Why you should get your hearing checked by an audiologist

As someone who suffers from hearing loss I am a strong supporter of getting your hearing checked. Below is an article I found on the topic. Don't worry that it focuses on the elderly, many people suffer hearing loss at different stages of their lives.

Myself I personally enjoy visiting my current audiologist in Oakville (he is so talkative) and he provides free hearing tests, so even if you buy nothing from him at least you are getting a free hearing test and talking to someone who genuinely cares about people who have hearing loss like myself.

Anywho, back to the article below. I am posting it in the hope that people out there who have noticed they don't hear as well as they used to will be inspired to go get their hearing tested. Just google your local city and the words free hearing test and you should be able to find a place that provides hearing tests for free.

Especially if you work in a place where you are surrounded by loud noises regularly or constantly. Many people have hearing difficulties from working in places that are too noisy and harmful to their ears.

Hearing Loss in the Elderly and Subordinate Side Effects

By D. Eze

Hearing loss affects people of all ages for a variety of reasons. Some children are unfortunately born unable to hear very well, some people progressively lose their hearing over time and hearing loss is prone to many people above a certain age. This hearing loss can be a result of many different reasons including degenerative diseases, through the natural degeneration of hearing over time as part of old age or through some sort of traumatic event that severally affects hearing almost in an instant.

Despite the variety of reasons and causes of hearing loss, hearing loss overwhelming affects those at retirement age. Statistics say that one in three people from ages ranging from 64 - 75 will have some sort of hearing loss and one in two individuals over the age of 75 will be dealing with hearing loss. These are overwhelming numbers when one thinks about it. If one were to add that number of baby boomers who are about to be or already are at retirement age, hearing loss is becoming a major issue in our society today. Our mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles are currently dealing with substantial hearing loss and we do not even know it.

Some might say that hearing loss is not that bad of an issue and that people can cope with it by simply asking other to speak louder, but this is misleading. Hearing loss can in and of itself affect ones standard of living. "Especially in the elderly, hearing loss can impair the exchange of information, thus significantly impacting everyday life, causing loneliness, isolation, dependence, and frustration, as well as communication disorders" (Bianchini, Ciorba, Pelucchi and Pastore, 2012). It can also lead to dementia, depression, memory loss and stress. These are all physical and mental states that should be avoided especially for elderly people.

A recent study has looked to see the factors that lead to hearing loss in a varied group of Americans. The results of the study have shown that with people who have moderate hearing loss about 43% actually where hearing aids with those who have mild hearing loss the number drops dramatically to 3.4% (Lin, Thorpe, Gorden-Salant and Ferrucci, 2011). This shows that people only see to seek to get help for their hearing loss when it becomes more progressive as opposed to when it is just starting. More visits to an audiologist after the age of 50 can help to mitigate the issues that come with hearing loss much more quickly and increase the elderly populations quality of life much earlier.

Therefore why suffer when something like hearing loss and it subordinate effects can be dealt with in a relatively easy fashion. A quick visit to the audiologist and spending some time being fitted with a hearing aid can mitigate all of the bad side effects of hearing loss and greatly improve ones standard of living overnight.

To some a visit to the audiologist might be daunting. Most people have not been to a audiologist or do not know what going to an audiologist might entail. But going to the audiologist is very similar to going to the optometrist. It is a very short process where the doctor will test how well you are able to use your hearing against a standard of measurement and using various auditory testing equipment. In the end the audiologist will provide you with an apparatus that will allow you to hear better if need be or provide you with information and suggested equipment that will allow you to prevent further hearing loss. Specifically for an audiology test you will subjected to hearing sounds of different tone, volume and frequency. This is in order to ensure that the audiologist is able to determine the breath of the hearing loss as well as the source of the hearing loss. Depending on your needs, the audiologist will decide on which tests to perform and develop a plan to resolve your hearing loss issues.

Hearing is often the ignored sense. If our ability to see is diminished even slightly we all are very aware of it and often seek to fix the problem immediately, but with hearing it is usually something we consider not important enough to investigate. Additionally, for the elderly, when one ignores their inevitable hearing loss it can lead to very dire consequences. The fact is an hour test can preserve a very important sense and ensure that your quality of life is not unnecessarily diminished. Got get that test, if need be go get that hearing aid. Your ears will thank you.

Sources

C. Bianchini, A. Ciorba, S. Pelucchi, A. Pastore. (2012). The impact of hearing loss on the quality of life of elderly adults. Clinical Interventions in Aging. 7, 159-163. http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3393360/reload=0;jsessionid=AELCaUJ7cNkXolRlK0rx.24

F. Lin, R, Thorpe, S. Gorden-Salant & L. Ferrucci. (2011). Hearing Loss Prevalence and Risk Factors Among Older Adults in the United States. The Journals of Gerontology, 66A(5), 582-590. http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/66A/5/582.short

Necklace turns hearing aids into a fashion accessory

Call it my ongoing struggle with my own hearing loss, but I find any tech gadgets that help to improve the hearing of people suffering from hearing loss WONDERFUL.

Technological advances over the years have made hearing aids smaller, more fashionable, but rarely have they been made more powerful.

The problem is you can only fit so much power into a hearing aid. It has to take sounds from the outside of your ear, amplify them and then broadcast the sound into your ear so that you can hear them better - without creating an audio feedback loop between the speakers and the microphone inside the hearing aid.

But what if the microphone wasn't inside your ears and only the speakers were there instead?

New hearing aids devices are now on the market wherein the microphone part of the hearing aid is worn around your neck, and the hearing aids contain just the speakers - which means the speakers can be more powerful, smaller (thanks to the lack of a microphone) and even cheaper.

Hearing aids are often uncomfortable and too conspicuous for their owners, but by making them smaller, the device become less powerful.

Another problem with trying to make hearing aids smaller is that they also go way up in price - so you end up getting less quality sound, but paying way more. It just doesn't add up.

Hearing aid manufacturer "Wear" however has chosen to make their products more into decorations which complement a person's appearance, while simultaneously providing higher quality sound at a lower price.

The device itself is a circular disc, available in dark red plastic or a wood and metal finish and worn on a chain around the neck like a necklace. Its stylish design means it can complement outfits and stop wearers from feeling embarrassed by their medical device.

Developed by music producers Michelle Temple and the president of audio and video tech company Creative Technology, Eric Rosenthal, the device is not only an amplifier like many older hearing aids, but is a collection of high-fidelity directional microphones that can be controlled by the user depending on their situation. "Wear" uses analog rather than digital signal processing to avoid the problems involved with audio delays and to take advantage of its abilities with near-field signals: nearer sounds are amplified while others are diminished. Although not designed to completely replace the traditional hearing aid, "Wear" performs better in noisy environments where picking out individual signals is often difficult - this way you could have a conversation in a crowded bar room setting, but without the extra distractions from noisy people at the opposite end of the bar. Users can also simply hold the device towards the person speaking in order to hear them better.

I have similar devices using BlueTooth earbuds and a person's smartphone as the microphone, but such devices are not designed specifically for people who have difficulty hearing - the technology is dumbed down and doesn't have the level of quality in either the sounds being reproduced, nor in the software designed to pick out individual sounds that are closer to you and give them more importance.

Although the current "Wear" model uses 3.5mm headphones, the team hopes to investigate the potential of bone conduction in later versions.

If you live in Vaughan I recommend the Omni Hearing Clinic, which is where I go for all my hearing aids.

Hearing Loss and my life as a pianist

I am not deaf.

But ever since I suffered hearing loss in 2010 I must admit I feel a certain affinity with deaf people.

Due to mistaken identity, in 2010 I was stalked by a woman from Thornhill who thought I looked like her ex-husband (and this is why I don't put photos of myself online any more). The stalker was so convinced that I was her hated ex-husband, and so angry at whatever misdeeds he had done, that she stabbed me three times with a knife. Once in the left shoulder, once in my arm while I was trying to fend her off, and once in my right ear.

The woman then fled the scene, but was later arrested by police. Her lawyer pleaded insanity and she got away with a lighter sentence and mandatory time in a provincial mental ward.

Meanwhile my right ear suffered permanent hearing loss - she has severed several important nerves in the ear and damaged the eardrum itself with her knife. I am not deaf in that ear, but I do now use a hearing aid.

Despite this injury - and thanks to my perfectly good left ear - I was able to finish my Doctorate of Musical Arts at U of T. I must admit I was almost done anyway at the time of the stabbing.

I would also like to take a moment to thank the Omni Hearing Clinic in Vaughan for all their help during that trying time. I am very thankful that I still have my left ear to hear with, but I am very thankful that with an hearing aid I can now hear with my right ear again almost as well as before the incident.