Here are four reasons to ask for a hearing exam during your next physical:

Hearing loss increases the risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia. Sensorineural hearing loss can lead to degeneration of the brain because of nerve damage between the brain and the ear. When the brain does not receive stimulation it begins to lose some of its functions which may lead to Alzheimer’s or dementia which is a loss of brain function that may affect memory, thinking, and behavior. For every additional 10 decibels of untreated hearing loss, there is a 20% increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Hearing loss could indicate the risk of cardiovascular disease. Hearing loss can occur from damage to the tiny blood vessels within the inner ear. The delicate inner ear has sensitive blood vessels that any damage to these vessels could detect a problem within larger blood vessels within the body. Cardiovascular disease includes diseases of blood vessels, heart rhythm problems, heart infections, and congenital heart defects. Usually cardiovascular disease refers to narrowed or blocked blood vessels that can lead to a heart attack, chest pain, or stroke.

Hearing loss could lead to depression. Those who have mild to moderate hearing loss tend to feel isolated even when surrounded by friends and family. Prolonged isolation can lead to depression and anxiety because of the inability to hear what others are saying.

Hearing tests are important to your ability to hear but it is also important in diagnosing other issues such as finding spot tumors. A hearing tests also includes examination of the outer ear as a preventative measure for suspected cancerous moles or precursors to skin cancer.

It’s important to be proactive about your health so be sure to ask your physician about a hearing test at your next check up!

-From Men’s Health Magazine

Imagine being out at a restaurant with a group of friends and everyone is talking and laughing- everyone except you. You sit and strain to listen but you can’t understand what anyone is saying over the background noise of the restaurant.

You feel isolated even though you are surrounded by friends. You feel frustrated because it seems like no one else is having trouble hearing. You feel exhausted and stressed out from straining to hear. You feel embarrassed asking people to repeat nearly everything they say to you.

This situation may sound familiar to many people, but they may not realize that being unable to understand a conversation when there is a lot of background noise is among the first signs that hearing loss might be present. New patients frequently tell me “I can hear fine, I just have trouble when there is background noise.” Almost all of these people will end up having some degree of hearing loss and will be very good candidates for hearing aids. They also are candidates for additional help who may often be overlooked by the hearing healthcare professional.

The most practical baseline solution for hearing better in background noise is to use two hearing aids that have directional microphones, digital signal processing, and digital noise reduction. These hearing aids will help in a noisy restaurant because they will focus toward the person speaking and not on the noise of the crowd. They enhance speech as well as filter background noise.

This type of hearing device significantly improves the ability to hear in noisy environments and is the first recommended step to help. But those of you reading this probably already know that. So here are two other approaches that everyone with a problem hearing in background noise should be aware of.

First, you should know that auditory training works. Auditory training is essentially physical therapy for your brain; it requires active participation in various listening tasks.

There are two products available that I recommend for auditory training. One is called LACE (Listening and Communication Enhancement), a program by Neurotone (on DVD or online, from $79). A 2011 study in the journal Cerebral Cortex found that LACE showed “significant improvements in speech-in-noise” ability.
Hear Coach, by Starkey, is the other auditory training program. This is a free app for the iPad or iPhone. Hear Coach is a basic program for those interested in trying out auditory training, while using the convenience and ease of portable Apple devices. The suite of basic games is designed to sharpen cognitive and auditory skills.

Both programs have the ability to track your progress so you can chart your improvement over time. They teach you to “hear smarter” in noise.

Second, you should know that an FM system, or remote microphone system, can also help you understand speech in noisy situations. An FM system has a portable microphone that can receive an audio signal (speech) and transmit that signal directly into the listener’s hearing aids for a clear signal.

FM systems are very small and work amazingly well, changing hearing in a noisy environment almost into hearing a quiet room. The cost starts at a few hundred dollars and increases depending on the level of sophistication and type of hearing aids they are used with.
Ready to take the next steps? Try auditory training for a few weeks and consider an FM system to relieve your anxiety about hearing in noisy situations.

Do your friends and family complain that you can’t hear, and do you tell them that they need to stop mumbling? If so, it may be interesting for you to know that you’re not alone; twelve million Americans 55 and up have age-related hearing loss, yet a recent study revealed that, on average, people wait seven years to seek treatment. The question is: why do people wait so long?

Much of the time, people with hearing loss actually believe that other people are mumbling. They think their children or family members simply aren’t speaking loud enough or not enunciating. In truth, it is actually because hearing loss effects hearing very gradually and high pitch sounds are lost first. Because the process of hearing loss happens over a long period of time many people don’t acknowledge it until it’s really bad. Also, because most people lose high pitch sounds first, it causes them to perceive the “it’s not me, you’re just mumbling” syndrome.

Here’s a test. Do you have more trouble hearing women’s voices, whispers, consonant sounds of speech, and hearing in noisy situations? Do you complain that other people are speaking too fast or mumbling? Typically people with high pitch hearing loss report that they can hear people speaking, they just don’t catch all the words.

You may be interested to know that people with high-pitch hearing loss are often quite young. In fact, audiologists around the country have found 12 year old children with this type of hearing loss due to listening to excessively loud music. But even if you don’t listen to loud music, over time, loud noises plus genetic factors can begin to take their toll. Mowing the lawn, traffic noise, noisy restaurants and bars all can add up to a high pitch hearing loss. And because of the noisy world we live in, small cells in your inner ear, called haircells, often get damaged at a young age. These fragile cells are very interesting because they are located on a part of your ear that is much like a very small piano keyboard, and when they are damaged particular words in everyday speech begin to sound distorted.
Of course, there are other reasons people who need hearing aids don’t get them. People sometimes worry about how they look more than how well they listen. The good news here is that hearing aids have never been less noticeable—or more effective. “I actually feel smarter and younger since I got mine because I can pick up on all the details now,” says Sandra Gregory, 58 of Baltimore.

The price of a hearing aids is yet another reason, and their worried that they won’t like them. Of course it all depends on what type you buy (and no, Medicare and most insurance companies won’t cover the costs). The newest high-tech digital models typically run from $2000 to $3,000 per ear. Old-fashioned analog models are usually cheaper—$1000 to $1,600 is normal—but the difference in sound quality is like the difference between a microphone and a bullhorn. Analog models simply make sounds louder. Digital models make sounds clearer and sharpen speech. Digital models also offer more flexibility, faster processing, and better hearing in noisy places—key reasons that they make up 80 percent of hearing aid sales. Best of all, prices for digital hearing aids are becoming more affordable. Digital hearing aids used to all be expensive. But now, you can purchase different levels of technology depending on your budget, which makes digital hearing accessible to almost everyone.

Another feature of the remote control is the ability to use audio wires to connect to other devices without Bluetooth capability. The remote control adaptor kit allows the hearing aid user to use the television, computer/laptop, mp3 music player, or any other device which has a headphone jack by simply plugging the included cord in to the remote control and the desired device (e.g. TV). Similar to the Bluetooth option, the audio signal is then transmitted to both hearing aids for a surround-sound listening experience.

Why go wireless? Remote control kits give the hearing aid wearer the option of using both headphone jacks and Bluetooth options to enhance their listening experience. Multiple inputs (e.g. the TV and cell phone) can be used simultaneously to reduce the hassle of switching cords and wires. Since the remote control utilizes both hearing aids, the stereo sound is a more natural and pleasant experience.

Interested in making your listening experiences hassle-free, hands-free or tangle-free? Ask your A&A Hearing Group audiologist about Bluetooth technology and remote controls for your hearing aids.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV)-
CMV is the top cause of nonsyndromic congenital deafness and hearing loss in the United States. Congenital CMV affects mostly newborns and damages their developing cochlea and hearing nerves. As the newborn ages, hearing loss may progress to affect one or both ears. If CMV is not contracted at a young age it is typically harmless; by the age of 40 years, close to 50 to 80 percent of adults carry the virus because the virus remains in the body, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There is no proven interventions or treatments to prevent fetal transmission of CMV so pregnant women should decrease their risk of infection through routine hand-washing and avoiding people who are ill.

Diabetes
Hearing loss is twice as common in diabetics than in nondiabetics. Diabetes is a disease in which there are high levels of glucose in the blood, known as hyperglycemia. Neurons in the brain use glucose as their source of energy to run back and forth from the ear to the brain. Although there is more glucose in the blood, the neurons become sensitive to body’s inability to deliver glucose from the blood vessels into cells. The blood in the small blood vessels becomes more viscous and resistant to flow. Neurons, hair cells, and other types of auditory cells become less efficient when there is an insufficient amount of glucose which leads to sensorineural hearing loss.

Herpes Zoster
Herpes Zoster, or shingles, is caused by the same virus that causes the chickenpox. Most of the cases of shingles appears among people age of 60 or older. When the virus affects the ear it can cause facial paralysis and sensorineural hearing loss, which can range from mild to severe. This hearing loss develops from degeneration in the cochlear nerve and facial nerve, as well as inflammation around the brain lining.

Hypertension
One out of every three adults in the U.S. have high blood pressure, according to the CDC. Chronic hypertension can harden the arteries, greatly increasing the risk for heart disease and stroke. Hypertension increases the risk of sensorineural hearing loss because of possible disease of blood vessels. Damage to small blood vessels in the brain decreases the efficiency of the neurons, hair cells, and other auditory cells in their performance.

Hypothyroidism
Hypothyroidism affects about 5 percent of Americans and it is either congenital or develops later in life. This condition occurs when the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone, which regulates metabolism. Congenital hypothyroidism causes sensorineural hearing loss because of the abnormal development of the inner ear structures. Congenital hypothyroidism cannot be corrected with thyroid hormone replacement. Hypothyroidism developed later in life may cause the brain to process sound differently, but this condition may be reversed with thyroid hormone replacement.

Lyme Disease
Lyme Disease is caused by a bacteria and transmitted by the deer tick. Untreated Lyme disease can cause sudden hearing loss, tinnitus, and hyperacusis (sensitiy to sound) from infection. If there is an infection there are antibiotics for treatment and can reverse the effects.

Measles
Measles are often rare because of the vaccination. Before the vaccination the highly contagious virus was the cause of deafness for 10 percent of deaf children. Measles can cause problems in the cochlea by degeneration of nerve endings and supporting structures which causes sensorineural hearing loss.

Meningitis
Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges (covering) of the brain and spinal cord, and can lead to hearing loss. Pneumococcal meningitis, a bacterial infection, attacks the nerves and inner ear in addition to the dura mater. This type of meningitis can cause total or almost total sensorineural hearing loss, as well as loss of equilibrium. The infection may spread directly through the blood stream or through an extension of an undertreated ear infection to the brain. Pneumococcal vaccinations are available and are typically given to children and adults over 65 years to protect them against pneumonia and ear infections.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Multiple Sclerosis is a disorder of the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system) caused by damage to the myelin sheath of the nerves. Damage to the protective covering that surrounds the nerve cells causes the nerve signals to slow or stop. MS causes sensorineural hearing loss from the inflammation in the brainstem and cochlear nerve. With MS, patients have difficulty with central auditory processing tasks, such as the ability to understand conversations with background noise or to process auditory information presented in each ear separately (dichotic listening).

Mumps
Mumps are very rare in the US with vaccinations, but this contagious viral infection causes swelling of the salivary glands, located between the ear and jaw. Swelling from the mumps can cause permanent sensorineural hearing loss in one ear. The hearing loss is caused by the inflammation of the cochlear nerve.

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)
Rheumatoid Arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease that can lead to permanent joint damage. Many RA patients also tend to have a hearing impairment and a sensation of fullness in the ear. Of RA patients, 35 to 40 percent of them will exhibit sensorineural hearing loss, 25 percent will have conductive, and about 10 percent will mixed hearing loss. The exact cause of sensorineural hearing loss is unclear but conductive hearing loss is caused by damage to the inner ear structures.

Prevention
Although some of these non-ear-related diseases and condition lead to irreversible, permanent hearing loss, most of these health conditions can be prevented through lifestyle changes. Maintaining a healthy weight by eating a sensible diet and keeping physically active can greatly reduce the risk for diabetes and hypertension. Staying up-to-date on vaccinations and early treatment of diseases lowers the chance of hearing loss. Just remember that your hearing health relies on your overall health!

A hearing loop is set up in a room with a simple wire that surrounds the perimeter of the room that connects to the sound source, such as the television. With hearing aids set on the “T” setting for “telecoil”, the sound will connect wirelessly to the sound system as the wire emits a magnetic field. The metal telecoil will pick up the signal and send it to the hearing aid to be processed into sound.

Although there are few venues in the United States that are looped there are national organizations, such as the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) and the American Academy of Audiology, that are encouraging venues to install temporary loops to let people try the hearing loop. These hearing loops can be found in the New York City Transit subways to hear the clearer announcements over their intercom system. Some of the new taxi cabs in New York will also have their own loop system because the partition separating the front and back seats of the cab can act as a barrier; now passengers sitting in the back seat can hear their drivers.

Contact A&A Hearing Group to find out more about hearing aids with the telecoil feature at 301-977-6317!

Most of these “kiss of deaf” patients exhibit similar patterns of hearing loss with a dimished frequency range of unvoices consonants like “ch” and “sh”. To the patients they hear muffled speech as if listening through some type of screen. The ear-kiss recipients have to resort to hearing aids to restore their hearing. For some patients the tinnitus caused by the kiss suction had healed over time but still continued to express hearing loss.

These “kiss of deaf” cases are rare but word must be spread that one should not kiss another on the ear. To prevent any type of hearing loss and permanent damage to the inner ear resist the urge to kiss another’s ear. Although infants and children are cute and adorable it is very important to not kiss their ears for there is a greater degree of damage to their inner ear.

If you have experienced hearing loss after a kiss to the ear please call A&A Hearing Group at 301-977-6317!

How do we maximize our auditory skills? The brain can be trained through the sounds of music. Trained musicians have wired their brain to listen for certain pitches and tones. These developed neuronal pathways from the ear to the auditory memory may “reduce the impact of age-related auditory decline”. Musicians have proven to have an enhanced working memory in auditory and visual domains. Expert musicians have played an instrument for more than 10,000 hours and perform better than non-musicians in identifying speech in noise and demonstrated better working memory and recall.

To create the biggest impact of music training on the brain children should get involved with musical instruments. Children that learn musical instruments tend to have improved processing and perception of emotion in speech. This music training can improve a child’s attentional and executive functioning skills. The brain plasticity in children is easy to manipulate through the hands on experience of music.

Long term musical training can strengthen the cognitive functions of the brain and delays negative impact of age-related effects on the brain. How else might the auditory lobe of the brain be trained? In 2011, a study reported that blind adults that did not have perfect, normal vision had better hearing. These blind adults have learned to actively listen to the sounds surrounding them. This active listening develops from the increased additional sensory input that blind adults receive compared to normal vision group tested.

The brain is a powerful tool and humans have the ability to maximize its functioning capacity. Training the brain can delay the impact of age-related brain decline. The neuroplasticity potential of the brain is almost unlimited when given the opportunities. If you’re not musically talented, ask A&A Hearing Group about the LACE program we offer!

Source:
Beck, D. L., & Bhatara, A. (2012). Musicians, hearing care professionals, and neuroscientists. The Hearing Review, 19(2), 10-16.

More and more, hearing aids are being sold online, through catalogs, and directly to the consumer, bypassing the hearing healthcare provider. If your mailbox is like mine around Christmas time, it is getting filled with ton of catalogs. And if you like gadgets, like I do, you undoubtedly saw some of the same advertising for hearing aids in many of the catalogs from gadget distributers (like Hammacher Schlemmer). This is just one of the many ways hearing aids are now being sold directly to consumers as an over-the-counter product.

For the sake of discussion, let’s act as if it were legal to distribute hearing aids in any way (many companies are doing it illegally but that’ a topic for a different article) what method of distribution is best for the consumer of hearing aids: going through an audiologist or buying direct?

As you can probably tell from the title, I am against the direct-to-consumer hearing aid model. The primary argument I have heard for this model is that buying direct will provide greater access to more products making the hearing aid manufacturers compete to the ultimate end of providing a less expensive, higher quality product to the average consumer. And to the average consumer, this probably seems like a reasonable train of thought.

Here’s the problem. Although it is true that the distributers of these products can almost always provide hearing aids at lower costs to the consumers, the purchase and use of a hearing aid without a proper examination, diagnosis, fitting, programming, and counseling is a recipe for poor treatment outcomes and increased risks. One of the main risks of omitting an evaluation and treatment by an audiologist include the missed diagnosis of a serious underlying health condition that requires medical intervention and subsequent hearing loss as a result of improper fitting or programming of hearing aids.

There are a lot of different causes for hearing loss including: aging, blockages in the outer ear, ear infections, fistulas, head injury, medication, Meniere’s disease, noise damage, otosclerosis, and tumors. Many of these conditions cannot be treated with a hearing aid, and several require immediate medical intervention for treatment. How will the consumer know when to get a hearing aid and when to seek medical attention if they buy online? They won’t.

Here’s an interesting fact to consider – most hearing aid manufacturers will not allow their hearing aids to be sold or purchased without a face-to-face consultation with a licensed practitioner, because they too recognize the inherent risks associated with the purchase and use of hearing aids without the proper counseling and fitting that only a licensed hearing healthcare professional can provide.

For a moment, let’s move away from the risks associated with the direct to consumer model, and look at patient satisfaction with this model. Research (Hearing Industries Association research and MarkeTrak data from Sergei Kotchin, Ph.D) has shown that the top reasons for patient satisfaction with hearing aids are directly attributable to the patient’s experience with a trained hearing instrument professional. I think those of us who understand what patients need for best hearing healthcare are committed to the principle that hearing aid technology is successful only when a trained professional has evaluated the hearing loss and fit a hearing solution that meets the patient’s individualized needs.

There are three important components inherent in the audiology model that are necessary and absent from the direct-to-consumer model:

1) PROPER EVALUATION – There has to be a good evaluation of your hearing for two primary reasons: to evaluate if medical treatment is needed or to see if a hearing aid is needed. An audiology test battery will be able to give insight into the problem and ultimately lead to the best treatment.

2) INDIVIDUALIZED DEVICE SET-UP – A hearing aid has to have the right hardware and software for the needs of the individual. It has to physically fit correctly on the individual. It has to be tuned right – it has to be configured to the individual’s dynamic range of hearing. And finally, it has to be used correctly.

3) PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS & COUNSELING – A hearing aid not a normal consumer product. It’s a medical device and it has stigmas. On average, people know they have a hearing problem for 7 years before they do something about it. Why? There are cosmetic concerns: ‘what will other people think about me if they know I have a hearing aid?’ There are communication issues that need to be addressed with loved ones. There is often a fear of having to rely on an artificial device.

I try to put myself in the shoes of someone who has never gone through the process of getting hearing aids. From this perspective, the person may feel they could get something in a catalog or online, without having to make a big deal about it or talk to anyone. They could try it in their own time and see if it works. In theory this sounds attractive, especially for those new users who aren’t ready to confront their own negative perceptions of wearing hearing aids or because they want to keep their costs low. But does this approach work?

It’s like trying to put a band-aid on a broken arm. It just doesn’t make sense – a healthcare provider is needed to do it right. It is the knowledge and care of an audiologist that allows for success of amplification. Although, on the surface, better hearing seems like it could be more accessible if provided in a direct to consumer way, in reality, it is not practical or effective, and in many cases, not safe. Fitting hearing aids is an art, guided by science and delivered by the experience of an audiologist.

Both the musician and non-musician groups were given four auditory tests. Researchers found similar results among both musician and non-musician groups when they had to detect sounds as they steadily became quieter; however, musicians did have an advantage over non-musicians in detecting speech over background noise, short gaps in sound and changes in frequency. Typically the differences between the two groups only widen with age. Musicians were found to preserve a better level of hearing sensitivity into old age. Based on this study, a 70-year-old lifelong musician was able to understand speech in a noisy environment as well as the average 50-year-old non-musician. Musicians were better at listening tasks associated with auditory processing in the brain. Both groups tested reflected normal age-related changes to the inner ear, proposing the idea that playing a musical instrument may have long-lasting neural benefits. Aging impacts the central auditory processing system which causes hearing difficulty in environments with extraneous background noises.

Musicians are noticeably better at distinguishing speech against background noise since they use their hearing ability at a high level on a daily basis to hear tones and pitches from playing their instrument. Practicing music for years can slow age-related changes in the brain. Built up hearing skills in musicians can also offset some memory deficits of aging. Musicians can extract meaningful sounds, remember sequences of sound, and can separate the harmony from the melody within music. Through these lifelong practices, musicians have trained their brain to listen and link connections in the brain to process sound differently than non-musicians.
Get your hearing tested today! Call A&A Hearing Group at 301-977-6317!