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We don’t need to preach to you about how important it is to keep your brain healthy. It is one thing that we’d all love to keep as sharp as possible as we travel towards the latter part of life. The brain needs stimulation to remain healthy, just like our muscles need to be exercised.
During our youngest years, the brain is constantly stimulated through new sounds, impressions and experiences. All of these things help it to grow and develop. In adult life, the brain still needs this stimulation to stay healthy and work properly for us. Without stimulation, it can gradually lose its abilities which can lead to cognitive difficulties. Luckily for us, it is easy to keep the brain stimulated. If you live an active and engaged life, you will be helping your brain to help you!
An active life
Everyone knows that it is best for our bodies if we all do a little exercise and stay active. This is the same from your youth right through to your life in retirement. Brain stimulation can come in lots of different forms; you may like to try a quiet mental puzzle such as a crossword or sudoku. Some people like to play games such as chess or bridge. All of these things will help to keep your brain engaged. There are also more energetic ways to keep your brain stimulated; playing tennis or golf will also help with this. Whether doing something active or more relaxed, it is also the companionship and conversation that accompany the activity that helps the brain too.
Socialising
Social relationships are key to staying healthy throughout our lives. It is these relationships, that studies have found, help to keep our brains healthy as we get older. Meeting and talking to people helps retain your cognitive functions as you age. There are also studies that show people who socialise more are less likely to experience cognitive decline in later life.
Good hearing health
We have discussed the importance of socialising above, but we know that this is more difficult if you suffer with a hearing loss. Often it requires a lot of effort to figure out what is going on and your brain ends up having to fill in the things you’ve missed by guessing. This will end up exhausting you and potentially causing discomfort too ,which in turn leads you to socialise less because it’s easier not to.
Being able to hear well is essential for the health of your brain. Therefore, it really is so important that you get your hearing checked regularly as you get older. Starting treatment for hearing loss, i.e. wearing hearing aids, early is so important to help keep your cognitive abilities functioning as they should. It has been proven in many studies that treating hearing loss well potentially reduces the risk of dementia more than any other action you could take. This includes quitting smoking and exercising more.
If you feel you’d benefit from a hearing consultation, we’re here to help.
