Essay On Dementia And Hearing Loss

Hearing loss has a significant impact on a person's life. Though they want to join in with others in conversations, the words that they hear, if any, are muffled, which causes them to constantly have to ask someone to repeat what they said. It is embarrassing, so after a while, they just stop trying. The sounds of nature and traffic slowly disappear over time too. Television sets don't seem to have volume settings that are high enough, and going to a play or musical is often frustrating. The silence affects more than just a person's outside world though. It can begin to impair their cognitive functioning as well.

Hearing Loss and Dementia

Most adults experience some form of dementia as they age, but the rate of mental decline is actually accelerated in those who have hearing loss. The entire brain will decrease in size at a faster rate because of the lack of auditory stimulation. In other words, the inability to hear well speeds up the rate at which a person ages. This could be due to the natural decrease in size of the auditory cortex of the brain since it isn't able to receive any information from the damaged ears that are causing the hearing loss. Since other parts of the brain work in correlation with the auditory cortex, as it shrinks, they are not used as much, so they shrink in size too. …show more content…
This is partially due to their reduced ability to judge any dangerous situations that are around them. For instance, a person could be hit by a car that is passing by because they didn't hear the sound of the horn honking or the people trying to warn them. Also, since hearing loss has a direct correlation to a person's cognitive functioning, there is a reduction in intelligence and good decision making capabilities. The ability to remember sounds is also lost, so they might not even understand what a noise that could be signaling danger is