Dr. Navid Taghvaei has been a resident of Arizona since 1988. He conducts very complex individual and group technical training courses and activities involving new and existing developments in the areas of audiology, products, software, and technology. Dr. Taghvaei has extensive clinical experience in pediatric and adult hearing instrument and cochlear implant fitting, programming, and rehabilitation.

About World Alzheimer’s Month

An annual campaign that began in 2012, millions of advocates and stakeholders come together each September to bring awareness to the debilitating disease that is Alzheimer’s. The coalition enforces the truth that dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease pose a serious health concern to families and communities around the world.

Anybody can participate. Sharing a post or an article on the topic via your social media or forwarding a link to a friend can do much to spread education and recognition about this critical issue.

More about dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

Most of us have heard of Alzheimer’s Disease, but it isn’t an inevitability of aging, despite the Old Timer’s Disease moniker it sometimes receives. Discovered by physician Alois Alzheimer at the turn of the twentieth century, it remains an irreversible disease, despite over one hundred years of study.

Alzheimer’s is one example of dementia. An umbrella term to refer to various cognitive disorders that disrupt thinking behaviors in the brain, dementia affects 50 million people worldwide. To be sure, Alzheimer’s amounts for approximately 60 to 80 percent of all dementia cases.

Alzheimer’s Disease comes with memory problems and other cognitive processes like reasoning and thinking. Symptoms include increased confusion, trouble learning new skills, disorientation and getting lost, difficulties reading or finding words.

Some treatments exist to delay progression of the disease, but no cure exists.

So much of our hearing happens in the brain

How can a cognitive disorder have anything to do with hearing? It might surprise you to find out that much of how we hear actually happens in the brain. The inner ear cells, stereocilia, are meant to receive sound from the world and turn it into electrical signals — sound information — that is sent along the auditory nerve to our brain.

Those electrical signals are interpreted and translated by our brain’s processing centers into language, meaning and environmental cues.

The link between hearing loss and dementia

Some scientists posit that the link between hearing loss and dementia is caused by the overload our brains take on when hearing loss is present. They work extra hard to fill in the missing pieces of sound information to construct meaning. It’s like doing a puzzle with missing pieces and having no idea what the result should look like. As the brain is put under tremendous stress to solve the puzzle, it becomes vulnerable to disorders like dementia.

Other experts believe that both issues are caused by a common pathology, or the essential nature of the disease. Still others think that the social isolation that often results from hearing loss — the inevitable withdrawal as a result of frustrating interactions — is what leads to the onset of dementia.

Regardless of its cause, the link between the two is undeniable. From a study out of Johns Hopkins, researchers found that your risk of dementia is doubled with even mild hearing loss, while moderate hearing loss led to triple the risk. People who presented with severe hearing loss were five times more likely to be given a dementia diagnosis.

Treating hearing loss can prevent dementia

While hearing loss is irreversible, it is highly treatable. And experts agree that confronting and intervening in hearing loss can delay or even prevent developing dementia down the road.

By investing in hearing aids or a cochlear implant, people with hearing loss have been found to abate the most serious side effects of hearing loss.They are more likely to continue to live a stimulating life, engaging in activities that prevent cognitive decline like socializing and movement activities. This could be enough to stem the onset of cognitive decline and act as a barrier against Alzheimer’s.

Schedule a hearing consultation

The best time to schedule a hearing exam is right now! The sooner you begin to track and prioritize your hearing health, the more prepared you are to confront hearing loss if it makes an appearance. Our team can lead you through a simple hearing exam and then work with you to find the best hearing health path forward.

Why You Should Schedule a Hearing Test for World Alzheimer’s Month