Risk of Dementia

Hearing loss in adults may indicate a greater risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. A new study suggests the greater the loss, the greater the risk. The study was led by Dr. Luigi Ferrucci, director of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. He says it could mean that correcting hearing loss in adults could reduce the risk of dementia and the next step would be trying to link the two in a causal relationship. If he's right, hearing loss may be more than simply a sign of aging. It could be an indication that someone is not aging well, whether for biological or social reasons, brought on by the isolation that hearing loss can bring. Details are in the latest issue of the journal Archives of Neurology.