It’s not difficult to observe how your body ages over time. Your skin starts to get some wrinkles. Your hair turns gray (or falls out). Your joints start to get stiff. Your skin gets a little saggy in places. Perhaps you start to detect some fading of your eyesight and hearing. It’s pretty hard not to see these changes.
But it’s more difficult to see how growing older impacts your mind. You might find that you are needing to note important events on the calendar because you’re having issues with your memory. Maybe you find yourself spacing out more and missing significant events. The difficulty is that this sort of cognitive decline happens so slowly and gradually that you may never realize it. And that hearing decline can be worsened by the psychological effects.
As you age, there are, luckily, some exercises you can do to help your brain remain clear. Even better, these exercises can be utterly enjoyable!
What is the link between hearing and mental cognition
There are a number of reasons why individuals will gradually lose their hearing as they age. This can lead to a higher risk of cognitive decline. So, why does loss of hearing increase the risk of mental decline? There are a number of silent risk factors as revealed by research.
- When you have untreated hearing loss, the portion of your brain that processes sound starts to atrophy. The brain might reallocate some resources, but in general, this is not very good for mental health.
- A feeling of social isolation is frequently the result of untreated hearing loss. Due to this lack of social interaction, you can begin to detect 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 problems can increase the corresponding danger of mental decline.
So, can hearing loss turn into dementia? Well, indirectly. But mental decline, including dementia, will be more likely for someone who has untreated hearing loss. Managing your hearing loss can significantly reduce those risks. And those risks can be decreased even more by increasing your general brain function or cognition. Think of it as a little bit of preventative medicine.
How to increase cognitive function
So, how can you be sure to increase your cognitive function and give your brain the workout it needs? Well, as with any other part of your body, the amount and kind of exercise you do go a long way. So boost your brain’s sharpness by engaging in some of these fun activities.
Gardening
Cultivating your own vegetables and fruit is a tasty and gratifying hobby. Your cognition can be improved with this unique mix of hard work and deep thinking. This takes place for several reasons:
- Gardening releases serotonin which can alleviate the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
- You get a bit of moderate physical exercise. Whether it’s digging around in the ground or moving containers of soil around, the activity you get when gardening is enough to get your blood pumping, and that’s good for your brain.
- As you’re working, you will need to think about what you’re doing. You have to analyze the situation making use of planning and problem solving skills.
As an added bonus, you get healthy vegetables and fruits from your hobby. Of course, you can grow lots of other things besides food (herbs, flowers cacti).
Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts can be enjoyed by anybody no matter the artistic ability. 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. That’s because arts and crafts (drawing, sculpting, building) tap into your imagination, your critical thinking skills, and your sense of aesthetics.
Arts and crafts can be good for your cognitive ability because:
- You have to use many fine motor skills. Even if it feels like it’s happening automatically, a lot of work is being done by your nervous system and brain. Over the long haul, your mental function will be healthier.
- You need to manage sensory input in real time and you will need to employ your imagination to do that. This requires a lot of brain power! You can activate your imagination by engaging in these unique brain exercises.
- You have to stay focused on what you’re doing as you do it. This kind of real time thinking can help keep your mental processes limber and flexible.
Whether you get a paint-by-numbers kit or create your own original fine art piece, your talent level doesn’t really matter. The most important thing is keeping your mind sharp by engaging your imagination.
Swimming
Going for a swim can help you stay healthy in a lot of ways! Plus, a hot day in the pool is always a great time. 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. Obviously, slamming into someone else in the pool wouldn’t be a good thing.
Your mind also has to be aware of rhythms. How long can you stay underwater before it’s time to breathe? That kind of thing. Even if this kind of thinking is happening in the background of your brain, it’s still very good mental exercise. Plus, physical activity of any sort can really help get blood to the brain pumping, and that can be good at helping to slow mental decline.
Meditation
Spending a little peaceful solo time with your mind. As your thoughts become calm, your sympathetic nervous system also gets calm. Sometimes called mindfulness meditation, these methods are made to help you focus on what you’re thinking. In this way, meditation can:
- Improve your memory
- Improve your attention span
- Help you learn better
Essentially, meditation can help give you even more awareness of your mental and cognitive faculties.
Reading
Reading is good for you! And it’s also quite enjoyable. A book can take you anywhere according to that old saying. The bottom of the ocean, the distant past, outer space, you can travel everywhere in a book. When you’re following along with a story, manifesting landscapes in your imagination, and mentally conjuring up characters, you’re using a lot of brain power. This is how reading engages a huge part of your brain. You’re forced to think quite a bit and use your imagination when you read.
Hence, one of the very best ways to improve the mind is by reading. Imagination is needed to visualize what’s going on, your memory to follow along with the plot, and when you complete the book, you get a satisfying dose of serotonin.
Take some time every day to strengthen your brain power by doing some reading, whether it’s fiction, science fiction, non-fiction, or whatever you prefer. And, for the record, audiobooks are essentially as good as reading with your eyes.
Manage your hearing loss to minimize cognitive risks
Disregarded hearing loss can raise your danger of mental decline, even if you do everything right. But if you don’t get your hearing loss treated, even if you do all of these things, it will still be a difficult fight.
Your social skills, your thinking, and your memory and cognition will get better once you have your hearing loss treated (normally with hearing aids).
Are you suffering from hearing loss? Reconnect your life by contacting us today for a hearing assessment.