It’s a scientific fact that the brain becomes smaller with age. And a correlation has been made between the speed of “shrinkage” and older adults with hearing loss. “The findings add to a growing list of health consequences associated with hearing loss, including increased risk of dementia, falls, hospitalizations, and diminished physical and mental health overall.”

A long-term aging study, including Johns Hopkins professor, Dr. Frank Lin, tracked 126 subjects with yearly MRIs starting in 1994. The subjects also had complete physicals, including hearing tests. At the start, 75 had normal hearing and 51 had hearing of 25-decibel minimum loss.

Over ten years, those with impaired hearing had significantly more shrinkage in “the superior, middle and inferior temporal gyri brain structures responsible for processing sound and speech.” Notably, these structures don’t work in isolation. The structures effect memory and sensory integration. In fact they seem to be involved in the early stages of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.

The study suggests that it is better to treat hearing loss rather than ignoring it. “If you want to address hearing loss well,” Lin says, “you want to do it sooner rather than later. If hearing loss is potentially contributing to these differences we’re seeing on MRI, you want to treat it before these brain structural changes take place.”

In other words treating hearing loss could potentially slow shrinkage in notable brain structures responsible for such important traits as speech, memory and even balance.

Content provided by Science Daily.