March 3 is the 23rd "ear day" in China. The theme of this year's ear day is "caring for hearing health and listening to the wonderful future". Ears can help us listen to the world and perceive everything. Different degrees of hearing impairment will bring a lot of changes to our life. In serious cases, it will even affect normal speech communication and lead to hearing disability. Some popular science articles often appear the views of "deaf elderly are prone to dementia" and "Beware of deafness leading to dementia", which makes many elderly people, especially those with hearing loss, nervous, anxious and insomnia all day. On such rumors, Jiang Zidong, chief physician of Otolaryngology Department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, said there was a lack of evidence. Dementia, he said, is a progressive deterioration of cognitive function caused by brain injury or disease, which is much greater than the progression of normal aging. Deafness itself will not cause direct damage to brain tissue. With aging, brain function, memory, vision and hearing will naturally decline, but there is no evidence that deafness leads to dementia. Jiang Zidong also stressed that studies have shown that the proportion of elderly deaf people suffering from Alzheimer's disease is significantly higher than that of elderly people with relatively normal hearing. The risk factors of dementia controlled by WHO include weight management, blood pressure management, diabetes management, blood lipid management, depression management and hearing loss management. Among them, deafness is a risk factor for dementia due to its weakening of external reactions and influence of communication. "Once sleep disorders and unstable blood pressure are caused by fear and anxiety, it will increase the risk of inducing dementia." He said that the elderly should reduce basic diseases, maintain a good attitude and sleep, which can not only protect hearing, but also reduce the risk of dementia. For the elderly with hearing loss, hearing aids and even cochlear implants can be given for hearing compensation according to the degree of deafness. Jiang Zidong specially pointed out that medical hearing compensation is not only to hear sound, but also to improve speech discrimination and communication. Cochlear implant is a general anesthesia, which needs to expose the meninges during operation, and the cost is not low. There are many basic diseases in the elderly. The tolerance and efficacy of anesthesia surgery need to be carefully evaluated and weighed to avoid injury caused by over treatment. (outlook new era)
Edit：Yuanqi Tang Responsible editor：Xiao Yu
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