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There may be a link between hearing loss and dementia - Trinity study

The study’s lead researcher has called for more research to examine whether the treatment of hearing loss can decrease the chances of developing dementia.

SCIENTISTS AT TRINITY College Dublin have discovered that hearing loss could be a precursor to dementia, and not just a casual association.

The study surveyed 36 studies from 12 countries which involved 20,264 respondents. It aimed to investigate whether there was an association between dementia and hearing loss or whether they happened to progress at the same time.

The results showed that people with age-related hearing loss had an increased risk for cognitive decline. The research also noted a link between depression and loneliness, and the rates of dementia.

Symptoms of dementia in those surveyed included reduced executive function, processing speed and episodic memory, as well as a higher risk for cognitive impairment.

Researchers are still unsure whether this finding is a causal relationship or what the reasons for the possible connection could be, and stressed that further research is needed to determine this.

The lead author of the study, PhD student and Global Brain Health Institute Fellow at Trinity, David Loughrey, said that intervention trials were needed to see whether the treatment of hearing loss decreased a person’s chances of developing dementia.

“It’s too early for GP’s to tell their patients that if their hearing loss is addressed this will lower their risk of getting dementia. A hearing problem can certainly contribute to difficulty with uptake of information and for this reason should be addressed.”

The research, conducted at Trinity’s Institute of Neuroscience and Global Brain Health Institute, was published in JAMA Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery in December 2017.

Read: Almost half of older people depressed in months before death, according to study

Read: How do you tell people that you have epilepsy? Irish app aims to help

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    Mute helen walsh
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    Dec 15th 2017, 12:59 AM

    My hearing is deteriorating, aging is not funny and yes we are frequently depressed usually by the behaviour of others, as Sartre said, ‘hell is other people’. I don’t look my age but the moment I mention it I am consigned to the heap by people who are not in my league, even the cleaner speaks v…e..r..y slowly, ‘do you understand me? As she refers to the interior of a cupboard I actually designed…it is all humiliating. The French call old age a naufrage..a shipwreck, indeed others are there to sink us quite often.
    We have to look after ourselves, stretch ourselves, even when hard of hearing. We need help with technology and we don’t need most of its more complicated applications, we can’t be arsed with all that. Of course we get lonely..it’s assumed that we are poor company, besides many of our peers have long departed. We need to form our own political party, we need to be the authors of our own lives or what is left of them. Many of us are still paying taxes through the nose, many more are bank rolling their adult children, caring for grand children otherwise we are deemed useless. When th3 time comes we are carted off to the latter day poor house for which we pay dearly. We must do all we can to delay that spectre.

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    Mute William Grogan
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    Dec 14th 2017, 10:12 PM

    It’s kinda obvious when you think of it.

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    Mute FlopFlipU
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    Dec 14th 2017, 10:24 PM

    @William Grogan: what WHAT

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    Mute Nick Allen
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    Dec 14th 2017, 11:21 PM

    @William Grogan:

    You obviously have no experience of this

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    Mute Gillian Weir Scully
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    Dec 14th 2017, 11:42 PM

    @William Grogan: Not really. My mother’s hearing is dreadful but she does not have dementia. My hearing is great but I have awful memory.

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    Mute helen walsh
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    Dec 15th 2017, 1:56 AM

    @William Grogan: what is obvious? The hearing loss being symptomatic of dementia?
    So in future a highly intelligent and functioning oldie with hearing probs will be written off as gaga?

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    Mute Bridget O'Hanlon
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    Dec 15th 2017, 3:12 AM

    @William Grogan: how so?

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    Mute Brian O Reilly
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    Dec 14th 2017, 11:23 PM

    Ye just lose it as you age ,it happens!, I just hope I don’t end up propped up in armchair,in one of these Gerontic warehouses,neglected dribbling and wearing a soiled nappy at the mercy of some underpaid,overworked care worker and having to pay for it ,
    While the Doctor and wife team who usually run these businesses,rake in the cash unanswerable to no one,

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    Mute Malachi
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    Dec 15th 2017, 12:38 AM

    @Brian O Reilly: “unanswerable to no one”

    Sounds like an awful gig.

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    Mute Chiqeyo
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    Dec 14th 2017, 11:20 PM

    My ma had alzheimers but her hearing was the opposite – small noises sounded much louder and loud noise was unbearable — my Da was half deaf and sharp as anything — saying that dementia is brain damage so anything can be affected really especially if it’s progressive

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    Mute Eugene
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    Dec 15th 2017, 1:42 AM

    @Chiqeyo: Don’t want to assume but it sounds like she might’ve had hyperacusis. I have it myself, wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

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    Mute Chiqeyo
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    Dec 15th 2017, 10:44 AM

    @Eugene: I’ve just read up on that Eugene and I think you are right. Her doctor never took it serious but it was a real issue for her. On wiki it says it can be a side effect of ciproflaxin — I’m more annoyed now as she took that a lot for kidney problems

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    Mute Fiona deFreyne
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    Dec 14th 2017, 11:18 PM

    Decline in some functions and faculties can pressage declines in other functions and faculties.

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    Mute Síghle A Ni Ainle
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    Dec 14th 2017, 10:50 PM

    How do they know how many people were depressed before they died? Did they survey all the GPs of people who died?

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Dec 15th 2017, 1:31 AM

    @Síghle A Ni Ainle: You mean it’s possible to die happy here?

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Dec 15th 2017, 4:37 PM

    I wonder what they mean by “addressing hearing problems”? Is there any current treatment for hearing loss? I can see how isolating it would be, but so many older people won’t even admit to their hearing loss. They insist that they don’t have a problem. I admire those who do go about it. Then there’s the fact that most hearing aids aren’t ideal, or comfortable to wear.

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