Dannevirke group hears the latest on audio technology

Peter Noble-Campbell of the Dannevirke Men’s Cancer Support Group introduces audiologist Ellen Ma of Resonate Health.

People experiencing hearing loss are up to five times more likely to go on to suffer dementia depending on its severity, according to an audiologist.

Ellen Ma talked to the Dannevirke Men’s Cancer Group on Healthy Ears and Healthy Ageing, explaining the way the ear worked and how it can malfunction, leading to the main impacts on the brain, balance, sleeping and tinnitus.

She explained that as hearing deteriorates the sound signals to the brain become weaker, causing hearing to lessen and the brain to work harder to fill the gaps.

She said this distracts the brain, leading to feelings of helplessness and eventually despair, causing victims to give up. The fewer signals received cause the brain to atrophy and decreasing communication leads to isolation.

This chart shows the links between memory loss and many health issues both mental and physical.

Recent research shows acting on hearing loss is a major way of staving off memory loss leading to dementia.

The process of hearing loss.

Ma explained different signals from the ears can lead to an increasing threat to balance. People with 25dB loss classified as mild have a 3-fold greater history risk of falling.

She said disrupted sleep interrupted the brain recovery process, causing memory loss and often leading to dementia.

A major 2023 study revealed that wearing hearing aids was the most modifiable risk factor which could be taken to modify the onset of dementia, slowing recognition decline in older adults by 48%.

Tinnitus was a topic of particular interest as many present suffered various forms of it.

Ma described tinnitus as the brain coping with silence when it cannot hear and its mechanism of creating low audible sound from within to replace it.

She said there was no cure but there were measures to lessen it.

Ellen Ma, audiologist, and Theresa Adams speak about the impacts of hearing loss.

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