Taking care of your hearing and vision slows cognitive decline by 50-75%

Author: Ned Dymoke / Source: Big Think

Decline in hearing and vision can add to overall mental decline.
Hearing aids can slow cognitive decline by 75%.
Similarly, cataract surgery can help cognitive decline by 50%.

Cognitive decline is something that happens to all of us as we age, to varying degrees.

But new research is showing that taking care of your eyes and ears as you age could help keep your brain sharp for longer than previously thought.

The joint study from the University of Michigan in the U.S. and the University of Manchester in the U.K. found that by simply by wearing hearing aids, the rate of cognitive decline was reduced by 75%. The study was conducted on approximately 2,000 older Americans (as part of a wider study, the University of Michigan’s Health & Retirement Study) whose hearing was measured every two years for 18 years. The participants’ cognition was measured using a range of tests, for example a word recall task of 10 words. One measure was taken directly after the words were read aloud, and another measure was taken after the participants were made to perform other small tasks (in order to distract them from the word-memorization). In people with hearing aids, the rate of decline was 75% slower than those without hearing aids.