You know that you need to get a hearing assessment to help you detect and treat hearing loss, but did you know that hearing loss can also cause issues with balance and memory? Receiving regular hearing assessments can protect your hearing health and avoid balance and memory problems. Hearing loss not only affects those in their 80s but hearing loss can start as soon as your 50s. Do you turn the TV up so loud that it disturbs your neighbors? Do you have difficulty following a conversation in a loud setting like a restaurant or at a party? If so, it may be time to be proactive and get a hearing assessment to look for early signs of hearing loss.

Your Hearing and Sense of Balance

There are many symptoms that may affect your balance including dizziness, floating, unsteadiness, blurred vision, disorientation, confusion, faintness, and vertigo. But, did you know that your balance is regulated by a structure in your inner ear? Your vestibular system, which is a complex system of tissue and bone, works along with your visual system to determine your body’s position relative to the earth. This helps with your movements and coordination.  Therefore, the same problems that are causing your hearing loss can also be responsible for issues with balance. Hearing loss may be a sign of an underlying condition which is also impairing your balance at the same time, such as ear infections, poor blood circulation, and head injuries.

Your Hearing and Your Memory

Frank Lin is an otologist and epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who seems to have found a link between hearing loss and cognitive function. In a study performed in 2013, Lin tracked the concentration, memory, and planning skills of almost 2000 older adults. What they found was that after six years, those who had begun the study with moderate to severe hearing loss (meaning hearing loss severe enough to impact a conversation) were 24% more likely than those with normal hearing to experience diminished cognitive abilities.

The worse the initial hearing loss was, the more likely that subject was to develop dementia. Compared with people of normal hearing, those with moderate hearing loss had triple the risk. There is some good news here: a different study found that more than 80% of people with the lowest cognitive scores at the beginning of the study showed significant improvement after one year with a cochlear implant to reverse hearing loss. This seems to indicate that it might be possible to reverse some of the cognitive effects by treating the hearing loss itself. Of course, you may not need a cochlear implant to get the benefits of improved hearing—a hearing aid may be all you need.

In order to protect both your balance and your memory, it is important to receive regular hearing assessments in order to treat any hearing loss you may be experiencing.