It’s not difficult to observe how your body ages over time. You develop wrinkles. You start to lose your hair or it turns grey. Your knees start to hurt a little bit more. Some sagging of the skin starts to happen in certain places. Perhaps your eyesight and your hearing both start to fade a little. These signs are hard to miss.
But the affect aging has on the mind isn’t always so obvious. You may observe that your memory isn’t as good as it once was and that you need to begin noting important dates on your calendar. Maybe you find yourself spacing out more and missing important events. But unfortunately, you might not even detect this gradual onset. And that hearing decline can be exacerbated by the psychological effects.
As you get older, there are, luckily, some exercises you can do to help your brain stay clear. Even better, these exercises can be absolutely enjoyable!
The link between cognition and hearing
Most people will slowly lose their hearing as they age (for a wide variety of reasons). This can contribute to a higher risk of mental decline. So what is the link between cognitive decline and hearing loss? There are several hidden risk factors according to research.
- There can be atrophy of the part of the brain that processes sound when somebody has untreated hearing loss. Sometimes, it’s put to other uses, but in general, this is not very good for your cognitive health.
- Neglected hearing loss can easily lead to a sense of social separation. As a result of this lack of social connection, you can begin to detect cognitive lapses as you withdraw from the outside world.
- Mental health problems and depression can be the result of neglected hearing loss. And having these mental health issues can boost the corresponding risk of cognitive decline.
So, can hearing loss develop into dementia? Well, not directly. But untreated hearing loss can increase your risk of cognitive decline, up to and including dementia. Managing your hearing loss can considerably lessen those risks. And those risks can be decreased even more by increasing your general brain function or cognition. Look at it as a little bit of preventative medicine.
How to increase cognitive function
So how do you go about giving your brain the workout it needs to strengthen cognitive function? Well, like any other part of your body, the amount and kind of exercise you do go a long way. So here are a few fun ways to exercise your brain and increase your sharpness.
Gardening
Growing your own fruits and vegetables can be incredibly fulfilling all by itself (it’s also a delicious hobby). Your cognition can be enhanced with this unique combination of hard work and deep thinking. This takes place for several reasons:
- Gardening requires modest physical activity. Whether it’s digging around in the ground or moving bags of soil around, the activity you get when gardening is enough to get your blood pumping, and that’s good for your brain.
- Anxiety relief and a little bit of serotonin. This can help keep mental health problems such as depression and anxiety at bay.
- You have to think about what you’re doing when you’re doing it. You have to analyze the situation utilizing planning and problem solving skills.
The reality that you get healthy fruits and vegetables out of your garden is an additional bonus. Of course, you can grow lots of other things besides food (herbs, flowers cacti).
Arts and crafts
You don’t have to be artistically inclined to enjoy arts and crafts. You can make a simple sculpture out of popsicle sticks. Or maybe you can make a nice clay mug on a pottery wheel. When it comes to exercising your brain, the medium matters a lot less than the process. Because your critical thinking abilities, imagination, and sense of aesthetics are developed by doing arts and crafts (sculpting, painting, building).
Arts and crafts can be good for your cognitive ability because:
- You need to make use of lots of fine motor skills. And while that may feel automatic, your brain and nervous system are truly doing a lot of work. That kind of exercise can keep your mental functions healthier over the long run.
- You have to use your imagination and process sensory inputs in real time. This involves a lot of brain power! You can stimulate 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.
Your level of talent doesn’t really matter, whether you’re creating a work of art or working on a paint-by-numbers. The most relevant thing is keeping your brain sharp by stimulating your imagination.
Swimming
There are a number of ways that swimming can help you stay healthy. Plus, a hot day in the pool is always a great time. And while it’s clearly good for your physical health, there are some ways that swimming can also be good for your mental health.
Your brain needs 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 needs to be aware of rhythms. When will you need to come up for a breath of air when you’re under water? Things like that. This is still an excellent mental exercise even if it’s happening in the back of your brain. Also, physical exercise of any kind can really help get blood to the brain pumping, and that can be good at helping to slow down 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 too). Sometimes called mindfulness meditation, these practices are designed to help you concentrate on what you’re thinking. Meditation can help:
- Help you learn better
- Improve your attention span
- Improve your memory
You can become even more conscious of your mental faculties by practicing meditation.
Reading
It’s great for you to read! And even better than that, it’s really enjoyable. There’s that old adage: a book can take anywhere. In a book, you can go anywhere, such as outer space, ancient Egypt, or the bottom of the ocean. Think of all the brain power that is involved in creating these imaginary landscapes, keeping up with a story, or conjuring characters. A huge part of your brain is engaged when you’re reading. Reading isn’t feasible without engaging your imagination and thinking a lot.
Consequently, reading is one of the most ideal ways to focus your thinking. Imagination is needed to picture what’s going on, your memory to keep up with the plot, and when you finish the book, you get a rewarding dose of serotonin.
What you read doesn’t actually matter, fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, so long as you spend some time each day reading and building your brainpower! Audiobooks, for the record, work just as well!
Manage your hearing loss to minimize cognitive risks
Even if you do every single thing correctly, untreated hearing loss can continue to increase your risks of cognitive decline. Which means, even if you garden, swim, and read, you’ll still be struggling uphill, unless you manage your hearing loss.
When are able to have your hearing treated (usually because of a hearing aid or two), all of these fun brain exercises will help increase your cognition. Improving your memory, your thinking, and your social skills.
Are you suffering from hearing loss? Call us today to schedule a hearing exam and reconnect to life!