Approximately 48 million Americans have some degree of hearing loss, but only one in five people who would benefit from a hearing aid actually uses one, per the Hearing Loss Association of America. Emphasizing the importance of wearing a hearing device when needed, a 2020 commission on dementia prevention, intervention and care, published by The Lancet, suggested hearing loss may be associated with around 8% of dementia cases. Now, new research shows that using hearing aids could lessen the risk of dementia.A study, published in The Lancet Public Health, looked at data from 437,704 people who were part of the U.K. Biobank database. The average age of study participants at the beginning of the study was 56 years old, and the average follow-up time was 12 years.The study used self-reported questionnaires to collect data on the presence of hearing loss and hearing aid use. Dementia diagnoses were determined using hospital records and death register data. Around 75% of the participants had no hearing loss, and the remaining 25% had some level of hearing loss. Among those with hearing loss, 11.7% used hearing aids.Researchers found that compared to participants with normal hearing, people with hearing loss that did not use hearing aids had a 42% higher risk of all-cause dementia, while no increased risk was found in people with hearing loss who used hearing aids. This was similar to that of people without hearing loss. These associations were observed in both all-cause dementia and cause-specific dementia subtypes, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, and non-Alzheimer’s disease non-vascular dementia.Video below: Doctor discusses purchasing hearing aids over the counterEvidence is building that hearing loss may be the most impactful modifiable risk factor for dementia in mid-life, but the effectiveness of hearing aid use on reducing the risk of dementia in the real world has remained unclear, says corresponding author Dongshan Zhu, Ph.D., professor at Shandong University, in a statement. “Our study provides the best evidence to date to suggest that hearing aids could be a minimally invasive, cost-effective treatment to mitigate the potential impact of hearing loss on dementia.” How is hearing loss related to dementia?Hearing loss untreated can affect and/or hurry cognitive decline, says Rebecca Lewis, Au.D., audiologist and audiology director of the Adult & Pediatric Cochlear Implant Program at Pacific Neuroscience Institute. “If patients can’t hear, they don’t interact as much, they miss out on valuable information, and at some point, especially older adults, sort of give up amidst conversation.” This leads to social isolation and we know that social isolation also negatively impacts cognition, says Lewis.There is clear-cut knowledge that mood, sociability, and engagement are all linked with slower dementia progression and may be protective against developing dementia, says Amit Sachdev, M.D., director of the Division of Neuromuscular Medicine at Michigan State University. “Poor hearing can hurt all three.” How can wearing hearing aids lower your risk for dementia?Hearing loss affects our overall health in a number of ways, says Lewis. “If you don’t treat hearing loss, you are at greater risk for falls, cognitive decline, higher rates of depression, and social isolation.” Wearing hearing aids improves healthy aging, she adds.If someone is wearing hearing aids that fit appropriately, they have less listening fatigue, which, in turn, means they are using less cognitive effort to communicate with someone while also stimulating the parts of the brain used for hearing, explains Lewis.Recent studies have looked at MRIs of individuals’ brains with significant hearing loss before hearing aid use where there have been changes in brain areas needed for hearing due to lack of stimulation, says Lewis. After a year of hearing aid use, researchers found that using hearing aids can re-stimulate and reactivate this area of the brain, anatomically rewiring your brain to its pre-hearing loss state, she explains. As a result, “People are interacting more with family, friends, and community, and that improves cognition as well.” Why is it important for people experiencing hearing loss to wear hearing aids?For those who have always taken hearing for granted, hearing is very closely linked to sociability and engagement, says Dr. Sachdev, “Wearing hearing aids helps re-establish these.”Cochlear implants (small intricate electronic devices that can help those with profound hearing loss to hear using an external portion that sits behind the ear and an internal portion that is surgically placed under the skin, according to the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders) are also underutilized despite the fact that they outperform hearing aids, says Lewis. “It’s a step further than hearing aids, but we know that implants help prevent cognitive decline as well, especially for patients with moderate to severe hearing loss.”The bottom lineIt’s a sign of healthy aging to wear hearing aids, says Lewis. It’s improving your overall quality of life, it will hopefully prevent the onset of cognitive decline, it’ll keep you engaged with the activities you enjoy, and hopefully, overall it will make you feel like more of a healthy individual, she adds. “If you had vision loss, we wouldn’t think twice about wearing glasses, but yet we are still trying to convince people to wear hearing aids,” she notes.So, what can you do to be proactive? Lewis suggests that when you reach 55 to 60 years old, consider getting a baseline hearing test, just to see where you’re at. Even if your hearing is great, it’s good for you to know for sure so you can monitor it over time. “If you’re someone who is asking people ‘what?’ a lot, or you’re having more difficulty hearing over background noise in restaurants, or if you can’t hear as well on your phone, it’s important to go and have your hearing checked sooner rather than later,” Lewis says.If you already wear hearing aids that fit appropriately and you’re still struggling, talk to your doctor about a cochlear implant center referral just to see what your options are, suggests Lewis.