonants in the name "papadopolous")
4) The study that shows people who use hearing aides have less dementia seems to point towards the idea that it's the hearing loss that contributes to dementia and not that both have the same cause. That study seems to show a causal direction in the 2011 correlations - it's the hearing loss that is contributing to dementia.
The fact is: there's a large literature showing that our senses (the brain part) develop because of stimulation. We know that the ability to perceive music is learned and, more impressive, the development of speech requires people to speak so it can develop. There's a famous case (made into a movie) or a woman whose mother died in her birth and whose father was a very weird person. Her father thought she was the devil and kept her locked in her room and never spoke to her - they lived in a hut in the middle of the woods in the US. Her name is Nell and she has no language and she can't learn language. Noam Chomsky - who developed the idea that language is a property of the human brain - said the lack of stimulus made that part of her brain to not be created. The same thing was observed among people who were born blind but as adults tried cornea transplants - though the transplants made their eyes perfect, they remained blind because the part of the brain that deals with vision did not develop.
IMPORTANT: If you know someone who started to contribute less to family conversations even though the person seems to be understanding everything, get that person to do hearing tests and, if required, get her hearing aides. They are excellent and small, nowadays - have long lasting rechargeable batteries, do beamforming (so the person will hear whats straight in front louder than what's to the side) and work as bluetooth earphones for their smartphones. Isolation kills older people and hearing loss makes them isolated even when the whole family is around.
My mother's got dementia, and she used to listen to music a ton. I can't even recall how many years it's been since she stopped listening to music on a regular basis, but that may be a warning sign of hearing loss. (I can hear very quiet sounds across the room that she can't hear. So I think there is some hearing loss in her case, it's just subtle.)
I'm only 40, but have definitely had some loss of hearing, and I've always been out of my mind. I don't think I'm going to fare too well.
I think that most insurances don't cover hearing tests or hearing aids.
I mean it could easily be the other way around, that dementia leads to difficulty processing auditory inputs which leads to hearing loss.
Hearing aids kept my grandmother sane.
She turned them off whenever my grandfather was talking.