Hearing Aids – Improving Sex Life – Part 2
The ability to understand simple speech and conversation is one of the first things that is lost with the onset of hearing loss. This lack of the ability to understand speech can be a significant road block to intimate, close conversation.
It does not take very long for a spouse to become irritable and distant when they lose the ability to speak to their significant other without shouting across the dinner table at the fancy restaurant. Hearing aids can definitely lessen the irritation caused by having to shout or constantly repeat what has already been spoken.
Hearing Aids – Improving Sex Life – Part 1
According to research by the Better Hearing Institute, one in five adults aged 41-59 and one in fourteen adults aged 29-40 experience some form of hearing loss. The study also indicated only one in four of these patients utilizes hearing aids to treat their hearing loss.
One might find it hard to believe even mild to moderate hearing loss could be affecting their love life. Hearing loss could affect someone’s relationship even more than Erectile Dysfunction Disorder or other medical conditions.
Any professional therapist or psychologist will offer simple advice for improving a relationship. The key to a healthy love life is effective and frequent communication.
Memory and Hearing Loss – Part 5
Physicians should take a patient’s possible hearing loss into consideration when examining older adults for potential medical conditions that affect memory.
Only a hearing professional can diagnose and prescribe treatment for hearing loss. With the information on the connections between hearing loss and memory function, hearing professionals should pay extra attention to other problems their patients may have.
Once it has been determined an older patient is experiencing memory loss issues, they should also be examined for potential hearing loss.
If an older adult is diagnosed with mild to moderate hearing loss, they should also be examined for potential memory loss issues.
Memory and Hearing Loss – Part 4
In contrasting types of memory, hearing loss appears to have more of an effect on the ability to hear spoken words with little to no effect on words presented visually.
It is important to understand one of the symptoms of hearing loss may be the reduction of the ability to remember conversations or spoken words.
Hearing aids, which allow mild to moderate hearing loss to be improved, can reduce the effect of hearing loss on a patient’s ability to remember spoken language.
The use of hearing aids, allowing patients to use less of their concentration on hearing, can improve patients’ memories to levels experienced prior to the hearing loss.
Memory and Hearing Loss – Part 3
Professor Wingfield advises anyone who works with older adults to modify how they speak to older adults, not necessarily dramatically slowing down their speech.
Professor Wingfield’s research can be found published in the journal, Current Directions in Psychological Science.
The effects of hearing loss on memory in older adults are significant when physicians are trying to diagnose other age related memory disorders.
The shift of cognitive function from memory to hearing is similar to the way people with vision loss shift cognitive function to their other senses.
The memory function in older adults who can hear at normal levels is measurably better than the memory function of adults with hearing loss.
Memory and Hearing Loss – Part 2
Brandeis University researchers have discovered older adults with mild to moderate hearing loss can lose their ability to remember words and language.
Studies have shown, even when adults retain any amount of the ability to hear words and repeat them, older adults’ ability to remember the words they have heard is diminished if they are experiencing hearing loss.
Neuroscience professor Arthur Wingfield has advised, “The study is a wake-up call to anyone who works with older people, including healthcare professionals, to be especially sensitive to how hearing loss can affect cognitive function.â€
Memory and Hearing Loss – Part 1
There has been a possible link between hearing loss and memory loss identified in older adults.
Conversation becomes difficult when a patient is experiencing hearing loss, a condition which is often met with denial by the patient. The patient may not realize that this undiagnosed hearing loss is affecting their memory.
Many older adults experience some form of mild to moderate hearing loss as their bodies age and all senses diminish. Those with normal hearing may not understand the effect hearing loss has on someone’s ability to effectively remember.
When cognitive functions in older people are diverted from memory to hearing, simple language functions can suffer.
Alzheimer’s and Hearing Loss – Part 3
It has been found possible to effectively diagnose Alzheimer’s patients with hearing loss. This ability to diagnose and treat hearing loss is significant and should be considered with any Alzheimer’s patient, as the symptoms of Alzheimer’s can mask the symptoms of hearing loss.
The human act of hearing and processing sound uses large portions of the brain. This ability to intake, process and comprehend sound can be diminished by the ravaging effects of Alzheimer’s disease.
Even when there has already been a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or dementia in older adults, correcting a previously undiagnosed case of hearing loss can reduce potential memory loss.
Alzheimer’s and Hearing Loss Part 2
A study published in Clinical Gerontology in 1986 found that 80% of a group of 30 older adults that tested positive for symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease also showed signs of moderate to severe hearing loss.
In the 1986 study, 33% of the tested group with hearing loss was categorized into a less severe degree of senile dementia once the hearing loss was treated. Generally this treatment employed the use of hearing aids.
It is widely known in the medical community that undiagnosed hearing loss can lead to withdrawal from others, which can decline into depression. Depression can also lead to anxiety disorders and is a risk factor common among many Alzheimer’s disease patients.
Alzheimer’s and Hearing Loss – Part 1
Unfortunately, for many older adults, the symptoms of hearing loss can mimic the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, making someone experiencing both medical problems difficult to diagnose. These symptoms can include confusion, misunderstanding conversation and declining short term memory.
One of the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease that makes itself apparent is requesting the same information repeatedly. This is also an early symptom of hearing loss, often happening because the patient with hearing loss cannot understand the words being spoken.
Another symptom of Alzheimer’s disease is trouble joining into or following a conversation. This symptom is identical to an early signal of hearing loss, where the patient has difficulty following conversation in noisy surroundings.
