It’s easy to notice how your body ages over time. Your skin starts to get some wrinkles. You start to lose your hair or it turns grey. Your joints start to get stiff. Your skin becomes a little saggy in places. Maybe your eyesight and your hearing both start to fade a little. It’s pretty hard not to notice these changes.
But it’s more difficult to see how growing older affects your mind. You might notice that your memory isn’t as strong as it used to be and that you have to start noting essential dates on your calendar. Perhaps you find yourself spacing out more and missing important events. The difficulty is that this kind of cognitive decline occurs so slowly and gradually that you may never detect it. And that hearing decline can be worsened by the psychological effects.
As you get older, there are, luckily, some exercises you can do to help your brain remain clear. And you may even have some fun!
What is the connection between hearing and mental cognition
There are a number of reasons why individuals will gradually lose their hearing as they get older. This can lead to a higher risk of cognitive decline. So, why does loss of hearing increase the risk of cognitive decline? There are a number of hidden risk factors as revealed by research.
- When you’re dealing with neglected hearing loss, the part of your brain that processes sound starts to atrophy. Sometimes, it’s put to other uses, but in general, this is not very good for your mental health.
- A feeling of social separation is often the outcome of untreated hearing loss. Due to this lack of social interaction, you can begin to detect cognitive lapses as you withdraw from the outside world.
- Mental health issues and depression can be the outcome of neglected hearing loss. And having these mental health issues can boost an associated risk of cognitive decline.
So, can hearing loss develop into dementia? Well, indirectly. But cognitive decline, including dementia, will be more probable for an individual who has neglected hearing loss. Those risks, however, can be greatly decreased by getting hearing loss treated. And those risks can be reduced even more by increasing your general brain function or cognition. Look at it as a little bit of preventative medicine.
How to increase cognitive function
So how do you accomplish giving your brain the workout it requires to increase cognitive function? Well, the great news is that your brain is like any other part of the body: you can always achieve improvement, it simply calls for a little exercise. So increase your brain’s sharpness by doing some of these fun activities.
Gardening
Growing your own fruits and vegetables can be incredibly fulfilling all by itself (it’s also a delicious hobby). A unique combination of deep thinking and hard work, gardening can also improve your cognitive function. This happens for several reasons:
- You get a little moderate physical activity. Whether it’s digging around in the ground or moving containers of soil around, the activity you get when gardening is enough to get your blood pumping, and that’s healthy for your brain.
- Gardening releases serotonin which can ease the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
- As you’re working, you will have to think about what you’re doing. You have to analyze the situation making use of planning and problem solving skills.
As an added bonus, you get healthy vegetables and fruits from your hobby. Of course, not all gardens need to be focused on food. You can grow flowers, wild grasses, cacti, or anything your green thumb wishes!
Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts can be appreciated by anybody no matter the artistic ability. You can make a simple sculpture using popsicle sticks. Or maybe you can make a nice clay mug on a pottery wheel. It’s the process that counts when it comes to exercising the brain, not as much the particular medium. That’s because arts and crafts (drawing, sculpting, building) cultivate your imagination, your critical thinking skills, and your sense of aesthetics.
Arts and crafts can be good for your cognition because:
- You have to use lots of fine motor skills. And while that might feel automatic, your brain and nervous system are really doing lots of work. Over the long haul, your cognitive function will be healthier.
- You need to manage sensory input in real time and you will have to employ your imagination to do that. This requires a lot of brain power! There are a few activities that activate your imagination in exactly this way, so it offers a unique type of brain exercise.
- You will need to keep your mind engaged in the task you’re doing. This type of real time thinking can help keep your cognitive processes limber and versatile.
Whether you get a paint-by-numbers kit or draft your own original work of art, your level of talent isn’t really relevant. The most relevant thing is keeping your brain sharp by stimulating your imagination.
Swimming
Going for a swim can help keep you healthy in a number of ways! Plus, a hot day in the pool is always a great time. And while it’s obviously good for your physical health, there are a few ways that swimming can also be good for your mental health.
Whenever you’re in the pool, you need to think a lot about spatial relations when you’re swimming. After all, you don’t want to smash into anybody else in the pool!
Your mind also has to be aware of rhythms. When will you need to come up to breathe when you’re under water? Things like that. Even if this type of thinking is occurring in the background of your brain, it’s still great cognitive exercise. Plus, physical exercise of any sort can really help get blood to the brain going, and that can be good at helping to slow cognitive decline.
Meditation
Just some time for you and your mind. As your thoughts calm down, your sympathetic nervous system also relaxes. Sometimes labeled mindfulness meditation, these practices are designed to help you concentrate on what you’re thinking. Meditation can help:
- Improve your memory
- Help you learn better
- Improve your attention span
You can become even more conscious of your mental faculties by getting involved in meditation.
Reading
Reading is great for you! And it’s also quite enjoyable. A book can take you anywhere according to that old saying. In a book, you can travel anywhere, such as outer space, ancient Egypt, or the depths of the ocean. When you’re following along with a story, manifesting landscapes in your imagination, and mentally conjuring up characters, you’re using lots of brain power. This is how reading engages a huge part of your brain. Reading isn’t possible without engaging your imagination and thinking a lot.
As a result, reading is one of the most ideal ways to focus your thoughts. Imagination is required to picture what’s going on, your memory to follow along with the plot, and when you complete the book, you get a satisfying dose of serotonin.
What you read doesn’t really matter, fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, so long as you devote some time each day reading and building your brainpower! Audiobooks, for the record, work just as well!
Manage your hearing loss to minimize cognitive risks
Even if you do every little thing correctly, untreated hearing loss can continue to increase your risks of cognitive decline. Which means, even if you garden, swim, and read, you’ll still be struggling uphill, unless you manage your hearing loss.
Your social skills, your thinking, and your memory and cognition will improve once you have your hearing loss addressed (typically with hearing aids).
Is hearing loss an issue for you? Call us today to make an appointment for a hearing exam and reconnect to life!