My Head Aches and I'm Stressed out!

Two Ways to Potentially Rid Headaches & Stress

Of course having your vision checked to reduce headaches is something most people already know. But what about your ears? Can hearing loss and/or ringing in your ears cause fatigue and headaches? The short answer is yes, according professional medical experts.

One patient of a local hearing health clinic owned and operated a recording studio for over thirty years; mixing loud music on a day-to-day basis took it’s toll and caused a mild hearing loss and significant tinnitus.

Loud sounds can cause hearing loss and tinnitus: So can certain medications, accidents (especially head trauma) and of course aging can cause hearing problems. If you’re curious as to which medications that can cause hearing loss, you can Google “medications that can cause hearing loss”.

So if you get a little blurry vision, you make an appointment for an optometrist; If your not hearing well, you should also have your ears checked since your hearing health is just as important to wellness as your eyes. And according to a John Hopkins study, hearing loss can actually cause more significant health issues than vision loss.

Most doctors do not address three important aspects of you daily health: Eyes, teeth and hearing. That’s because most medical offices do not have adequate eye, dental and hearing test equipment nor the licensed staff to conduct those tests. This is why you should regularly see an optometrist, a dentist and a hearing health professional. Each of these offices specialize in improving your overall health in those respective areas.

Most persons don’t know that hearing loss (even a mild ones) can cause significant “straining” to hear people talk. They are also likely to exert some effort just to hear the T.V. and speech in noisy environments like restaurants, churches and social gatherings. Any strain on the body can cause unnecessary fatigue and in some persons that fatigue and strain can cause headaches and stress: most medical experts agree how these factors usually cause more illnesses.

There’s a deeper issue with Hearing Loss that affects your brain too. Since your brain does the actual hearing and understanding, when you have hearing loss, you’re starving your memory because your hearing and your memory are directly tied together.

To prove this point, most people with hearing loss are struggling to fully understand their favorite movies and T.V. shows. They get half way into the show and don’t understand why a certain character is acting up or why a certain event just took place - it’s because in the beginning of every show there are clues and things that set up the plot and if you’re not hearing well, you are not going to understand that plot. Thus, the hearing loss person is asking their loved ones to explain things in the movie they are watching.

Any constant strain on the body or especially missed information is not good for one’s health.

Treating hearing loss will also alleviate frustration in communicating with others; Especially loved ones. One way to detect hearing loss is when people are constantly having to repeat themselves or when a person has to turn the T.V. up to loud levels. Another common miscommunication is a loved one may state “I’m going shopping at the store” and the hearing loss person will reply: “Why are you mopping the floor?”
Hearing loss causing social and physical problems have been a major subject of study by doctors and researchers for decades. As mentioned in a previous article, some forms of Dementia have been clinically proven to be linked to hearing loss, according to a John Hopkins University study; readers can Google the search words “Hearing loss and dementia” to learn more about the extensive study; the study claims that untreated hearing loss can bring a five times greater chance of developing dementia compared to those with no hearing loss.

According to the National Council on Aging (NCOA)

“One out of every four older Americans has undetected or untreated hearing loss. Older adults with hearing loss don’t realize how much the quality of their lives has been affected,” said Jim Firman, president and CEO of NCOA. “As someone with significant hearing loss, I can personally attest to how the right hearing aids have dramatically improved my ability to work and play, my relationships with family and friends, and my self-esteem.  We encourage all adults and their families to take a hearing test and find out what they’ve been missing.”

A 1999 NCOA survey on hearing loss and older adults found that when people began to treat their hearing loss, many saw improvements in their lives, including their family relationships (66%), mental health (36%), sense of independence (34%), social life (34%), and even sex life (8%).

Read more at: http://www.ncoa.org/improve-health/community-education/hearing-loss-its-a-family.html

Hearing loss & the brain

Ever notice how some adults get distracted or tired easily? It may have to do with changes in their brains that are related to hearing loss. Here's a peek inside the brain of someone with hearing loss.

How does hearing affect the brain in the first place?

First we should look at how the brain processes sound in adults. Researchers have studied and continue to study how and where sounds are processed and perceived by the brain. They've found that there's a link between hearing and cognition-the brain's process of perceiving and understanding.

Thanks to magnetic imaging, scientists are able to watch the brain and see how it activates in response to certain sounds. They've discovered that we don't hear with just one part of our brain. The process of hearing also stimulates other brain areas.

For example, when a researcher said a simple word, it activated the auditory cortex. The auditory cortex was where that word was technically heard. But a few other areas of the brain also lit up in the cerebral cortex. Those areas were where that word was understood, perceived  or cognitively connected.

Scientists believe there's a dual-track association between hearing and cognition. Sound activates the auditory cortex, the cerebral cortex and cognitive processes influence how we hear.

We rely on cognitive elements of the brain, like working memory and life experiences, to understand a conversation in a noisy place. Surprisingly, only 10% of understanding speech in a noisy environment is by the actual hearing capacity.

So what happens to the brain when hearing is impaired?

Because there is a decline in sound stimuli and sensory deprivation, hearing loss can lead to  structural and functional changes in the brain. There can be reduced connectivity, brain signal decline, deterioration of the auditory cortex (which is the part of the brain that hears) and a reduction in overall brain volume. These structural and functional changes can affect the brain's capacity to process and perceive sounds and may contribute to cognitive decline.

The brain is forced to compensate for these losses by activating alternative circuits. It enlists accessory neuron networks and that means increased cognitive effort is needed to weed out irrelevant sounds, like background noise, and more concentration is needed for hearing.

A high cognitive effort reduces the amount of brain resources available to process everything else. So things like concentration, memory and planning may be affected. It's easier to get distracted. And constantly decoding and processing sounds can take up a lot of mental resources and can be tiring.

How can this type of cognitive decline be prevented?

Treatment of hearing loss can help keep the brain functioning at an ideal level and can contribute to a good quality of life. There are many hearing solutions and are they are highly effective. In fact, 95% of people with hearing loss can be helped by hearing aids.

It's important to identify and treat hearing loss early. The longer treatment is neglected, the more challenging it can be for the brain to relearn and repair itself. Like physical therapy after a surgery, consistent use of hearing aids is essential in a successful treatment plan.

Certain portions of this article were taken from a blog at Amplifon