Can improving hearing help preserve memory and thinking as we age? Hearing loss isn’t just an inconvenience of aging — it’s now considered one of the top modifiable risk factors for dementia.

Kimberly Mueller, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a researcher with the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Her work focuses on how speech and language change in preclinical Alzheimer’s, mild cognitive impairment and dementia. She also leads a clinical trial testing whether over-the-counter hearing aids can benefit people who have mild cognitive impairment and are found to have age-related hearing loss.

In this conversation with Being Patient’s Mark Niu, Mueller explains why hearing loss is both common and treatable — affecting about one in three adults over 65 — and why it is now considered one of the top modifiable risk factors for dementia. She breaks down how untreated hearing loss can strain the brain, contribute to social isolation and potentially accelerate cognitive decline, and she discusses how new hearing technologies and over-the-counter devices might expand access to care. Mueller also shares early insights from her hearing aid trial, communication strategies for families, and emerging research using everyday speech patterns as a sensitive tool to detect brain changes earlier than standard memory testing.

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Being Patient is an editorially independent journalism outlet for news and reporting about brain health, cognitive science, and neurodegenerative diseases. In our Live Talk series on Facebook, former Wall Street Journal Editor and founder of Being Patient, Deborah Kan, interviews brain health experts and people living with dementia. 

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