Millions of people deal with Alzheimer's and hearing loss. Several studies have confirmed the link between hearing loss and Alzheimer's. The risk of developing Alzheimer's increases as hearing loss grows worse. Researchers compared people with hearing loss to people who do not have hearing loss. When compared to people with normal hearing, people with mild hearing loss are almost twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's. People who have a severe hearing impairment have a higher risk of developing the disease. Specifically, hearing loss is common in people who have a hearing impairment that is greater than 25 decibels. Senior citizens are most likely to be at risk for hearing loss and Alzheimer's.
Alzheimer's and Hearing Loss
The connection
Throughout our day to day lives we are exposed to many sounds such as the sound of traffic, coversation, TV, nature and music. More often than not these sounds that we experience are at a low safe level, levels that will not affect or harm our hearing. Unfortunatley when we are exposed to sound levels that are too high or loud sounds over a long period of time there is a chance that the delicate inner workings of the ear can be permanatly damaged. This is known as noise induced hearing loss (NIHL)
Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common cause of dementia. Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. Symptoms usually develop slowly and get worse over time. It can become severe enough to interfere with daily tasks. Allie Hamilton is suffering from dementia.
of diagnosis is about 80 years old (Johnson, 1989). The incidence is about the same for all races, but women are more likely than men to develop the disease, because they live longer. The second factor is heredity. Family history plays a role in about forty percent of people with early onset of Alzheimer’s (Johnson, 1989). If your parents or a sibling developed the disease, you are more likely to, as well. But there are cases of families with several people who have had this disease and other members are not affected. These two factors are the only proven factors, but environmental research is being done to help with a possible protective effect for the disease. As of now, more research is needed to confirm any be...
Physical aging is a natural process that appears within psychosocial and behavioral contexts that greatly influence the progression of an individual’s experience of aging. Aging is often associated with greater exposure to disease and disability. The primary auditory disorder of many older people is difficulty understanding speech in noisy situations or competing speech, or that their communicators speak too fast, or do not articulate clearly enough. Age-related hearing loss, also known as presbycusis is a gradual and progressive hearing loss that affects most individuals as they age. Due to the slow evolution, adults with age-related hearing loss may not recognize that their hearing ability is decreasing, but if they do, they may acknowledge it as typical aging. Age is the greatest risk factor for sensorineural hearing loss, of greater degree in the higher frequencies and increasingly progressive. The term presbycusis reflects both peripheral and central auditory system dysfunction. Nevertheless, hearing loss is often mistreated due to its hidden sense that is always anticipated to be operating. Nevertheless, it is essential to study and understand aspects of several different types of hearing loss as it may be socially debilitating.
It is well known that the elderly population in our society is growing larger. With this increase comes the awareness and prevalence of common health issues of the elderly. Dementia is an illness that is commonly associated with the geriatric population. To understand dementia, one would need to learn its symptoms, its causes, and its various treatment options. This study specifically focuses on the relationship that dementia holds with brain and communication disorders.
Alzheimer’s can be diagnosed before age 65, although rare, and is caused by a mutation in 3 known genes. About 5 percent of those who are under 65 and possess the ailment have AD in their family history. Given that the symptoms of AD are caused by plaque in the brain, causing loss of nerve cells that help the body communicate with the brain, mutations to these genes; amyloid precursor protein, presenilin 1, and presenilin 2 cause a excessive production of certain proteins (primarily a B-42 form of amyloid protein), and therefore spark an excessive growth of plaque cells which are toxic to the neurons of the brain. For those cases of Alzheimer’s that occur after age 65, a genetic mutation has yet to be proven, although some may be linked, to the fact that a difference may cause an increased chance of developing the ailment. Whatever the case may be for patients over 65 years old, the disease and its symptoms are caused by neurofibrillary tangles of almyloid plaques. It is impossible for someone to test positive for Alzheimer’s Disease, because the only way to determine an affirmative case i...
Increasing age, being female, mental retardation, and genetics are well-established risk factors of the disease. Age is the main factor of risk, because people from the ages to 75-84 are at 19% risk and people 85 and older are about 47% at risk. At all ages, women have a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease than men. By age 93 women's ...
When a child is diagnosed with deafness, many parents often wonder what the exact cause of the child’s deafness is. In recent studies (Arnos K. &., 2007) 50-60% of hearing loss (moderate to profound, congenital, or early-onset) have shown genetics to be a large factor. Non genetic factors (i.e. maternal infection, prematurity or postnatal infection) may cause 40-50% of the remaining hearing loss. About one-third of children with hereditary deafness have features that are part of a genetic syndrome and there are between 300-400 different forms of genetic deafness that are known. Most children benefit from a genetic evaluation as a dominant diagnostic tool in determining the exact cause of the deafness, and the role of the audiologist is pivitol in counseling parents of deaf children through this process.
According to the book Living with Alzheimer’s, The Department of Health and Human Services states as many as 500,000 Americans develop early onset of the disease (21). Further noting the age range of early onset is between the forty’s and fifty’s, however in some cases as young as the twenty’s. The book goes on to say the reasoning for early onset is currently unknown and not thought to be hereditary (Living 21). A USA Today article notes that “the effects of Alzheimer’s on all its victims can be devastating, but younger people are dealing with it during the middle of active lives” (Fackelmann 2A). The article goes on to explain the various symptoms and outlines the prognosis expected with early onset; course of the disease continues to be the s...
Hearing loss and/or hearing impairment occurs when there is an issue with one or more parts of the ear. Someone who has hearing loss may be able to hear some sounds or nothing at all. About 3 in 1,000 babies are born with hearing impairment, making it the most common birth defect (Morlet 2012). There are ways to determine if your child has a hearing impairment at birth, not to prevent your child from having a hearing impairment, but to determine if there is a possibility that your child may have the most common birth defect. Newborn hearing screening focuses on identifying hearing loss early (Listen 2013). In other words, if a newborn were to get a hearing screening shortly after birth, then there would be less percussions than if the parents waited to get a hearing test later on.
As with any disease there are factors that may put one at more risk for developing the disease. The most common risk factor is age. After 65, the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease doubles every 5 years - this means as you age you are more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Although, in early onset, people can be diagnosed as early as in their thirties - there are 500,000 people in America living with early onset Alzheimer’s. Being female is another risk factor. Women are more likely than men to be living with Alzheimer’s. Two-thirds of people living with Alzheimer’s in America are women. Another risk factor is genetic predisposition or family history. Some avoidable risk factors involve head injury and heart health...
A small percentage of those with the disease have early-onset Alzheimer’s. Of those who have early-onset Alzheimer’s an even smaller percentage have early-onset familial Alzheimer’s, which is the development of Alzheimer’s before the age of 65 along with the existence of a close relative who has the disease. This type of Alzheimer’s usually affects people in their 40’s or 50’s and is very rare (Huether & McCance, 2012). The third and most common type of Alzheimer’s is late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Late-onset Alzheimer’s dise...
Dementia is common in older adults and may develop gradually or even suddenly. Dementia is very common and is used as an umbrella term to describe a wide range of symptoms. It is also important to note that, “Dementia is more prevalent in older adults with the rate doubling about every 5 years after the age of 75 (Erber,2005; Papalia et al.,1996)” (Davis, Gfeller, & Thaut, 2008). Dementia
In my life, I've had a major setback that has changed how I live life day to day. When I was five, I was diagnosed with permanent hearing loss. I have hearing loss in both ears, mostly in higher frequencies, but I still have some hearing loss in the lower ones too. Since I was 5, it has only gotten worse, just in the past year there has been drastic changes in the frequencies that I can't hear. Hearing loss affects me day to day, for example if anyone whispers something to me, nine of ten times I can't hear what they are saying. My academics also get affected because sometimes I can't hear what we have for homework over all of the background noise of people packing up, so sometimes I just don't do homework because I never heard it in the first place. Not doing homework because I can't hear it affects my grades as I will get zeros for not doing it.
Hearing loss is often overlooked because our hearing is an invisible sense that is always expected to be in action. Yet, there are people everywhere that suffer from the effects of hearing loss. It is important to study and understand all aspects of the many different types and reasons for hearing loss. The loss of this particular sense can be socially debilitating. It can affect the communication skills of the person, not only in receiving information, but also in giving the correct response. This paper focuses primarily on hearing loss in the elderly. One thing that affects older individuals' communication is the difficulty they often experience when recognizing time compressed speech. Time compressed speech involves fast and unclear conversational speech. Many older listeners can detect the sound of the speech being spoken, but it is still unclear (Pichora-Fuller, 2000). In order to help with diagnosis and rehabilitation, we need to understand why speech is unclear even when it is audible. The answer to that question would also help in the development of hearing aids and other communication devices. Also, as we come to understand the reasoning behind this question and as we become more knowledgeable about what older adults can and cannot hear, we can better accommodate them in our day to day interactions.