As your body gets older, it isn’t difficult to detect the changes. You develop wrinkles. You begin to lose your hair or it turns grey. Your knees start to hurt a little bit more. Some sagging of the skin begins to occur in certain places. Perhaps you start to detect some fading of your hearing and eyesight. These signs are hard to miss.
But it’s more difficult to see how growing older impacts your mind. You might find that you are having to put significant events on the calendar because you’re having trouble with your memory. Maybe you find yourself spacing out more and missing significant events. But unfortunately, you might not even notice this slow onset. For those with hearing loss, the psychological consequence can frequently worsen this decline.
Luckily, there are a few ways that you can exercise your brain to keep it clear and healthy as you age. And the good news is, these exercises can be downright enjoyable!
What’s the connection between hearing and mental cognition
Most people will gradually lose their hearing as they age (for a number of reasons). This can result in a higher risk of cognitive decline. So, why does hearing loss increase the chances of mental decline? 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 untreated hearing loss. Occasionally, it’s put to other uses, but in general, this isn’t great for your cognitive health.
- A feeling of social isolation is often the outcome of neglected hearing loss. Due to this lack of social interaction, you can begin to notice cognitive lapses as you disengage from the outside world.
- Neglected hearing loss can also result in depression and other mental health problems. And having these mental health concerns can increase the corresponding danger of mental decline.
So is dementia the result of hearing loss? Well, indirectly. But untreated hearing loss can increase your risk of cognitive decline, up to and including dementia. Treating your hearing loss can substantially lessen those risks. And, enhancing your overall brain health (known medically as “cognition”) can minimize those risks even more. A little preventative management can go a long way.
Strengthening cognitive function
So how do you accomplish giving your brain the workout it requires to improve cognitive function? Well, as with any other part of your body, the amount and kind of exercise you do go a long way. So increase your brain’s sharpness by engaging in some of these fun activities.
Gardening
Growing your own vegetables and fruits can be very enjoyable all by itself (it’s also a tasty hobby). Your cognition can be improved with this unique combination of hard work and deep thinking. This takes place for a number of reasons:
- As you’re working, you will need to think about what you’re doing. You have to analyze the situation using planning and problem solving skills.
- Gardening releases serotonin which can ease the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
- You get a bit of moderate physical exercise. Whether it’s digging around in the dirt 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.
As an added bonus, you get healthy vegetables and fruits from your hobby. Of course, not all gardens need to be food-focused. You can grow flowers, wild grasses, cacti, or anything your green thumb wishes!
Arts and crafts
You don’t need to be artistically inclined to enjoy arts and crafts. You can make a simple sculpture out of popsicle sticks. Or maybe you can make a nice clay mug on a pottery wheel. With regard to exercising your brain, the medium matters a lot less than the process. Because your critical thinking skills, imagination, and sense of aesthetics are developed by doing arts and crafts (sculpting, painting, building).
Here are a number of reasons why doing arts and crafts will improve cognition:
- You have to make use of many fine motor skills. And while that may feel automatic, your brain and nervous system are truly doing lots of work. That type of exercise can keep your mental functions healthier over the long haul.
- You have to make use of your imagination and process sensory inputs in real time. A lot of brain power is needed to accomplish that. There are a few activities that activate your imagination in just this way, so it provides a unique type of brain exercise.
- You will have to keep your attention engaged in the activity you’re doing. You can help your cognitive process stay clear and flexible by participating in this kind of real time thinking.
Your talent level doesn’t really make a difference, whether you’re creating a work of art or doing a paint-by-numbers. The most important thing is keeping your mind sharp by stimulating your imagination.
Swimming
There are a number of ways that swimming can keep you healthy. Plus, it’s always fun to hop into the pool (particularly when it’s so sweltering hot outside). And while it’s clearly good for your physical health, there are a few ways that swimming can also be good for your mental health.
Your brain has to be engaged in things like spatial awareness when you’re in the pool swimming. After all, you don’t want to smash into anybody else in the pool!
You also have to pay attention to your rhythms. How long can you stay underwater before you need to breathe? That sort of thing. Even if this type of thinking is going on in the background of your brain, it’s still great cognitive exercise. And cognitive decline will advance more slowly when you take part in physical exercise because it helps get more blood to the brain.
Meditation
Spending some silent solo time with your mind. Meditation can help calm down your thoughts (and calm your sympathetic nervous system too). Sometimes known as mindfulness meditation, these methods are made 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 mindful of your mental faculties by getting involved in meditation.
Reading
It’s good for you to read! And even better than that, it’s fun. There’s that old saying: a book can take anywhere. In a book, you can travel everywhere, including outer space, the ancient world, or the depths of the ocean. When you’re following along with a story, manifesting landscapes in your imagination, and mentally creating characters, you’re using lots of brain power. This is how reading engages a massive part of your brain. You’re forced to think a great deal and utilize your imagination when you read.
Hence, one of the very best ways to sharpen the mind is reading. You have to utilize your memory to monitor the story, your imagination to visualize what’s happening, and you get a pleasant dose of serotonin when you finish your book!
Take some time each day to strengthen your brain power by doing some reading, regardless of whether it’s fiction, science fiction, non-fiction, or whatever you prefer. Audiobooks, for the record, work just as well!
Better your cognition by having your hearing loss addressed
Even if you do every single thing right, untreated hearing loss can continue to increase your risks of mental decline. Which means, even if you swim and read and garden, 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 get better once you have your hearing loss treated (usually with hearing aids).
Is hearing loss an issue for you? Call us today to schedule a hearing test and reconnect to life!