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Environmental Noise May Cause Health Issues

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Most people are not aware of the excessive noise in their daily lives. Noise comes from traffic sounds, trains, airplanes, roadwork, construction sites, even noise from people near you talking and listening to music, etc. Your brain is constantly processing all the sound, deciding what it wants to focus on and what is to be ignored. Even when you sleep, your ears are working, picking up and filtering the sound to different parts of the brain. This constant stimulus causes mental fatigue and eventually can become physical stress. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), noise pollution is on the increase, while other forms of pollution are decreasing.

Work Related Noise Exposure

Noise may be in your work environment. It can be in the form of equipment running near you, people talking on the phone, music overhead, traffic sounds outside your window. If you work outside you may be exposed to power tools, pneumatic tools, engine noise and specific noise to your job description. The loudness of the noise you hear being discussed in this article is not loud enough to cause hearing loss but rather it causes a form of stress build-up in your body.

Noise Off the Job

Our environment is constantly filled with noise. It is a chore to find a space that is truly quiet. Our electrical appliances at home have a constant hum or beep to get your attention. The sound of someone in another room in the house may intrude with the activity in which you are engaged. Most social events have background music, which causes people to talk over it to be heard. When everyone is talking louder over each other, the intensity of the sound grows.

Health Conditions Related to Environmental Noise

The WHO data was collected over a 10-year time span. The report, titled “Burden of disease from environmental noise,” was released in 2011. Findings included an increase in cardiovascular disease, sleep disturbance, tinnitus and cognitive impairment in children, communication difficulty and basic annoyance from environmental noise. This data did not even take into consideration work-related noise, just noise found in most basic living environments for large numbers of people.

The first ranked adverse effect on health comes from air pollution; the second is noise pollution. While most of us understand how air pollution affects quality of life for the public, most of us do not think of noise pollution as a health threat.

Continual noise sets off the body’s acute stress response, which may raise blood pressure and heart rate and can potentially create a state of hyperarousal. Another study measured the brain activity of people as they slept while in a hospital. The sounds heard were people talking, phones ringing, doors closing, machinery, toilets flushing, outside traffic and other intermittent sounds. Researchers found the brain constantly monitoring the environmental sounds, forcing relentless activity instead of the brain shifting into a state of rest. There is evidence that unwanted noise provokes endocrine and metabolic dysfunction, which may initiate a large number of physical issues.

During sleep, a noise that is constant and soft is less disturbing than a noise that is impulsive or a sound that is intermittent. The change in sound activates the brain to take note and see if there is danger nearby.

Noise and Mental Heath

Noise that is not considered a physical threat or hazardous to our hearing ability can make us tense or even angry. Consider how irritating the simple dripping of a faucet can be in the middle of the night. How about the dog next door who engages in recreational barking? Many studies around the world are pointing to an increase in violent behavior because of noise disputes.

How to Reduce Noise Pollution

There are many ways to reduce exposure to unwanted sound. Close windows in the room in which you are sitting. You can wear earplugs or noise-canceling headphones, improve the insulation in your home and install wall-to-wall carpeting to reduce reverberation of sound. Purchase furniture that is made of cloth rather than leather, which bounces sound around. A slatted fence will bounce sound away from your home. Create a dedicated quiet space in your home to use when overwhelmed with sound. In the office, you can place insulated wall partitions around noisy equipment or around your desk area. Bring up the noise topic during a meeting and see if others are bothered. Then, work as a team to reduce exposure to unwanted noise. FBN

By Karon Lynn, Au.D.

Treating Hearing Loss in Babies

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Hearing loss in children is more common than you may realize. Hearing loss occurs in two to three per 100 babies born in the United States, prompting hospitals to offer hearing screening as part of the newborn package or charge a small fee for the test. I strongly recommend all parents have their baby’s hearing checked prior to discharge.

Hearing Test for Newborns

The hearing test is quick and painless for the baby. It is administered by either a nurse or other hospital employee trained in the procedure. The test will be explained and results will be available as soon as the test is completed. The test will be an automated auditory brainstem response (AABR) or otoacoustic emissions (OAE). I have completed thousands of these tests and can assure the parents there is absolutely no discomfort from the test. If you have a home birth, you can call an audiologist, ask if he or she has the newborn hearing screening equipment and schedule the test at the doctor’s office. It is important to complete the test during the first month so the baby will sleep through the test. Much later than one month of age, the baby will wake up and see the stranger touching them and become agitated.

When Babies Don’t Pass the Screening

If the baby does not pass the hearing screening at the first attempt, the baby is scheduled for a follow-up screening. Many times when a baby is born, there is debris in the ear canals, causing a mild hearing loss. I ask the parents to massage the baby’s ears gently as they are feeding the baby to encourage the debris to migrate out. Do not stick anything in the ear canal, just massage the ears.

When Babies Don’t Pass the Follow-Up Test

A diagnostic test is completed if the follow-up test shows possible hearing loss. The test is an auditory brainstem response test (ABR) and will show the audiologist how well the hearing organ picks up sound and sends it into the brain. Each ear is tested independently. There are small electrodes taped to the baby’s head and earphones in the ear canals to send a sound to be measured. This, too, is a painless procedure. The baby must be asleep for this test to work so again, the younger the baby, the more likely he/she will sleep during the procedure. If the child is much more than four months old, the audiologist may recommend a light sedation to ensure the baby stays asleep during the entire test.

What If My Baby has a Hearing Loss?

If the audiologist says there is hearing loss in one or both ears, the next topic will be the cause. A referral to an ear, nose and throat doctor will be made. Is the hearing loss conductive or sensorineural? With a conductive hearing loss, there is a chance the hearing loss is because of continued debris in the canal or middle ear fluid. This would be temporary hearing loss. If the hearing loss is because of abnormal middle ear bones or a growth in the middle ear cavity, an ear surgeon would discuss surgical options with you. A sensorineural hearing loss is caused by damage to the hearing organ of the ear or the sound pathways in the brain. This type of loss is treated with hearing aids or a cochlear implant, depending on the degree of hearing loss.

Choosing Hearing Aids or Cochlear Implant

Babies with hearing loss are fit with hearing aids around two months of age. When hearing aids are fit, speech therapy is recommended to help teach the family how to speak to the baby and how to monitor speech and language development.

If the child has a profound hearing loss with no improvement in awareness of sound while wearing hearing aids, a cochlear implant is recommended. I like to schedule the cochlear implant surgery at 12 month of age. I ask parents to schedule a consultation with the surgeon for cochlear implant at 10 months so all involved are ready to go by 12 months of age. The FDA requires a trial with hearing aids prior to the cochlear implant. The earlier a baby is fit with a cochlear implant, the better the outcome.

I have seen amazing speech and language development in children who are amplified and receive consistent speech therapy. The new technology is remarkable! QCBN

By Karon Lynn, Au.D.

Trinity Hearing Center is located at 1330 N. Rim Dr., Suite B in Flagstaff. For more information, visit the website at TrinityHearing.net. Karon Lynn is a doctor of audiology with 30 years of experience working with hearing impaired individuals. Dr. Lynn may be reached at 928-522-0500 or at audio@trinityhearing.net.

Changes in Hearing After Head Injury

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Approximately 1.4 million individuals suffer from traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year in the United States. The most common causes of injury are automobile accidents, falls, assaults/blows, sports-related injuries and explosive blasts. Internal causes of brain injury are strokes, edema, meningitis, tumors and even certain medications. The resulting hearing loss symptoms a person suffers are varied depending on the damage.

 

Injury from Automobile Accidents

The brain may be shaken within the skull, causing bruises or contusions to form at the sites of impact. Like bruises elsewhere on the body, these will heal with time. Brain injury can occur even when there is no direct blow to the head, such as when a person suffers whiplash. The force may stretch and sever fibers in the brain. Damage to these fibers disrupts the communication between nerve cells, and reduces the efficiency of the brains ability to function. The established pathways may be damaged enough that they do not send the necessary nerve signal properly anymore.

 

Injury from Bleeding

Damage to blood vessels surrounding the brain is another common source of injury, causing bleeding between the brain and skull. When this type of bleeding stops and the blood vessels heal like any other cut. Bleeding may permanently damage the surrounding brain tissue even after the blood vessels have healed.

 

What Does the Injury Do?

Minor head injuries cause a wide range of cognitive deficits such as impaired attention, slowed information processing, memory difficulty, difficult word retrieval, deficits in understanding speech and problem-solving. There can be personality changes including increased irritability, anxiety, depression and social inappropriateness. Depression is one of the most commonly reported problems after head injury. Hyper-sensitive vision and hearing are also common side effects of head trauma.

 

Hypersensitivity to Sound

Hypersensitivity to sound is called hyperacusis. After an individual has suffered a head injury, he or she may become nervous or anxious when they go to stores, movies or restaurants. These individuals may feel that they hear as well as they did prior to the injury, but now they have difficulty focusing on only one sound. It is as if all the sound in the room rushes into the brain without any type of governor or filtering system. People report they hear a solid wall of noise that is constantly closing in on them.

Individuals with hyperacusis have difficulty tolerating sounds that do not seem loud to others, such as the noise from running faucet water, riding in a car, walking on leaves, a running dishwasher, the fan on the refrigerator, shuffling papers and the sound of their own breathing. Although all sounds may be perceived as too loud, high frequency sounds may be particularly troublesome. The quality of life for individuals with hyperacusis can be greatly compromised. For those with a severe intolerance to sound, it is difficult and sometimes impossible to function in an everyday environment with all the ambient noise.

 

Treatment for Hyperacusis

Hyperacusis may occur without damage to the hearing organ (cochlea). On other occasions, it occurs in conjunction with damage to the cochlea. After head injury or brain injury, it is recommended that you have a hearing evaluation. During the visit, you and your audiologist will discuss any symptoms you are experiencing. You will learn if your hearing symptoms are isolated to the cochlea or throughout the auditory pathways in your brain.

Your audiologist may recommend that you use musician’s earplugs. This special custom fit ear plug filters out sounds of specific frequencies and intensities depending on the severity of your situation. Because they are custom fit to your ears, they are comfortable enough to wear all day. As time progresses, you will be able to wear the earplugs less and less. Some individuals wear the plugs only in the noisy situations that bother them.

 

Find a Support Group

One of the primary difficulties of living with this disorder is other people’s reactions to what you are experiencing. Those who do not have hypersensitivity to sound simply cannot imagine how their chewing and swallowing noises can be so distracting to another person. Often, protests from the sufferer are misinterpreted as passive-aggressive personal attacks or that the head injured person is faking the problem.

Remember that you are not alone. If you feel that you are having significant difficulty coping with your symptoms, speak to a professional. There are support groups that focus on head injury suffers, which offer information and the opportunity to establish camaraderie with other people who are experiencing similar difficulty. QCBN

 

 

By Karon Lynn, Au.D.

 

Understanding Hearing Loss and Associated Comorbidities

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I found this article from the CapTel phone organization and liked it so much that I am sharing it with you.

In only the last dozen years, many important studies have surfaced linking hearing loss to disabling conditions such as cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease, clinical depression, diabetes, falls among the elderly, heart disease and many more. These linkages are often referred to as “comorbidities,” which is defined as the simultaneous presence of two or more chronic conditions or diseases in a person. A “chronic condition” is defined as a health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects. The term chronic is applied when the course of the disease lasts for more than three months. Using this definition, hearing loss clearly qualifies as a chronic condition.

Seven Comorbidities Linked to Hearing Loss

 

  1. Social isolation and loneliness. Although social isolation and loneliness are usually looked at as different constructs, for the purpose of this general discussion the two are combined here. The researchers measured loneliness using the UCLA Loneliness Scale, and found that younger-age hearing loss was significantly correlated with greater loneliness. Other depressive symptoms and hearing-related quality of life, communication difficulties, emotional well-being, mental health on the 36-item Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form (SF-36) were also negatively correlated with loneliness.
  2. Depression. Recent research shows that there appears to be a direct relationship with the prevalence of moderate-to-severe depression being 4.9 percent for people reporting excellent hearing, 7.1 percent for those with good hearing, and 11.4 percent for those reporting a little trouble or greater hearing loss. This study also contains some interesting data that shows how, as the hearing loss increases, the incidence of depression also increases. The trend appears to be more obvious for women, and the exceptions to this were people who reported themselves to be “deaf.”
  3. Falls. Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries among the elderly leading to significant health, social, economic and emotional consequences. Falls often lead to fatal outcomes within the first 12 months of a fall with injury in the senior population. Research has shown an increase in falls by 1.4 percent increasing to a much larger percentage the more hearing loss a person has.
  4. Cardiovascular disease. An interesting 2009 study by Friedland and colleagues published in Laryngoscope showed that the audiometric patterns – particularly low-frequency (sloping) and flat (strial) losses – were strongly correlated with cardiovascular disease. In fact, the researchers reported that patients with low-frequency hearing loss should be regarded as “at risk” for cardiovascular events, and appropriate medical referrals should be considered. One chart in the study suggests that about 85 percent of diagnosed strokes were associated with individuals who had flat or low-frequency sloping losses, causing the authors to suggest that the vascular pathology extended throughout the body, including the ears.
  5. Diabetes. A study looking at the association between hearing loss and diabetes was conducted by Kathleen Bainbridge and colleagues, published in the July 2008 edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine. They found that people with diabetes had significantly increased odds of hearing impairment in worse and better ears at all severity levels and frequencies. It appears that prevalence of hearing loss among those people with diabetes was more than twice that than those without diabetes. The association between hearing loss and diabetes was actually stronger among those people younger than age 60, and was independent of gender or chronic exposure to noise.
  6. Cognitive impairment and dementia. Perhaps the landmark study that elevated the interest of healthcare professionals and the public about this topic was the paper by Dr. Frank Lin and colleagues published in 2011. The results showed that, compared with normal hearing, the hazard ratio for incident all-cause dementia was 1.89 for mild hearing loss, 3.0 for moderate hearing loss, and 4.94 for severe hearing loss.
  7. Mortality. As if all these comorbidities are not enough, it turns out that there may even be a relationship between hearing loss and mortality. The Reykjavik study by Fisher, et al, examined the vision and hearing of 4,926 Icelandic individuals ages 67 years or older between 2002-2006 who were prospectively followed for mortality through 2009. In the study, individuals with hearing loss had a higher risk of death from all-cause cardiovascular disease than those without hearing loss. QCBN

 

 

By Karon Lynn, Au.D.

Understanding Brain Controlled Hearing Aids

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One of the most difficult situations in which to hear well is to hear one person in a group of loud-spoken people. Not hearing well in the company of friends and family is a quality of life issue. Without the ability to hear what is going on, you tend to withdraw and become isolated. Rather than giving up on social interaction, I recommend that you try a pair of hearing aids. Hearing aids are outfitted with directional microphones to help you focus in a direction you choose. For instance, if you are driving a car and want to hear the passenger more clearly, you can push a button to stream the sound from the passenger side into the opposite ear hearing aid. The aids are able to turn down the noise from the window and receive the speech from the passenger so that you hear them in both ears equally. It really helps increase the clarity of the speech. Some of the hearing aids are able to do this without pushing a button. The aids have sensors (a computer program) that know when you are in a car environment and automatically make the adjustment for you!

What happens when you are in a restaurant? The hearing aids are able to reduce distant sound from a nearby table so that you are better able to focus on the person sitting across the table from you. To do this, the hearing aids turn down the input from the back facing microphone. This will provide a better signal-to-noise ratio. In this case, the signal is the person across the table and the noise is the group of people behind you. Research has shown us that people with hearing loss need more of a reduction in noise compared to speech (signal to noise ratio) than people with normal hearing. That is why normal hearing people are able to understand speech in moderate noise. The brain and auditory pathways are able to separate the two signals better if you have normal hearing and processing. The problem arises if you have compromised hearing organs (cochlea) or compromised pathways into the area of the brain that understands speech. The current hearing aids are not able to eliminate the unwanted noise, but they are able to reduce the noise.

Researchers at Columbia University are focusing on this issue by combining traditional hearing aid technology with brain scanning and artificial intelligence. It is called auditory attention decoding (ADD), or a cognitively controlled hearing aid. In the research stage, they use externally worn sensors that monitor brain activity to determine what the hearing target is, and then it isolates the targeted speech and makes it louder while suppressing all the background noise. (That is a lot to put into one sentence, much less into one hearing aid!) To collect the massive amount of data coming from the brain, the person wears a cap with electrodes in it so that the electrodes touch the scalp. The information is fed to a computer that is able to learn what you prefer to hear and what you want to ignore. This system can take a single audio channel from a group of speakers (talking people) and combine it with the listener’s neural signals (from the brain) and in less than 10 seconds it determines which speaker is being listened to and amplifies it to the required loudness for clarity. One day you will be able to have cognitively controlled hearing aids!

Until the time that these hearing aids are available to the public, we need to continue to use the following tips to get the most out of what we can hear.

  1. Ask people to face you when they speak.
  2. Reduce background noise when possible.
  3. Select off times to go out to restaurants so they are not so noisy.
  4. Ask people to get your attention before they start speaking.
  5. Ask people to speak slower, not louder.
  6. Keep the hearing aids and ear canals clean.
  7. Have the hearing aids checked once a year for proper function.

By following these guidelines, you will have more success understanding speech in a competitive environment. If you are not happy with the sound of your hearing aids even when you are at home, then maybe it is time to investigate the newer technology that is available. A one month trial of the newer technology while you own your older hearing aids is a great way to make an apples-to-apples comparison. QCBN

By Karon Lynn, Au.D.

 

 

 

What is it Like to Have a Hearing Loss?

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As an audiologist, I see hearing impaired individuals every day. One of the most rewarding activities of my job is to teach the family members what it is like to have a hearing loss and how to better communicate with hearing impaired people.

 

What can the hearing impaired person hear?

I think that understanding what a person really can and can’t hear is the key to successfully living with or working with a hearing impaired person. It is crucial to understand what can change the clarity of your voice for a person attempting to comprehend what you are saying.

For the sake of argument, let’s select the most common hearing loss to use in our discussion. That would be a high frequency hearing loss. Now, we will put lovely hearing aids on them that have been programmed by your favorite audiologist! That individual is now being given sound to augment what they hear without amplification. Can they hear the same as you? I am sorry to say they do not. They are able to hear more sounds that are used for speech and they also hear room noise that is sharing the same pitches as speech. They can hear water running, cinders crunching under their feet, paper rustling and other high pitch sounds. They hear your voice much easier (note the word easier) but not perfectly. They can now hear the competitive speech sounds in the same room. The damage in the hearing organ is still there. In essence, even as a person wears hearing aids they are still hearing impaired. Their hearing is aided.

 

Filtered speech that you can hear online

There are some amazing websites that play a variety of sound samples for the normal hearing person to hear speech through a damaged hearing organ. One website is called The Hearing Loss Sampler by Scott Bradley Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The web address is: facstaff.uww.edu/bradleys/radio/hlsimulation/. This website demonstrates a variety of hearing losses by using a filter to modify the sound to match the audiogram shown.

It is a remarkable learning experience to listen to the samples and step into the shoes of an individual who lives in a world with this type of hearing. After listening to the samples, imagine going to church service or a meeting with the “sample ears.” How loud would you need to turn the TV? Now imagine sitting in your favorite chair reading a book and suddenly hearing the demonstration sentence start up. Would you be able to understand it? If you turn the “sample ears” louder, does it eliminate all the difficulty or do you still need to concentrate on what is being said? Do you think that you could relax and listen as people were talking in a group setting?

You will notice at this website that speech in noise is separate from the speech in quiet. Listen to the difference. Notice how noise is a significant distraction to the desired sentence you are concentrating on.

Another website called The Real Sounds of Hearing provides sentences with filtered sound giving you a unique insight into the life of a hearing-impaired person. Go to: npr.org/blogs/health/2013/04/06/175945670/the-real-sounds-of-hearing-loss. This website is provided by Audrey Carlsen. She demonstrates to the listener how it is to hear with the high frequencies missing or damaged. In another sample, she demonstrates what it sounds like with a flat hearing loss. A flat hearing loss causes you to miss all the soft sounds of speech.

 

Another source of information about hearing is at YouTube. Go to YouTube and type in the words “simulated hearing loss.” You will find many samples of what hearing loss sounds like and how the hearing system works.

I hope those of you who do not own a computer will go use a family member or friend’s computer to listen to these samples. You could go to your audiologists office and ask to hear the samples. Another suggestion is to go the public library. The librarian will be happy to help you find the web sites and help you use the computer.

If you live with or work with people who are experiencing hearing loss, you will find this knowledge profound. Please take a few minutes to put yourself in their shoes. My experience is that the normal hearing family members are moved to tears as they finally understand what their loved one is experiencing. QCBN

By Karon Lynn, Au.D.

Trinity Hearing Center is located at 1330 N. Rim Dr., Suite B in Flagstaff. For more information, visit the website at TrinityHearing.net. Karon Lynn is a doctor of audiology with 30 years of experience working with hearing impaired individuals. Dr. Lynn may be reached at 928-522-0500 or at audio@trinityhearing.net.

 

 

 

Understanding One-Sided Hearing Loss

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Do you or someone you know have a hearing loss in one ear and were told nothing could be done about it? That was the common misconception many years ago. With this type of hearing loss, a person will experience difficulty understanding speech in a noisy room and locating the source of a sound. Many times significant emotional strain is created because others feel that you should hear just fine with one ear. They can’t understand why you hear some of the time and not all the time. The good news is that technology is now ready for you!

What Causes One-Sided Deafness?

One-sided deafness or unilateral hearing loss may have many causes. Some people are born with the hearing loss and others acquire a hearing loss by being exposed to an extremely loud sound or other type of hearing trauma. Head injury can cause hearing loss. An interruption in blood flow to the hearing organ (cochlea) or a virus may attack this part of the body, causing permanent hearing loss. A benign growth on the hearing nerve will also cause hearing loss in only one ear.

 

How Many Ears Do You Really Need to Hear People Talk?

This seems like an easy question, but the answer is really quite complicated. One ear hearing difference causes unique difficulty understanding speech. The individual will also experience more confusion and difficulty identifying with situations occurring around them more than someone with two equally hearing ears. The brain likes to hear from both sides to stimulate the understanding areas of the brain. When you do get a signal from both sides of the head, the brain does a much better job of separating the speech from the background noise. This being said, it is not that you need two ears to hear people talk, you need two ears to figure out what is being said. Hearing and understanding speech are very different tasks.

 

What Can Be Done About This Type of Permanent Hearing Loss?

The hearing organ cannot be surgically repaired. However, there is a technology ready for you to try! The new CROS (contralateral routing of signal) hearing aid is able to send a quality signal to your better ear. The concept of a CROS hearing aid is not new, but the ability of this newer digital technology to send a comfortable and more natural sound to your other ear is. The signal is sent to the better ear real time! There is no delay making it sound natural. People are amazed how they suddenly feel connected to the situations going on around them. Understanding speech is greatly enhanced. Many times this will reduce the feeling of being anxious when engaged in group activities. The emotional stress and frustration that a unilateral hearing loss causes may be significantly reduced. Suddenly you can feel that you are part of a conversation rather than needing to act like you are enjoying the conversation that you really are unable to hear adequately.

 

I Have a Hearing Loss in My Good Ear Too. What Can I Do?

There is technology advancement for you, too. A BiCROS hearing aid is for the person with a hearing loss in the better ear and has a dead or unusable ear on the other side. This hearing aid combination has also been extremely successful. The audiologist is able to adjust the overall gain from each side of the head. It is amazing to see the expression on someone’s face who has not heard “surround sound” since they can remember. This may open up an entire world for the person who has been avoiding social interactions because they felt that others saw them as mentally slow as they could not keep up with the conversation going on around them.

Sudden Change in Hearing or Balance.

If you have experienced a sudden change in hearing or balance, it is extremely important to see your primary care physician as quickly as possible. The treatments are time sensitive; the longer you wait the hearing and balance organ may not respond to therapy. They will send you to an audiologist for a hearing evaluation then to an ENT to rule out a growth on the hearing nerve or any of the other medical causes for unilateral hearing loss listed above. After your physicians have said that there is no further medical treatment, then try the CROS or BiCROS hearing aid. It may just change your life! QCBN

 

By Karon Lynn, Au.D.

Research Linking Exercise to Reduced Hearing Loss

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Researchers have shown us that exercise is good for your hearing! We all know that regular exercise helps reduce weight gain, improves bone density, increases cardiovascular fitness and even helps to support your immune system. Now, the results are showing that lack of aerobic exercise in mice caused the structures inside the hearing organ (cochlea) to collapse or deteriorate. The hair cells or nerves that pick up sound and change it to electrical signal and the strial capillaries, which provide the blood flow to the cochlea were not as productive in the sedentary mice. The strial capillaries take the necessary oxygen to the auditory system, which is essential for the function of the hearing organs.

The mice that exercised showed a five percent hearing loss in their lifetime, while the mice that were not allowed to exercise experienced a 20 percent hearing loss. Now, researchers believe that 70 percent of hearing loss in people over 70 years is related to the loss of these important structures. The researchers also noted that age related inflammation in the less active mice was more significant than in the active mice.

 

Cardiovascular Health

 

Cardiovascular health seems to be one of the secrets to keeping the body and all of its intricate organs happy. The body needs oxygen to maintain a state of functional health. The body at rest does not challenge the heart enough to keep the oxygen rich blood flowing to all the distant tiny areas (like the hearing organs) that are dependent on a continual supply of fresh oxygen. The aging process promotes saggy skin, right? So, think about your insides; they are probably saggy, too. If the outside of our body teaches us anything, it is that “things are a’changing.”

How does blood full of life-giving oxygen easily travel down the arteries that branch out into smaller and smaller areas to tissue changing into tiny capillaries when the resistance of the artery walls is no longer there? The heart must maintain strength to pump the blood all over the body. As we age, there is a reduction in total body water; thus, less fluid in the bloodstream, causing a reduction in the amount of blood we have. The reproduction of the blood cells is reduced as we age, which is problematic if there is blood loss or anemia. If we simply let things go as they go, we fall into poor cardiovascular health.

 

 

 

Brain Energy

It is important to remember that the brain is dependent on oxygen delivered from blood. The brain is responsible for taking all the sound you hear and converting it into signals that make sense. It has to work hard to decipher the speech sound and separate it from background noise. This requires a healthy brain that is able to transfer information from one area to the other in a timely manner. It needs to race the information to the necessary area of the brain so you will be able to understand the current sentence and not need to stop to figure out the previous sentence that was said. As we age, speed of processing is compromised naturally but with consistent fresh supply of oxygen this is less noticeable. When an area of the brain is not consistently provided oxygen, the nerves degenerate and are never able to be used again.

 

What Type of Exercise Helps Hearing?

The important part of exercise is not what you do but that you do something on a regular basis. You can walk, bike, run or go to a class at the gym. It does not really matter what you do, so pick something that you like and create the habit to do it. The important thing is that you make it part of your normal routine. Think of it as the daily norm similar to taking a shower, brushing your teeth, eating, drinking and, of course, exercising. Make exercise one of your normal daily activities.

During your exercise, it is important to use large muscle movements for at least 20-30 minutes five days a week. Walk for 10 minutes, turn around and go back – and magically, you have your 20 minutes of exercise! Stretching helps blood flow to your muscles and other structures, which are necessary to have a full and happy life. Simple, gentle stretches help wake the muscles and increase blood flow at the same time! You are the only person who can change your blood flow, so make it your choice today! QCBN

By Karon Lynn, Au.D.

 

Research Linking Exercise to Reduced Hearing Loss

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Researchers have shown us that exercise is good for your hearing! We all know that regular exercise helps reduce weight gain, improves bone density, increases cardiovascular fitness and even helps to support your immune system. Now, the results are showing that lack of aerobic exercise in mice caused the structures inside the hearing organ (cochlea) to collapse or deteriorate. The hair cells or nerves that pick up sound and change it to electrical signal and the strial capillaries, which provide the blood flow to the cochlea were not as productive in the sedentary mice. The strial capillaries take the necessary oxygen to the auditory system, which is essential for the function of the hearing organs.

The mice that exercised showed a five percent hearing loss in their lifetime, while the mice that were not allowed to exercise experienced a 20 percent hearing loss. Now, researchers believe that 70 percent of hearing loss in people over 70 years is related to the loss of these important structures. The researchers also noted that age related inflammation in the less active mice was more significant than in the active mice.

 

Cardiovascular Health

 

Cardiovascular health seems to be one of the secrets to keeping the body and all of its intricate organs happy. The body needs oxygen to maintain a state of functional health. The body at rest does not challenge the heart enough to keep the oxygen rich blood flowing to all the distant tiny areas (like the hearing organs) that are dependent on a continual supply of fresh oxygen. The aging process promotes saggy skin, right? So, think about your insides; they are probably saggy, too. If the outside of our body teaches us anything, it is that “things are a’changing.”

How does blood full of life-giving oxygen easily travel down the arteries that branch out into smaller and smaller areas to tissue changing into tiny capillaries when the resistance of the artery walls is no longer there? The heart must maintain strength to pump the blood all over the body. As we age, there is a reduction in total body water; thus, less fluid in the bloodstream, causing a reduction in the amount of blood we have. The reproduction of the blood cells is reduced as we age, which is problematic if there is blood loss or anemia. If we simply let things go as they go, we fall into poor cardiovascular health.

 

 

 

Brain Energy

It is important to remember that the brain is dependent on oxygen delivered from blood. The brain is responsible for taking all the sound you hear and converting it into signals that make sense. It has to work hard to decipher the speech sound and separate it from background noise. This requires a healthy brain that is able to transfer information from one area to the other in a timely manner. It needs to race the information to the necessary area of the brain so you will be able to understand the current sentence and not need to stop to figure out the previous sentence that was said. As we age, speed of processing is compromised naturally but with consistent fresh supply of oxygen this is less noticeable. When an area of the brain is not consistently provided oxygen, the nerves degenerate and are never able to be used again.

 

What Type of Exercise Helps Hearing?

The important part of exercise is not what you do but that you do something on a regular basis. You can walk, bike, run or go to a class at the gym. It does not really matter what you do, so pick something that you like and create the habit to do it. The important thing is that you make it part of your normal routine. Think of it as the daily norm similar to taking a shower, brushing your teeth, eating, drinking and, of course, exercising. Make exercise one of your normal daily activities.

During your exercise, it is important to use large muscle movements for at least 20-30 minutes five days a week. Walk for 10 minutes, turn around and go back – and magically, you have your 20 minutes of exercise! Stretching helps blood flow to your muscles and other structures, which are necessary to have a full and happy life. Simple, gentle stretches help wake the muscles and increase blood flow at the same time! You are the only person who can change your blood flow, so make it your choice today! QCBN

 

By Karon Lynn, Au.D.

How to Buy Hearing Aids Online

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This is a new topic in the world of hearing aids. There is a whole new world out there offering you hearing aids at a price “too good to be true.” You will now see hearing aids sold online and even offered through your insurance company. This new process for obtaining hearing aids is not without a significant set of issues. First, you need to make certain you do not have a hearing loss that needs medical attention. It is important to understand that online aids are not able to be fine-tuned to meet your specific environmental needs. Do you sing in a choir, go hiking in the wind or are you a birder? All of the “special” activities you engage in will require sound modification in the hearing aids.

When you purchase hearing aids online or from other sources outside of your living area, you must be careful about the level of technology you are actually getting. Do they advertise features that are not really in the device? Some companies are offering hearing aids with entry level circuitry with no ability to upgrade. An entry level circuit may be adequate for that individual who lives alone, does not leave the house very often and is rarely in a noisy environment. The average individual needing hearing aids has a full array of listening environments such as at the grocery store, church, meetings, restaurants and family gatherings.

 

Online Hearing Aid Purchases

Online hearing aids may sport a great price, but remember that price is typically for a device only. The programming, repairs, upkeep and cleaning may not be included when the price is too good to be real. Hearing aids can be high maintenance and will need to have someone check to keep the sound quality good by cleaning them and making sure the ear canals are clear. The hearing aid sound needs to be changed as your hearing changes. Be prepared to purchase service and upkeep from a local audiologist if you choose an internet hearing aid. There may not be an audiologist who has the software to make the modifications you need as your hearing changes or to make the sound more comfortable for you. Another option is to ask your audiologist if he or she can offer a total package for a similar model hearing aid with the service and adjustments at a comparable price.

 

Hearing Aids Through Insurance Companies

Before you select a particular insurance supplement based on the fact that it offers a hearing aid benefit, research the actual benefit, the hearing aid make and model and ask how the hearing aid will be maintained for any damage and all the necessary adjustments to the sound. Realize that if the sound quality does not meet your needs, you are limited to the skills of the technician to whom you mail the aid. That individual has not established a personal relationship with you and will change the settings based on a flow sheet that the industry has provided. If you don’t like the new settings or the hearing aids hurt your ears, you have to mail the aids back again and again.

Some insurance companies offer hearing aids to the consumer with various levels of technology. The consumer sees an audiologist to complete an evaluation and assist the consumer in selecting a certain level of technology. The consumer pays the insurance company for the hearing aids. The audiologist is paid a flat rate by the insurance company for the fitting and initial adjustment of the hearing aids. The subsequent adjustments could take three to five visits, are to be paid by the person wearing the aids. There are also insurance plans that offer a flat rate toward the purchase of hearing aids. The difference in actual price of the hearing aids is paid to the audiologist by the consumer.

 

Ask Your Local Audiologist

Another option is to make an appointment with a local audiologist and ask for advice on hearing aids offered through the plan on which you are focusing. The audiologist may be able to offer suggestions to reduce your risk of being saddled with hearing aids with which you may not be happy. You may be able to see if that audiologist carries a hearing aid with similar technology at a competitive price. If so, you will get hearing aids and the ongoing service that you will need with a person you can see and talk to! Remember, hearing changes. You wear the hearing aids every day and expose them to moisture, heat, wax and the potential of physical damage; you need an ongoing professional team to help you with your hearing health! QCBN

By Dr. Karon Lynn, Au.D.