As your body ages, it’s not hard to notice the changes. Your skin starts to get some wrinkles. You start to lose your hair or it turns grey. Your joints begin to stiffen. Your skin becomes a bit droopy in places. Maybe your eyesight and your hearing both begin to diminish a bit. It’s pretty hard not to notice these changes.
But the affect getting older has on the mind is not always so evident. You may observe that your memory isn’t as good as it used to be and that you have to begin writing important dates on your calendar. Maybe you miss important events or forget what you were doing more often. The difficulty is that this type of cognitive decline happens so slowly and gradually that you might never notice it. And that hearing decline can be worsened by the psychological impact.
Fortunately, there are a few ways that you can work out your brain to keep it sharp and healthy as you get older. And you might even have some fun!
The relationship between cognition and hearing
The majority of people will slowly lose their hearing as they get older (for a wide variety of reasons). The risk of mental decline will then increase. So, why does loss of hearing increase the chances of cognitive decline? There are several hidden risk factors as revealed by research.
- There can be atrophy of the part of the brain that processes sound when somebody has neglected hearing loss. Occasionally, it’s put to other uses, but generally speaking, this isn’t very good for your mental health.
- A feeling of social separation is often the result of neglected hearing loss. This isolation means you’re conversing less, socializing less, and spending more time on your own, and your cognition can suffer as a result.
- Untreated hearing loss can also result in depression and other mental health concerns. And the corresponding chance of cognitive decline can be increased by these mental issues.
So is dementia the result of hearing loss? Well, indirectly. But mental decline, including dementia, will be more probable for an individual who has untreated hearing loss. Those risks, however, can be seriously decreased by getting hearing loss treated. And, boosting your overall brain health (known medically as “cognition”) can lessen those risks even more. Think of it as a little bit of preventative medicine.
How to enhance cognitive function
So, how can you be certain to develop your mental function and give your brain the workout it needs? Well, the great news is that your brain is like any other body part: you can always accomplish improvement, it simply calls for a little exercise. So boost your brain’s sharpness by doing some of these fun activities.
Gardening
Growing your own vegetables and fruit is a delicious and satisfying hobby. A unique mix of deep thought and hard work, gardening can also improve your cognitive function. This occurs for several reasons:
- As you’re working, you will have to think about what you’re doing. You have to use planning skills, problem solving skills, and examine the situation. This gives your brain a lot of great practice.
- Anxiety relief and a little bit of serotonin. This can help keep mental health problems like depression and anxiety in check.
- Gardening involves moderate physical exercise. Increased blood flow is good for your brain and blood flow will be improved by moving buckets around and digging in the soil.
As an added bonus, you get healthy fruits and vegetables from your hobby. Of course, not all gardens need to be focused on food. 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 take pleasure in arts and crafts. You can make a simple sculpture out of popsicle sticks. Or you can take up pottery and make a cool clay pot! It’s the process that counts when it comes to exercising the brain, not so much the particular medium. Because your critical thinking skills, imagination, and sense of aesthetics are developed by partaking in arts and crafts (sculpting, painting, building).
Here are a few reasons why doing arts and crafts will strengthen cognition:
- It requires making use of fine motor skills. And while that might feel automatic, your brain and nervous system are truly doing a lot of work. Over the long haul, your mental function will be healthier.
- You need to process sensory input in real time and you will need to employ your imagination to do that. This involves a great deal of brain power! There are a number of 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 exercise you’re doing. This kind of real time thinking can help keep your cognitive processes limber and versatile.
Whether you pick up a paint-by-numbers kit or create your own original fine art piece, your level of talent doesn’t really matter. What counts is that you’re using your imagination and keeping your mind sharp.
Swimming
There are a number of ways that swimming can help you stay healthy. Plus, it’s always fun to jump into the pool (particularly when it’s so sweltering hot outside). But swimming isn’t only good for your physical health, it also has mental health advantages.
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 anyone else in the pool!
You also have to think about your rhythms. When will you need to come up for a breath of air when you’re under water? Things like that. Even if this type of thinking is happening in the background of your brain, it’s still great cognitive exercise. Also, physical exercise of any sort can really help get blood to the brain going, and that can be good at helping to slow cognitive decline.
Meditation
Just a little time for you and your mind. Meditation can help calm down your thoughts (and calm your sympathetic nervous system at the same time). Sometimes called mindfulness meditation, these practices are made to help you focus on what you’re thinking. Meditation can help:
- Improve your attention span
- Help you learn better
- Improve your memory
Put simply, meditation can help present you with even more awareness of your mental and cognitive faculties.
Reading
It’s good for you to read! And it’s also quite enjoyable. A book can take you anywhere according to that old saying. The floor of the ocean, the distant past, outer space, you can travel anywhere in a book. When you’re following along with a story, manifesting landscapes in your imagination, and mentally creating characters, you’re using a lot of brain power. This is how reading activates a huge part of your brain. You’re forced to think quite a bit and use your imagination when you read.
As a result, reading is one of the best ways to focus your thinking. Imagination is required to visualize what’s going on, your memory to keep up with the plot, and when you finish the book, you get a satisfying dose of serotonin.
Take some time each day to develop 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!
Manage your hearing loss to minimize cognitive risks
Neglected hearing loss can raise your risk of cognitive decline, even if you do everything right. But if you don’t have your hearing loss treated, even if you do all of these things, it will still be an uphill battle.
When are able to have your hearing managed (usually because of a hearing aid or two), all of these enjoyable brain exercises will help increase your cognition. Improving your memory, your thoughts, and your social skills.
Are you suffering from hearing loss? Call us today to make an appointment for a hearing exam and reconnect to life!