Many people engage in regular crosswords, for instance, to keep their brain young and even reduce dementia risk. However, unfortunately, there is no evidence that crosswords, or other common brain games, like sudoku are significantly effective for this. In this two part blog learn about two strategies that are peer reviewed and scientifically proven to reduce dementia risk.
You Know It’s Important to Exercise Your Body. What about your Mind?
I’m often asked by my patients, attendees of my seminars and readers of my book – ‘What else apart from wearing hearing aids can I do to improve my brain health?
Two specific strategies come to mind, both with increasing levels of peer reviewed, scientific literature to back up their effectiveness. They are BrainHQ and Mindfulness Meditation.
In this blog series I’ll focus on the revolutionary, online brain training platform BrainHQ.
Of the numerous brain training programs available online, BrainHQ is the most clinically verified program I can find. I should mention at this point that there is quite a big difference between brain games and brain training.
Brain games are something that you might do for fun like sudoku, crossword puzzles, quizzes, and word problems. However, unfortunately, there is no evidence that crosswords, or other common brain games, are significantly effective for this.
Brain training via BrainHQ, on the other hand, is more like going to the gym with a professional plan, tailored to your progression. It’s a system of exercising the brain to improve cognitive abilities such as memory, attention, focus and processing speed.
• Reduce dementia risk,
• Increase speech understanding in background noise,
• Improve short term memory
• Reduce Tinnitus.
Specifically, the Brain Speed module has been proven to reduce dementia risk by 29% over 10 years following just 10 hours of training on your computer or phone over 5 weeks.
The Auditory Intensive module has been proven to improve short term/working memory to the equivalent of a person 10 years younger, improve hearing in noise by 41% and reduce tinnitus disturbance for 50% of participants. This is following an hour a day training, 5 days a week for 8 weeks.
Coined with full time use of hearing devices, BrainHQ is a great way to improve memory, concentration and hearing in noise, which all amount to a better quality of life for people with hearing loss.
Other than ‘Brain Speed’ and ‘Auditory Intensive’ modules, there are also other modules that have been shown to increase reaction time and reduce the risk of car crashes amongst other things.
I use the program, as does my family and many of my patients. It’s well designed and is actually good fun!
There is a free trial and access can be as low as $10 per month, visit www.brainhq.com for more details.
If you are wondering what else you can do to help your brain’s health, as any of my patients or those who have been to a seminar or read my book will know, there a strong connected between untreated hearing loss and dementia.
To learn more head to my blog on the connection between hearing and brain health
Best Regards,
Andrew
One of the ways in which hearing aids help us hear better is by making sounds louder. In effect, all hearing aids have this ability. Most have some degree of noise reduction meaning they are able to recognise speech sounds, recognise noise (non-speech sounds) and give more prominence to speech sounds. Typically, the more advanced the device is, the better the noise reduction processing capabilities are. As a general rule, the more channels the device has, the more precise decisions the devices can make about what is speech, what is noise and to reduce the noise without compromising speech clarity. Basic devices almost always have fewer channels than premium devices generally meaning less precision in noise reduction.
In group situations, simply ‘cleaning’ the signal via noise reduction processing is usually insufficient when the ‘noise’ is other people’s voices. This is where directional microphones come into play, these microphones enable the devices to be more sensitive toward the front (in most cases) whilst reducing the sounds from the sides and the rear, assuming the people you want to hear are in front if you. In many studies, directional microphones have been shown to improve speech understanding in background noise by around 30%. Unfortunately, devices that are hidden, or partially hidden in the ear canal don’t have the physical structure nor orientation to enable such directional microphones, meaning the devices amplify sound equally, including unwanted sounds, from the sides and the rear. They also generally have an unwelcome impact on ear canal acoustics, but that’s another story.
Not all directional microphones are made equal. In basic devices, the directional microphones are often ‘fixed’ and usually need to be manually activated by a push button in the devices, a confusing and fiddly process for most. More advanced devices have automatic, adaptive directional microphones which have the capacity to reduce unwanted voices and noise from the sides and the rear, even in those sounds move e.g. a moving truck. Some devices are able to track and reduce multiple noise sources with the view of comfortably enhancing speech toward the front of the wearer.
Taking directional microphones one step further are devices with ‘bilateral beamforming’ capabilities. In my opinion, based on my research and experience, they are the ‘holy grail’ of noise reducing hearing devices. Beam forming devices work together as a team to augment directional microphones in a similar manner to what occurs in a normally functioning, unimpaired hearing system. There’s a complex interaction between both ears and both sides of the brain to help us hear well in noise. With hearing loss, the receptor cells, specifically outer hair cells, are less able to perform their noise suppressing functions. Beamforming devices augment the brain’s ability to selectively filter and suppress unwanted sounds enabling unprecedented hearing in noise. Fortunately, there is now a range of beamforming options available from different manufacturers at a range of technology levels.
Bottom line, when hearing devices under perform at the times when they are most needed, of course they’ll end up in the top drawer. Today’s multi-channel, bilateral beamforming solutions correctly fitted by an Independent Audiologist (who is not limited by device choice), in my experience, is your highest probability of success.
I’m an Adult Hearing Device specialist; it’s a subspecialty within Audiology on which I’ve focused my whole career. Why? I’ve found it’s the most rewarding and successful way to have a profound impact on my patients’ wellbeing and the relationships they have with the people they most care about.
Positive results occur quite quickly in many cases but for most patients, it’s an adaptive process with a significant period of adjustment. Considering the substantial neurological processes at play, first time hearing aid wearers should not expect to gain maximum benefit from their devices until they’ve worn them full-time for around three months.
If only ears were like car parts!
I really do wish our ears were like car parts. It would be so great if the worn and torn parts could be replaced with new ones and, just like that, we would hear better again. Problem is, it’s not that simple because the auditory pathways in our brains are far more complex than any car part, engine or supercomputer for that matter. Hearing loss is a progressive, degenerative disorder with neurological involvement. An adaptive process is needed to progressively acclimatise to renewed and more appropriate levels of stimulation.
Also, your brain needs time to relearn which sounds to filter out and which sounds to focus on. At home, you’re not likely to notice a ticking clock, air conditioner or refrigerator noise as they are there all the time and because they only add limited value, your brain learns to filter them out. The same thing will happen over time with full time hearing device use, leading to progressively improved filtration of unwanted background noise.
When you go to the gym, you can’t realistically expect to experience visible muscle growth within the first three months of working out for the first time. You will become stronger within the first three months with consistent training, largely as a result of stimulating your nervous system, but the definition may not be so visible in such a short space of time. Likewise, a broken arm that has been in plaster won’t get back to full strength overnight.
Our hearing system is quite similar in that regard. It simply takes time and consistent stimulation to experience increases in signal strength and processing speed sufficient to hear better in challenging situations. And in a patient with tinnitus (ringing in the ears), a similar timeframe is often required to achieve sustained relief.
I recall early in my career the company I was running offered overnight hearing device ‘trials’. In fact, if I recall correctly, we called them ‘test drives’, as you may do when car shopping. It was actually my idea and in retrospect, one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in my 18 years as an Audiologist. The failure rate was unprecedented, with around 20% of patients simply overwhelmed by the fact that an acclimatisation period was required. Nowadays, with the benefit of decades of experience behind me, and a better grasp of the neurological literature, I make it a priority to ensure all my patients are clear about the fact that treating hearing loss is an adaptive process. Complete overnight success is just not physically realistic. I’ve found that the probability for success climbs exponentially once my patients understand that full time use over 1-3 months is necessary for acclimatisation because everything progressively feels more natural as your physiology adapts.
Though I’ve never had to act on it, I offer a 100% money back satisfaction guarantee at three months. Whist you can expect improvements straight away, it’s just not realistic to expect completely natural results and total comfort within this timeframe. However, the combination of full time use and today’s incredible technology means your chances of overcoming the challenges that brought you into the practice in the first place couldn’t be better.
