🔍 What the research shows • In cognitively normal adults, even mild hearing loss sped up cognitive decline by 30-40 % compared with normal hearing. • Johns Hopkins data found dementia risk doubled with mild loss, tripled with moderate, and jumped 5-fold with severe loss. MRI scans reveal faster shrinkage in sound-processing regions linked to memory. ⚙️ Why ears affect memory 1️⃣ Cognitive-load drain – Your brain diverts extra resources to decode muffled speech, leaving fewer for memory and deci