How Hearing Aids Can Improve Memory and Speech

When most people think about what hearing aids can do, they mostly just think the devices make it easier to hear the sound around them. While hearing aids to help with all types of hearing, there is much more tied to your hearing than simply listening to sounds.

Your capacity to hear can have a direct impact on how well you remember things as well as your ability to communicate with other people.

Hearing Aids Help Bridge The Hearing And Cognition Gap

As your Denver-based hearing aid source, we understand the important connection between your hearing and your cognitive abilities. However, our audiologist also knows it can be difficult to see how the two are connected.

A recent study has helped illustrate how your hearing can impact your memory. A group of adults between the ages of 50-60 that had hearing loss, but had never worn hearing aids, underwent a series of cognitive tests. After the tests, the study’s participants wore hearing aids for two weeks before they had another series of tests. The test scores increased after just two weeks of using the hearing aids, helping the participants enjoy faster responses to the cognitively challenging questions.

In another study, researchers found that the longer the participants wore their hearing aids, the more they showed improvements in their neural speech processing, improved memory, and had a much easier time listening to others.

How You Can Protect Your Memory And Ability To Communicate

As you can see from just those two studies, your hearing is a significant part of your cognitive abilities. If you are ready to take steps to protect yourself from cognitive decline, you can:

• Come in for regular hearing tests with our audiologist. That way, any hearing loss is caught quickly.
• Choose hearing aids which are right for your level of hearing loss. Our hearing specialist will make recommendations for your hearing needs, but ultimately, the choice is yours.
• When you have your properly programmed hearing aids, be sure to wear them every day. It can take time to adjust to using hearing aids, but the payoff is worth the initial adjustment period.
• Visit our audiologist for hearing aid repairs and reprogramming if you notice your hearing aids are not behaving properly. Hearing aids need to be in top working order to provide you with cognitive benefits.

Should you want to actively protect your memories and ability to communicate with others, contact us to set up a hearing evaluation with our audiologist.