As your body ages, it’s not hard to detect the changes. Your skin begins to develop some wrinkles. Your hair turns gray (or falls out). Your knees start to hurt a little bit more. Your skin gets a little saggy in places. Perhaps your eyesight and your hearing both start to diminish a bit. These signs are difficult to miss.
But the impact getting older has on the mind is not always so evident. You might acknowledge that your memory isn’t as good as it once was and that you have to start noting essential dates on your calendar. Maybe you find yourself spacing out more and missing significant events. The difficulty is that this kind of cognitive decline comes about so slowly and gradually that you might never realize it. For those who have hearing loss, the psychological effects can frequently worsen this decline.
Fortunately, there are some ways that you can work out your brain to keep it sharp and healthy as you age. And the good news is, these exercises can be utterly enjoyable!
The link between hearing and cognition
Most individuals will gradually lose their hearing as they age (for a number of reasons). The risk of cognitive decline will then increase. So what is the connection between cognitive decline and hearing loss? There are a number of hidden risk factors according to research.
- There can be atrophy of the portion of the brain that processes sound when someone has neglected hearing loss. The brain might assign some resources, but in general, this is not very good for cognitive health.
- A feeling of social separation is often the consequence of untreated hearing loss. As a result of this lack of social connection, you can start to notice cognitive lapses as you disengage from the outside world.
- Untreated hearing loss can also result in depression and other mental health issues. And an associated chance of cognitive decline can be increased by these mental challenges.
So is dementia the outcome of hearing loss? Well, not directly. But neglected hearing loss can increase your risk of cognitive decline, up to and including dementia. Managing your hearing loss can significantly lessen those risks. And those risks can be reduced even more by boosting your general brain function or cognition. Think of it as a little bit of preventative medicine.
Improving cognitive function
So, how can you be sure to develop your cognitive function and give your brain the workout it needs? Well, the great news is that your brain is like any other body part: you can always achieve improvement, it simply requires a little exercise. So improve your brain’s sharpness by doing some of these fun activities.
Gardening
Cultivating your own vegetables and fruits is a delicious and gratifying hobby. A unique mix of deep thinking and hard work, gardening can also increase your cognitive function. Here are a number of reasons why:
- 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.
- Gardening releases serotonin which can alleviate the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
- You get a bit of modest physical exercise. Increased blood flow is good for your brain and blood flow will be improved by moving buckets around and digging in the soil.
As an added bonus, you get healthy fruits and vegetables 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 desires!
Arts and crafts
You don’t need to be artistically inclined to take pleasure in arts and crafts. Something like a simple popsicle stick sculpture can be fun. Or perhaps you can make a nice clay mug on a pottery wheel. When it comes to exercising your brain, the medium matters much less than the process. Because your critical thinking abilities, imagination, and sense of aesthetics are cultivated by partaking in arts and crafts (sculpting, painting, building).
Arts and crafts can be good for your cognitive ability because:
- You need to make use of lots of fine motor skills. And while that may feel automatic, your brain and nervous system are really doing lots of work. That kind of exercise can keep your mental functions healthier over the long run.
- You need to manage sensory input in real time and you will have to engage your imagination to do that. This requires a lot of brain power! There are a few activities that stimulate your imagination in just this way, so it provides a unique type of brain exercise.
- You have to stay focused on what you’re doing as you do it. This type of real time thinking can help keep your cognitive processes limber and versatile.
Whether you pick up a paint-by-numbers kit or create your own original work of art, your level of talent isn’t really relevant. What matters is that you’re utilizing your imagination and keeping your brain sharp.
Swimming
Going for a swim can help you stay healthy in a lot of ways! Plus, it’s always fun to hop into the pool (particularly when it’s so sweltering hot outside). But swimming isn’t just good for your physical health, it also has cognitive health advantages.
Whenever you’re in the pool, you have 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. How long can you be underwater before you need to breathe? That kind of thing. Even if this type of thinking is occurring in the background of your mind, it’s still excellent mental exercise. And cognitive decline will progress more slowly when you participate in physical exercise because it helps get more blood to the brain.
Meditation
Just some time for you and your mind. As your thoughts calm down, your sympathetic nervous system also gets calm. These “mindfulness” meditation methods are made to help you concentrate on your thinking. Meditation can help:
- Help you learn better
- Improve your memory
- Improve your attention span
You can become even more aware of your mental faculties by practicing meditation.
Reading
Reading is great for you! And it’s also quite enjoyable. There’s that old saying: a book can take you anywhere. The floor of the ocean, the distant past, outer space, you can travel everywhere in a book. When you’re following along with a story, manifesting landscapes in your imagination, and mentally conjuring up characters, you’re using a lot of brain power. A huge portion of your brain is involved when you’re reading. You’re forced to think a great deal and use your imagination when you read.
Consequently, one of the very best ways to improve the mind is by reading. You have to use your memory to keep track of the story, your imagination to picture what’s happening, and you get a sweet dose of serotonin when you finish your book!
Take some time each day to build your brain power by doing some reading, whether it’s fiction, science fiction, non-fiction, or whatever you prefer. Audiobooks, for the record, work just as well!
Treat your hearing loss to reduce cognitive risks
Disregarded hearing loss can raise your risk of mental decline, even if you do everything correctly. Which means, even if you garden, swim, and read, you’ll still be fighting an uphill battle, unless you get your hearing loss treated.
Your social skills, your thinking, and your memory and cognition will improve once you have your hearing loss treated (usually with hearing aids).
Is hearing loss a problem for you? Reconnect your life by contacting us today for a hearing assessment.