Jeremy Clarkson has shared he is now at “double risk” of developing dementia due to his increasing hearing loss.
In a column for The Times, the Top Gear star, 61, said he is now getting hearing aids to help him, though it is only a temporary solution.
He explained he is getting the device as “my brain is having to use a huge amount of computing power trying to fill in the bits of speech it hasn’t been able to hear.
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“This has been going on for 12 years, and, being a tolerant sort of guy, I’ve coped,” he assured his fans.
“But I was told after my most recent medical that hearing loss will double the chance of me catching dementia.”
Dementia Australia says “research suggests that people with mild symptoms of hearing loss may be twice as likely to develop dementia as those with healthy hearing. People with severe hearing loss may be five times more likely to develop dementia.”
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The host now reveals he has gotten some “very snazzy and incredibly clever” hearing aids to alleviate the pressure on his brain.
His hearing loss is not his only health concern, with the star opening his piece with the alarming statement, “Most of my body doesn’t really work any more.”
“None of the shirts in my wardrobe fit any longer [and] I can barely do up my shoelaces,” he wrote jokingly.
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“I’ve been going for walks every day, but while some of them are seven or eight miles long, I’m not sure they’re doing much good…The problem is that I pootle along extremely slowly, and when I get tired, I slow down even more.”
It comes as the veteran TV host was warned by his doctor that he would face an “agonising and premature death” if he continued his 40-a-day smoking habit.
“For most of my adult life, stern-faced doctors warned me that if I didn’t give up smoking, I would suffer from an agonising and premature death,” he wrote in his column for The Sun in August.
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He was able to cut down using nicotine gum six years ago, but doctors warned him that “it’s causing a worrying rise in my blood pressure”.