Having Diabetes May Result in Hearing Loss
Published November 22, 2011 | 
Hearing loss is about twice as common in adults with diabetes compared to those who do not have the disease, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Yet hearing screenings typically are not part of the regular care that people with diabetes are routinely recommended to receive. Additionally, the vast majority of doctors in today’s health care system do not include hearing health as a routine part of annual exams.
“Hearing loss affects virtually every aspect of a person’s life, making it all the harder for people with diabetes to cope with their disease,” said Sergei Kochkin, PhD, executive director of the Better Hearing Institute {BHI).
Much of this education began earlier this year during The American Diabetes Association Alert Day?. November is National Diabetes Month, and Healthy Hearing is participating in an effort to educate Hampton Roads residents on the importance of hearing exams, whether a customer has been diagnosed with diabetes or has several of the characteristics to watch for such as being overweight or having family members with the disease.
“A hearing check is invaluable in determining whether or not someone with diabetes does have a hearing loss and will help to ensure that they get the treatment they need,” said Healthy Hearing’s owner Chris Maher, M.Ed., NBC-HIS .” Research has shown that people with diabetes are twice as likely to develop hearing loss as those who do not have diabetes. Since hearing loss develops slowly, many times it goes undiagnosed and the risk of auditory atrophy increases (meaning the brain’s inability to recognize and process speech cues quickly and efficiently).
About Diabetes
Diabetes is a serious disease that strikes nearly 26 million children and adults in the United States, according to the ADA. An additional 79 million, or one in three American adults, have pre-diabetes, which puts them at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is called a “silent killer” because a quarter of those with the disease – 7 million – do not know they have it. For many, diagnosis may come seven to ten years after the onset of the disease. Therefore, early diagnosis is critical to successful treatment and delaying or preventing some of its complications, such as heart disease, blindness, kidney disease, stroke, amputation, and death.
According the ADA, everyone should be aware of the risk factors for type 2 diabetes. People who are overweight, under active (living a sedentary lifestyle) and over the age of 45 should consider themselves at risk for the disease. African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders and people who have a family history of the disease also are at an increased risk for type 2 diabetes. Studies have shown that type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed by losing just 7 percent of body weight (such as 15 pounds if you weigh 200) through regular physical activity (30 minutes a day, five days a week) and healthy eating. By understanding the risk, individuals can take the necessary steps to help prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes.
You Can Help…
Now through December 6th, you can help us support the fight against Diabetes with an easy click or your mouse. All you have to do is have your friends and family click “Like” on our page http://www.facebook.com/HealthyHearingNow. Healthy Hearing will donate a $1 for every “Like” we receive to support the fight that has touched so many families. Between now and December 6th, you can also refer a new customer to us for a free, no obligation complete hearing exam, and we will donate $10 including your name in our presentation.
I Hear Everything!
Published August 22, 2011 | I’m Hearing Everything!
Suzanne came in this morning and reported that she was hearing EVERYTHING. She had come in for her one week check up and she told me about her experience.
“I wore them all week all day long. I really paid attention to new sounds just like you told me to. I can hear my shoes and all sorts of other things now. Some sounds were quite loud like the toilet flushing, road noise in the car and the music in church.”
How is conversation?” I asked.
“It’s so much better. I was even at a meeting with a lot of people and I heard everything. The T.V. is great! I turned the volume down two thirds of what it used to be.”
I asked, “Are you pleased?”
“Oh yes! Very pleased. And no one can see them, which I really like.” she replied.
This illustrates the process that I always talk about which is the necessity for the brain to rewire itself. With hearing loss, the brain gets used to a softer more muted world. Hearing aids change that. Sounds are once again heard in their entirety and as a result, seem quite different.
Early treatment of hearing loss has dramatic impact on longterm success with hearing aids. The sooner someone begins treatment, the easier it is to transition back into hearing all of the environmental sounds accurately. The brain quickly adapts to the new sounds and stays “in shape.” The longer one waits, the harder it can be to get back up to speed.
Being aware of and hearing all the environmental noise is critical to the hearing/listening process. The background noise should be just that – in the background. With today’s technology we can minimize the distraction and separate noise from speech. However, we need to hear it and get used to it so that we can tune it out just like we did when we were infants.
The ability to tune out environmental sounds while focusing on conversation is a critical listening skill. This skill usually gets rusty and out of shape as hearing loss progresses and is left untreated. When someone begins wearing hearing aids, they need to practice and sharpen their listening skills to hear better in noisier environments.
Chris Maher
M.Ed., BC-HIS
Noise Exposure – Music May Damage Ability to Distinguish Sounds
Published July 1, 2011 | Are Hearing Aids In Your Future?
High-volume portable music players may impair ability to clearly discriminate sounds
Growing numbers of people enjoy listening to music on portable music players or cell phones, and many tend to turn up the volume, especially in noisy surroundings. In a study published March 2, 2011 in the open-access journal PLoS ONE, researchers explore the potential effects of this behavior on hearing.
The study was a collaboration between Drs. Hidehiko Okamoto and Ryusuke Kakigi from the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan, and Drs. Christo Pantev and Henning Teismann from the University of Muenster. The researchers demonstrated that listening to loud music through earphones for extended periods in noisy surroundings can cause neurophysiological changes related to clear discrimination of sounds, even if the hearing threshold is normal. This auditory abnormality concerns “the vividness of sounds” and cannot be recognized by the usual hearing test in which subjects are examined using a series of individual tones in a silent environment. These results may support a future auditory assessment plan for long-term portable music player users.
The research group examined the brain’s response to sound using the biomagnetism measurement device MEG (magnetoencephalography), which makes it possible to measure the brain activity without any subject’s behavioral response. They recorded the brain responses of two groups of 13 young adults; one group had regularly listened to music at full blast, and the other group had not. Subjects listened to a sound of a specific frequency contained in background noises while watching a movie. The inability to dissociate a sound from background noises was considerably more pronounced in the habitual portable music player users. This difficulty cannot be detected with the current standard hearing test, which yielded the same results in both groups.
According to Dr. Okamoto, “It can be said that listening to music at high volumes burdens the nerves of the brain and auditory system and can cause a decline in the ability to discriminate sounds, even if the usual hearing test results are normal and the subject is unaware of any changes.” He also claims, “It would be better to suppress environmental noises by using devices such as noise cancellers instead of turning up the volume when enjoying a mobile music player in a noisy place.”
Source: National Institute for Physiological Sciences
HEARING AIDS TO THE RESCUE
Healthy Hearing Note: Over the years we have seen many people who are now wearing hearing aids because they damaged their hearing through listening to loud music or working in a loud environment. It is of course best to prevent the loss by using ear protection but if you do have a loss we can usually help with hearing aids. We have several lines of digital hearing aids that can specifically address your loss in the ranges that are damaged.
Hearing Aids can make a world of difference.
Call our office to set up a free appointment and hearing test.
Hearing aids may be just what you need to let you hear again.
Test Post – Use it!
Published August 17, 2011 | Your brain is like any other muscle in the body.
Hearing Loss And The Audiologist
What is hearing loss?
Hearing loss exists for persons who may be unable to:
- hear speech and other sounds loudly enough, and/or
- understand speech even when it is loud enough.
How many persons in the United States have hearing loss?
The following estimates of the prevalence of chronic hearing loss in the United States are from the 1994 National Health Interview Survey:
- More than two thirds of all individuals who reported chronic hearing loss were 45 years of age or older.
- The percentage of individuals with a hearing loss relative to the general population was:
under 18 years of age: 1.6%
18-44 years of age: 5.3%
45-64 years of age: 13.7%
65-74 years of age: 22.9%
over 75 years of age: 31.9%[ Source: Adams, P.F., & Marano, M.A. (1995). Current estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, 1994. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital Health Stat, 10(l93)]
In addition, the following prevalence data have been reported relative to hearing loss:
- One third of individuals over 65 have a hearing loss that interferes with speech perception and effective communication; the prevalence of hearing loss increases with age.
More than 30 million workers are exposed to hazardous noise levels that could result in hearing loss.
[Source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (1996, April). National occupational research agenda (DHHS/NIOSH Pub. No. 96-115). Cincinnati, OH:Author.]
[Source: Maximizing Human Potential: Decade of the Brain 1990-2000. Report of the Sub-committee on Brain and Behavioral Sciences. April 1991]
- 14 to15 million Americans have a moderate to severe hearing impairment.
By age six, an estimated 90% of all children have experienced otitis media at least once. Annually over 10 million physician visits are attributed to otitis media.
[Source: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (1992). Research in human communication (Pub. No, 93-3562). Annual report. Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.]
(Source: Decade of the Brain: Answers Through Scientific Research. The National Advisory Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke Council. National Institutes of Health. January 1989.)
- Hearing loss and other communication disorders affect more than 1 in 10 persons in the U.S.
- 28 million individuals have a hearing loss.
(Source: A Decade of Progress Ahead. 1990 Annual Report of the National Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Advisory Board.)
What are some of the effects of hearing loss?
Because a person with a hearing loss does not hear a sentence or question clearly, it may be misunderstood. A supervisor’s or a customer’s request may be ignored, and job performance may suffer. Meetings, movies, parties, theatrical performances, and religious services may no longer provide the same benefits they once did. Friends and loved ones can become frustrated after continually repeating what they said and still not being understood. Eventually, the person with hearing loss may even develop psychological problems.
Preschool children who experience temporary hearing problems due to infection that recurs, may face serious interference with speech and language development. The school-age child with hearing problems may find learning difficult and perform inconsistently in school or repeatedly fall behind.
Hearing loss can also be a serious medical problem and may necessitate referral to a physician for medical treatment or surgery. For example, some tumors not only cause a hearing loss but also can be life threatening. The audiologist’s evaluation may result in a referral to an ear, nose, and throat specialist or other type of physician.
What does an audiologist do?
Audiologists perform a number of services; they
- scientifically measure hearing ability in children and adults.
- identify the presence and severity of any hearing problem.
- provide practical suggestions on how to handle communication situations at home, work, school, and other places so that the effects of the problems are reduced.
- test to determine if amplification devices, such as hearing aids, will help.
- help a person understand what a hearing aid or other assistive listening device can and cannot do.
- instruct the person in speech (lip) reading.
- counsel the person on possible strategies and solutions to problems that a person with a hearing loss may face.
Hearing Loss Common in Middle Age, But Could Be Preventable
Published July 5, 2011 | Hearing Loss News
Madison, Wisconsin - University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health researchers found that hearing loss in middle-aged adults is associated with being male, having a noisy job, and having certain cardiovascular disease risk factors.
Scott D. Nash, a researcher with the Department of Population Health Sciences at the School of Medicine and Public Health, found that one of seven middle aged adults – with an average age of 49 years – had impaired hearing. 
Nash and colleagues analyzed data from participants in the Beaver Dam Offspring Study, an epidemiological study of aging. The study included 3,285 participants ranging in age from 21 to 84 years.
The researchers evaluated hearing impairment as a pure-tone average greater than 25 decibels hearing level in either ear. They also measured word recognition at different sound levels and with male and female voices. Study participants also provided information about medical history, behaviors and environmental factors.The prevalence of hearing impairment was 14.1 percent and the average word recognition in quiet was 89.6 percent, but 63.5 percent in competing message or noisy environments.
Hearing aids may provide an excellent solution for those with hearing loss.
So Is Hearing Loss Equal Between The Sexes?
“Hearing impairment was more likely in men, in participants with lower education levels, and in those working in noisy occupations or with a history of ear surgery,” the authors report.
They also found cardiovascular markers associated with hearing problems, including statin use, a lower hemocrit percentage and thicker artery walls. The authors note that participants in the study also had significantly higher odds of a parental history of hearing impairment and that this is a highly heritable condition. “Hearing impairment is a common condition in middle-aged adults. Cardiovascular disease risk factors may be important correlates of age-related auditory dysfunction,” they said.
The authors conclude that if hearing impairment is detected early, “it may be a preventable chronic disease” because the same healthy lifestyles changes that improve cardiovascular health may also prevent or delay hearing loss. At least 29 million Americans have a hearing impairment.
“Population-based epidemiological prevalence estimates range from 20.6 percent in adults aged 48 to 59 years to 90 percent in adults older than 80 years,” the authors report. “The severity of this condition has been shown to be associated with a poorer quality of life, communication difficulties, impaired activities of daily living, dementia, and cognitive dysfunction.”
The study was published online Monday in the Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The paper will appear in the May print issue of the journal. This study was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute on Aging, the National Eye Institute, and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
Taken from http://www.med.wisc.edu/news
Tinnitus Caused by Too Little Inhibition of Brain Auditory Circuits, Study Says
Published July 9, 2011 | Pittsburgh, April 18, 2011 - Tinnitus, a relentless and often life-changing ringing in the ears known to disable soldiers exposed to blasts, unwary listeners of too-loud music and millions of others, is the result of under-inhibition of key neural pathways in the brain’s auditory center, according to scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in this week’s early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery, which used a new technique to image auditory circuits using slices of brain tissue in the lab, points the way to drug development and effective treatment for a condition that currently has no cure.
Prior research has shown that auditory circuits in the brain are more excitable in tinnitus sufferers, but until now it has not been clear whether that is due to hyperactivity of excitatory neural pathways, reduced activity of inhibitory ones, or a bit of both, explained senior investigator Thanos Tzounopoulos, Ph.D., assistant professor of otolaryngology and neurobiology, Pitt School of Medicine.
“This auditory imbalance leaves the patient hearing a constant ringing, buzzing or other irritating noise even when there is no actual sound,” he said. “Tinnitus drowns out music, television, co-workers, friends and family, and it profoundly changes how the patient perceives and interacts with the world.”
According to the American Tinnitus Association, tinnitus is the most common service-connected disability among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Of the 50 million who have experienced it, 16 million have symptoms severe enough to seek medical attention and 2 million tinnitus sufferers are unable to carry out day-to-day activities.
To identify what goes wrong in the brain’s auditory circuits, Dr. Tzounopoulos’ team created tinnitus in a mouse model. While the rodent was sedated, one ear was exposed to 45 minutes of 116 decibel (dB)-sound, equivalent to an ambulance siren. Intense noise exposure is thought to lead to damage in the cochlea, an inner ear structure critical to the neural transmission of sound waves, and clinically undetectable hearing loss.
Several weeks later, the scientists confirmed the exposed mice had tinnitus by conducting startle experiments in which a continuous, 70dB tone was played for a period, then stopped briefly and then resumed before being interrupted with a much louder pulse.
Mice with normal hearing could perceive the gap and, because they were aware something had changed, were less startled than mice with tinnitus, whose ear ringing masked the moment of silence in between the background tones.
The scientists then sought to determine what had gone wrong in the balance of excitation and inhibition of the auditory circuits in the affected mice. They established that an imaging technique called flavoprotein autofluorescence (FA) could be used to reveal tinnitus-related hyperactivity in slices of the brain. Experiments were performed in the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN), a specialized auditory brain center that is crucial in the triggering of tinnitus. FA imaging showed that the tinnitus group had, as expected, a greater response than the control group to electrical stimulation. Most importantly, despite local stimulation, DCN responses spread farther in the affected mice.
Dr. Tzounopoulos’ new experimental approach has resolved why tinnitus-affected auditory centers show increased responsiveness. After administering a variety of agents that block specific excitatory and inhibitory receptors and seeing how the brain center responded, his team determined that blocking an inhibitory pathway that produces GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, enhanced the response in the region surrounding the DCN in the control brain slices more so than it did in the tinnitus slices.
“That means the DCN circuits are already ‘disinhibited,’ or blocked, in tinnitus,” Dr. Tzounopoulos explained. “We couldn’t block inhibition anymore to elevate the evoked response, like we could in the normal brain. And, when we blocked another inhibitory circuit mediated by the neurotransmitter glycine, or when we blocked excitatory pathways, there was no difference in the responses between the groups.” This means that agents that increase GABA-mediated inhibition might be effective treatments for tinnitus, he added. Dr. Tzounopoulos’ team is now trying to identify such drugs.
Co-authors of the paper include Jason W. Middleton, Ph.D., and Courtney Pedersen, of the University of Pittsburgh; Taro Kiritani and Gordon M.G. Shepherd, M.D., Ph.D., of Northwestern University; and Jeremy Turner, Ph.D., of Southern Illinois University. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, the American Tinnitus Association, and the Albert and Ellen Grass Faculty Award.
About the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
As one of the nation’s leading academic centers for biomedical research, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine integrates advanced technology with basic science across a broad range of disciplines in a continuous quest to harness the power of new knowledge and improve the human condition. Driven mainly by the School of Medicine and its affiliates, Pitt has ranked among the top 10 recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1997.
Likewise, the School of Medicine is equally committed to advancing the quality and strength of its medical and graduate education programs, for which it is recognized as an innovative leader, and to training highly skilled, compassionate clinicians and creative scientists well-equipped to engage in world-class research. The School of Medicine is the academic partner of UPMC, which has collaborated with the University to raise the standard of medical excellence in Pittsburgh and to position health care as a driving force behind the region’s economy. For more information about the School of Medicine, see www.medschool.pitt.edu.
New Link in Tinnitus Research
Published July 11, 2011 | Many Who Wear Hearing Aids Also Suffer With Tinnitus
Wednesday, 4 May 2011 – Researchers at The University of Western Australia have shown changes in a part of the brain previously not known to be involved in tinnitus generation.
The nerve cell types and the chemistry of the neural circuitry in this part of the brain differ subtly from those other parts of the brain previously thought to be involved. This means the results published in The Journal of Neuroscience could be potentially important for the future development of drug treatments.
Tinnitus is a potentially debilitating disorder of hearing which is characterised by the perception of non-existent sounds, usually roaring, hissing or ringing in the ears.
The changes in the brain that cause tinnitus are poorly understood. It is clear however that alterations in nerve cell electrical behavior must underlie the abnormal “phantom” perception of sound that is experienced by tinnitus sufferers.For many years, the exact site in the brain where this abnormal nerve cell behavior occurs has been a contentious issue. The research, performed by student Darryl Vogler, Professor Donald Robertson and Associate Professor Wilhelmina Mulders, has developed a reliable animal model which can induce tinnitus and also measure brain cell activity.
“This is an important step toward further research in this area,” Associate Professor Mulders said. “If we can establish a direct link between this increased brain cell activity and tinnitus we may be able to move a step closer to finding a way to treat tinnitus.”
The paper titled Hyperactivity in the Ventral Cochlear Nucleus after Cochlear Trauma concludes that hyperactivity in this part of the brainstem therefore needs to be considered in relation to further neural research into tinnitus.
Taken from www.news.uwa.edu.au/201105043509/research/new-link-tinnitus-research.
TAX CREDIT FOR HEARING AIDS INTRODUCED
Published July 15, 2011 | BREAKING NEWS!
TAX CREDIT FOR HEARING AIDS INTRODUCED
WASHINGTON, DC, May 5, 2011 — Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) today reintroduced the bipartisan Hearing Aids Tax Credit (S. 905) with 8 original co-sponsors. The bill is unchanged from legislation in the 111th Congress that attracted a total of 10 co-sponsors by the end of the session. In the House, Reps Tom Latham (R-IA) and Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) have already reintroduced H.R. 1479 with the support of 36 Representatives.
WHAT THE TAX CREDIT FOR HEARING AIDS WOULD DO
The Hearing Aids Tax Credit would provide assistance to many of the 34 million people who need hearing aids to treat their hearing loss. Medicare expressly excludes coverage of hearing aids as do most private insurance policies, and as a result, cost is cited as a prohibitive factor by two thirds of the people who do not treat their hearing loss. If enacted, S. 905 would provide a $500 tax credit per hearing aid to people of all ages, which differs from the House bill which would cover children and people age 55 and older. That would be a critical assist since more than 60% of all hearing aid purchases involve no third party payment of any kind, and only 25% of people who could benefit from hearing aids actual use them according to the latest MarkeTrak report.
HIA’s Chairman, Todd Murray, points out that “given that hearing aids can help 95% of people with hearing loss, it is tragic that the lack of financial assistance continues to create a significant barrier to access for millions of Americans.” S. 905 is actively supported as a way to provide some assistance by numerous organizations including AARP, the Alexander Graham Bell Assn for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell), Hearing Loss Assn of America (HLAA), Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA), American Academy of Audiology (AAA), American Speech Language Hearing Assn (ASHA), American Tinnitus Association (ATA), International Hearing Society (IHS) and Hearing Industries Association (HIA).
Hearing Aids is a hot topic
This legislation has attracted dramatic grassroots attention, motivating Americans across the nation to send more than 75,000 emails and letters to their elected Senators and Representatives since 2008 by visiting www.hearingaidtaxcredit.org. Murray notes that “hearing loss is an issue that affects millions of people, and this legislation could have a great impact on their ability to afford hearing aids – we are honored that so many Representatives have recognized this fact and have lent this cause record support.”
HIA, headquartered in Washington, DC, is the national trade association of manufacturers of hearing aids, implantable hearing devices, assistive listening devices, component parts and power sources for amplification devices. Visit www.hearingaidtaxcredit.org for information about the bill, or contact Andy Bopp, abopp@bostrom.com.
Financial help may be on the way for those who want hearing aids.
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