- In this video,
I'm gonna teach you how to keep your brain sharp
when using hearing aids, coming up.
(upbeat music)
If I were to ask you the question,
what do you use to hear with?
You would probably end up saying your ears.
But what if I told you that you do not hear with your ears?
You actually hear with your brain, that's right.
You can actually have two normally functioning ears,
but if your brain cannot receive
and process this auditory information,
then it wouldn't matter if you had four ears.
Research also suggests that this lack of sound
can lead to depression, poor balance and dementia.
When it comes to hearing loss
and how it impacts our brain function,
there has been a lot of research coming out
in the past several years that gives us cause for concern.
But before I get into this research,
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That being said, let's go ahead and get into the research.
Some of this research includes the study by Dr. Franklin,
which indicated an increased risk of dementia
with untreated hearing loss, based on the severity
of the hearing loss.
You also have the 25-year long study by Dr. Helene Amieva
that showed an accelerated rate
of cognitive decline for individuals
with untreated self-reported hearing loss.
What's interesting is that this decline did not occur
in individuals whose hearing loss was treated
with hearing aids.
The Lancet commission on hearing loss,
determined that loss in midlife
is the leading potentially modifiable risk factor
for dementia later in life at 9%.
That's greater than quitting smoking at 5%,
getting treatment for depression at 4%
and exercising more at 3%.
Now more than ever, it is become apparent
that treating your hearing loss is a very good idea,
not just for helping you hear better,
but do potentially stave off the negative cognitive effects
of untreated hearing loss so you can keep your brain sharp.
This is why Oticon today's video sponsor
develop their BrainHearing philosophy
all the way back in 2003,
which has guided the development
of their BrainHearing technology that we see today.
Essentially, Oticon realized
that if they were going to help someone
with hearing loss hear their best,
then they must provide the brain
all of the necessary acoustic information
that would allow the human brain to function more naturally.
So back in 2016, Oticon abandoned the traditional way
of prioritizing sound coming from the front
while attenuating sound coming from behind and to the sides
with the development of their open technology.
Instead, they adopted the oriented focus approach
in order to amplify sound more closely
with how the human brain hear cell naturally.
The orient subsystem constantly scans
all surrounding sounds, no matter their nature and direction
to create a full perspective of the soundscape.
Meaning that all acoustic information
will be taken into consideration for amplification
rather than just discarding acoustic information
that comes from locations
other than in front of a hearing aid user.
When you think about someone without hearing loss,
their brain has the ability to take in information
from all different directions
before determining which sound is the most important
and which sound to focus on.
That's why only after having this full picture of sound,
will the focus subsystem kick in.
The focus subsystem helps people
select which sounds to listen to
while other irrelevant sounds are filtered out
and pushed into the background.
So if someone with normal hearing
is in a complex listening situation
with a lot of background noise
and someone comes up behind them and starts talking to them,
their focus subsystem has the ability to orient
their focus in that direction.
So how does this BrainHearing philosophy
result in such high performance outcomes
with Oticon hearing aids that use BrainHearing technology
like the Oticon More™?
Is relatively simple, with Oticon's philosophy
the more that they can process sound
in a way that your brain would naturally
the better you'll be able to hear.
The Oticon More hearing aid also uses deep learning
which is created by a deep neural network
which was inspired by the structure of the human brain.
Essentially, Oticon engineers
developed this deep neural network
so their more hearing aids could function more
like the human brain,
ensuring that your brain has better access
to auditory information, which can be beneficial
from a speech intelligibility standpoint
and it can also, according to the research,
be better for your overall brain health.
Now we have just scratched the surface
when it comes to how hearing loss
negatively impacts your overall brain function
and how treatment of your hearing loss with hearing aids
could potentially stop these changes from occurring.
But if you consider the research that we currently have
and you're looking to keep your brain sharp
as you continue to get older,
then stimulating your brain with auditory information
from world-class hearing aids
should be at the top of your list.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions,
leave them in the comment section below.
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And if you wanna see other videos, just like this one,
go ahead and hit that subscribe button.
Also feel free to check out my website, Dr. Cliffaud.com.
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