JAMA article on hearing aids, dementia using the FHS database
 

Just a moment...

Interesting article, well known that hearing loss accelerates dementia. .

However, for us data geeks, our read of the article is that the study linked the Framingham Heart Study data with the hearing/dementia data for a very large dataset, and pretty good statistical results. . p-values at 0.02,

The FHS dataset has alot of very good long term data, not just heart data, and yes, there will be a bunch of data mining, but that is what lots of good data is there for, to look for linkages which are currently unknown or undiscovered.

good luck to us!

The risk reduction is one of the reasons I kept pushing for my parents to get and WEAR hearing aids. They got them - covered by Medicare. And then, they just stopped wearing them. Mom's was configured badly and she got tired of making appointments to get them adjusted. Dad just didn't like having something sticking in his ear.

Mom had a stroke and they say the subsequent dementia was caused mostly by the stroke, but hearing aids could've reduced the severity. Dad's dementia is strange, he's in "Sunsetting" mode, hallucinating sometimes, aphasia often, sleeps most of the time, but he recognizes me and my sister and his health care aides. He still refuses to wear the hearing aids and keeps the TV on full volume instead.

My mom lived alone after my dad passed away, and she was 50% deaf, confirmed by audiologist. She would wear her hearing aids, but her ears were very waxy and would completely block her hearing, regardless. My dad would often have to yell at her, and she didn't like that, but what is one supposed to do when a person can't hear and doesn't realize that situation? The first time i took her to get her ears vacuumed out, the noises were sickening, whatever was growing in there was huge

she lived with slow progressing dementia, due to great physical health. . . and the drugs and hearing aids helped slow it down, but couldn't stop it. . lived in private pay assisted living for her least 4 years, to the month, 10 years beyond my dad who also had hearing issues, but more physical issues overtook him.

good luck to us!

And in spite of all this, hearing aids are not covered by most insurance. They would help with dementia and also depression.

It makes me curious about people who are born completely deaf, who don't know what sound is, and therefore wouldn't be able to "miss it." Are they more prone to dementia? Are they more likely to suffer from depression? Or (I suspect) is this lack of one of their senses so normal and natural to them, that it has no effect on them at all?

...and off I go into the depths of the internet to find out.

Probably a good thing. So many older people won't wear their hearing aids and can't be talked into doing so. Hearing aids are otc now which make them more affordable but who knows what the quality wearers are receiving.

My hearing loss is profound enough that without hearing aids and sometimes even with them I have trouble following a conversation. OTC aids would not help at all. At some point you need high quality hearing aids adjusted by a good audiologist for the range of sound missing. Just making things louder still just sounds like wah wah wah wah. I find people who do not have hearing loss don’t really understand.

Please let us know

I can understand more sophisticated treatment for hearing loss but I find there are people who don't like hearing aids. A very good friend had profound hearing loss since childhood. When this friend received excellent hearing aids for free, (insurance covered them), they very seldom used them at that point where they could hear properly. For the first time they could hear footsteps of someone walking behind them and actual conversation. The friend couldn't stand it and turned them way down. It was difficult to converse without shouting the whole conversation which is a turnoff to the hearing friends who don't want the conversation shared with everyone else. I also have a family member who takes his hearing aids out when going out if there is a crowd or loud music, he doesn't want to deal with the noise either.

I think this ties in with OBBs question about people born with hearing loss. As for the rest of us you bring up another good point. Whenever we go out or visit friends they always feel there needs to be TV on or background music. Well nothing is worse for hearing impaired. I have to ask people to turn off the background noise or I pretty much can’t hear what anyone is saying. Good friends don’t mind. I think that’s why people just stop going out and end up depressed because they are feeling left out. As for the restaurants we try to stay away any that have music.

I have around 8 programmed settings for my hearing aids, and each setting has its own left and right volume control. I also have an equalizer so I can create a custom setting for a new situation if I need to, and my "automatic" adjustment setting lets me select volume, PLUS my choice of normal, comfort, or clarity.

When I'm at a restaurant by myself I can reduce background noise and muffle it somewhat, so it sounds more like thrumming than specific sounds. If I'm with someone, I can turn them into omni-directionals, so that anyone sitting directly in front of me is heard clearly, while everything else is dulled and reduced. There are a bunch of little tricks I've learned to do with my hearing aids, including - "listening differently." That's a pretty awesome trick. My golf cart is super noisy but when I have my devices in my ears, I can "tune my listening" to somewhat dull the sound of the engine. It means the sound of the turn signal and reverse beep are very sharp and intrusive, and - get this - I can also hear the turn signal of the cart behind me if they're close enough.

You won't get this kind of functionality with over-the-counter devices.

Gofl & Hearing

Cutting back to the dementia portion of this discussion, we watched an excellent interview by Diane Sawyer with Bruce Willis's wife, Emma, regarding their journey through his FTD diagnosis. I recommend it if you are able to pick it up after this initial broadcast.

It just goes to show how important physical fitness is to aging gracefully.
Being pro-active and vigilent with regular check-ups is also very important.
As much as I don't want to, I get my ears cleaned by the specialist every 6 months or 100,000 miles because I wear hearing aids. It is best practice to be on top of wax impaction because it can also cause infection.

I save myself an $80 specialist co-payment by doing that myself. I fill an eye dropper with hydrogen peroxide, and drip it into one ear (with my head tilted to the opposite shoulder). I wait for the really freaky bubbling sensation and sound to calm down, and then I turn my head and let it drip onto a paper towel. Repeat on the other ear.

You can do this UP TO once a month safely, I do it every few months. It was suggested by my audiologist.