Protect & Improve Your Hearing & Brain Health | Dr. Konstantina Stankovic

**Konstantina Stankovic** (0:00)
So now there is mounting evidence for strong link between hearing loss and dementia. It's not that everyone with hearing loss will develop dementia. However, we are trying to identify who is at risk. Hearing loss is a huge problem. It currently affects one and a half billion people and disables half a billion of them. And the World Health Organization estimates that another billion will be affected by 2050

**Andrew Huberman** (0:29)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is Dr. Konstantina Stankovic. She is a medical doctor and researcher and the chair of the department of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, we discuss hearing and how to protect yours, as well as how to deal with common problems related to hearing, like tinnitus or ringing of the ears, which is a very debilitating condition that many millions of people suffer from. Most of us don't think about our hearing very often unless it's compromised. And yet we now know that our ability to hear clearly in many ways drives our ability to think and engage with the world, which is, of course, not to say that deaf people don't have excellent cognition and the ability to engage with the world, but they, of course, compensate for that hearing loss with the use of sign language and lip reading. Most people, of course, have the ability to hear, and yet don't know that even subtle deficits in hearing can lead to focus issues, mild cognitive impairment, and more serious hearing loss is directly related to dementia. And while until recently we thought about partial hearing loss as really something that accompanies aging, it turns out that for various reasons related to loud environments, the use of headphones, etc., progressive subtle hearing loss is occurring much earlier in people's lives, even as early as childhood. Today, you're going to learn from one of the top experts in the world, how your auditory system works. We'll talk about how it works from the time you were in your mother's womb. Yes, indeed. You could hear quite well even within your mother's womb, all the way through adolescence and into old age. And you're going to learn the specific things that you can do to protect your hearing. And I'm certain that you'll realize that some or many of the things that you're doing are subtly or not so subtly damaging your hearing. And fortunately, you can remedy that very easily. We talk about some of the behavioral protocols that are backed by science, as well as things like the use of magnesium to protect against hearing loss. And of course, we talk about tinnitus, this very common condition of ringing in the ears and how you can remedy it. Thanks to Dr. Stankovic, this is both a fascinating and incredibly important conversation relevant to people of all ages. The information she shares is not covered in traditional public health announcements, but it absolutely should be, because it's not just about protecting your ability to hear, it's about protecting your brain function more broadly. So today's discussion is going to teach you about how your auditory system works, how to take care of it, how to remedy any partial hearing loss that you might have already experienced, and in doing so, how to take care of your brain health and cognition. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, today's episode does include sponsors. And now for my discussion with Dr. Konstantina Stankovic. Dr. Konstantina Stankovic, welcome.

**Konstantina Stankovic** (3:30)
Thank you.

**Andrew Huberman** (3:31)
Most of us don't think about our hearing often enough, except now everyone is using headphones or listening to things very loud, or most people are living in quite loud environments. I was in New York last week, I've been in Chicago, San Francisco. These are really loud cities. And even if one goes out into the countryside, if you're listening to music loudly, which can be fun, feels good if you like loud music, classical or rock and roll or otherwise, I have a feeling you're going to tell us that it's not good for our hearing and that losing our hearing is not good for a bunch of other things. Tell us about hearing loss. How do we avoid it?

**Konstantina Stankovic** (4:12)
Absolutely, so hearing loss is a huge problem. It currently affects one and a half billion people and disables half a billion of them. And the World Health Organization estimates that another billion will be affected by 2050 So this is an enormous issue and it's really underappreciated and stigmatized and lots of people live in silence. For example, for those who have problems with their vision, they wear glasses and glasses can restore their vision back to normal to the point that people now wear glasses even if they don't need them. It's a fashion statement. However, that's not the case for hearing loss. And it's because hearing aids are aids, like the name says, they don't restore hearing back to normal.