While scientists know that age-related hearing loss increases a person’s risk of dementia, their view of how vision loss affects cognition is fuzzy. It may be coming into focus, though. Recently, scientists reported that people who had surgery to remove cataracts were 30 percent less likely to be diagnosed with dementia than those who went untreated. Recent meta-analyses of observational studies suggest that fading eyesight increases dementia risk up to twofold. Could simply preserving or restoring people’s vision and hearing lower the incidence of dementia? Prospective trials addressing this possibility are ongoing. Read article >