Over 5% of the world’s population today suffers from hearing loss-about 466 million people. The rate of hearing loss is expected to climb to 10% by 2050. Hazards to our hearing are all around us: at work, at play, and just walking down the street we encounter sound that can cause hearing loss. We are surrounded by ototoxic chemicals. Even …
Celebrate World Alzheimer’s Month with a Hearing Test!
September is World Alzheimer’s Month, and The Lancet has published an update to the known risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. The 12 factors that are responsible for an estimated 40% of global cases of Alzheimer’s disease include: Excessive alcohol consumption Traumatic brain injury Air pollution Insufficient education in the first 20 years of life Hypertension Smoking Obesity Later-life depression Inadequate …
Why Pretending to Hear Doesn’t Help
You’ve probably been on one or the other side of this conversation before. It starts out easily with some basic back-and-forth pleasantries, but before you know it something is missing. You felt like you understood one another in the beginning, but at some point it became clear that the signals were crossed. Maybe one of you answered a question with …
Ways to Accommodate Your Loved Ones with Hearing Loss
If you have a loved one with hearing loss, you might be able to recall some difficult interactions in the past. Whether you experienced the difficulty as a disappointment, frustration, or even in terms of sadness and anger, untreated hearing loss can bring up a complex array of emotions both for the person who is hard of hearing and for …
Musicians & Hearing Loss
Many occupations have a risk of hearing loss, and our minds go immediately to industrial and manufacturing jobs with very loud machinery that can damage hearing through exposure day in and day out. Other occupations, such as those in the military or working with aircraft require expert hearing protection to avoid hearing loss over a lifetime of work. However, noise …
Going Digital with Your Hearing Aids
Hearing aids have become much more sophisticated in the last twenty years. Today’s devices are smaller, more reliable, and more powerful in all respects. Almost everything in our world has been taken over by digital technologies, and hearing aids are no different. However, there are still some hearing aids out there that use analog amplification methods. But does digital always …
Dealing with Noise Pollution in Your Neighborhood
We want our home to be a sanctuary. Although we live in our lives with constant turmoil and commotion, our homes should be a place for rest and relaxation – a refuge of our own making. However, with the noise in our neighborhoods and cities rising, it’s not always possible to achieve quiet in your home. Sources of noise pollution …
How Treating Hearing Loss Helps Your Mental Health
Many people fail to acknowledge the existence of hearing loss in their lives. That could be chalked to several different factors: Hearing loss is uneven. Rather than a sudden decrease in overall speech, hearing loss is often detected as frequency distortion. Hearing loss is gradual. It occurs quite gradually over time, and it may even be challenging to locate where …
Earbud Use Could Harm Your Hearing
When we think of the causes of hearing loss, our minds go immediately to very loud sounds. Some of us think of the machinery in industrial sites, while others think of an explosion or a car crash. Still others might think of musicians who are constantly exposed to very loud music in rehearsals or performances. Although these are indeed risky …
Improving Communication with Your Family
If you are a family member of someone with hearing loss, you understand the struggle that day-to-day communication can become. Not only are there missing pieces of information, but there can be an emotional charge to even the simplest interaction. Frustrations run high in all directions, and without a careful concerted effort to manage these feelings we can end up …