My sparkling new auditory world

Last February I posted an essay on this blog titled “Hearing loss, aphasia and dementia” about my increasing problem with understanding speech. I suspected that my trouble with speech was due to a combination of Alzheimer’s disease and hearing loss, and audiometry confirmed that I have bilateral, severe hearing impairment in the high frequencies and moderate hearing impairment on the left in midrange frequencies.  Hearing aids were recommended, but I procrastinated, blaming what I thought would be too much nuisance. Finally, on June 6, I received my hearing aids. My Medicare Advantage plan paid a portion of the cost, but they still were relatively expensive. It took me a couple of weeks to get comfortable with them. At first, I had a lot of trouble putting them in.  I finally gave up on using a mirror and found that it was much easier to place them correctly closing my eyes and “seeing” with my fingers. Now it takes me just a few seconds to insert them correctly.

One of the first things I noticed while using the hearing aids is that my world has a new sparkle.  The high frequencies are back.  While walking my dog Jack in the morning, I am almost overwhelmed by the chirping of small birds had I had previously not heard.  I had been able to hear the birds that called out at lower frequencies, like crows and doves, but now I could suddenly hear a choir of song birds that had previously been silent to me. But my most important improvement has been in understanding speech, especially the high frequencies of female speech. My wife rarely has to repeat herself when she speaks to me. Now I usually understand what she is saying the first time. My memory and other cognitive abilities have not noticeably improved, but my enhanced understanding of speech is a really important gift.

In my post last February, I discussed the growing evidence that treating hearing loss early may decrease the risk of dementia later in life.  One recent open access paper in The Lancet states that this effect may be even greater than previously recognized.  “Compared with people with normal hearing, those with hearing loss had a 42% higher risk of dementia, and the use of hearing aids was associated with a [lower] risk of dementia similar to that of people without hearing loss.” 

For people who already have both hearing loss and dementia, hearing aids will almost certainly improve the ability to understand speech.  Perhaps more importantly, for those with hearing loss and but normal cognition, treating the hearing loss appears to be likely to reduce the risk of getting dementia later in life.  Don’t procrastinate!