Does Alzheimer’s Disease or other forms of dementia run in your family? It can be alarming as experts still struggle to truly understand what causes this devastating disease. Experts believe that a family history of Alzheimer’s increases your risk by 30%, a risk on top of other risk factors. While you can’t change family history or advanced age, by identifying the risks in your life of Alzheimer’s you can modify behaviors and have a chance …
Understanding Hearing Tests
It can be a long journey towards admitting you have a hearing loss. However, once you do you can finally take the steps towards treatment. The first step is to schedule a hearing exam. Your audiologist will measure your hearing ability and print it out on what is called an audiogram. An audiogram displays the results of your hearing test and while at first it may seem like a bunch of indecipherable lines and symbols …
Hearing Loss: Your Rights in Public Spaces
Having hearing loss can feel lonely at times like the whole world is against you. Because you struggle to hear, conversations out in the world can leave you feeling isolated and this is not only with acquaintances but at home too. Even relationships with your family and significant other become strained leaving you feeling lonely even when the house is full of people. This can carry on to your place of work too where common …
How Quitting Smoking & Lowering Blood Pressure Could Support Healthy Hearing
Even for those who take their health seriously, hearing loss is often underestimated. What was once thought of as an ear issue has in recent years been identified as a key factor in the reduced quality of relationships, and chronic emotional issues including depression, anxiety, loneliness, and social isolation? In addition, hearing loss is now been strongly linked to a less active lifestyle, cognitive decline, dementia, and a greater risk of accidents leading to hospitalization. …
Talking To Your Loved One About Hearing Loss Treatment
Are you frequently asked to repeat yourself during a conversation with a loved one who has hearing loss? Do they need to always turn up the volume while watching TV or a movie? Do you feel like they are not fully understanding what you are saying? These are common ways others are impacted by one’s hearing loss. Hearing loss impacts 20% of the population, making it the third most common medical condition people experience today. …
How Often Should I Get a Hearing Test?
Most people are accustomed to making regular checkups a routine part of their medical care how ever few ever take their hearing health as serious as they should. While annual physicals, dental exams and vision tests are all commonplace few take hearing loss seriously enough! Hearing loss is classically underestimated and undertreated, particularly by insurance companies which rarely cover a hearing exam let alone hearing aids and cochlear implants. Today more and more research shows …
Tips for Video Calls if You Have a Hearing Loss
A lot has changed in our world since 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread. Jobs that were commonly done from an office setting were suddenly being done remotely. This means that for many of us, we are now logging into our computers for office meetings, which used to be held in person. There are plenty of benefits to working from home. You can avoid the commute, save on gas, and have your lunch …
A Campaign to Make Listening Safe for All
Do you use headphones when listening to music, movies, and media? Most people do. Since the invention of the Sony Walkman in 1979 headphones have been all the rage, allowing people to listen to what they want, when they want in public, without disturbing others around them. There is no denying that headphones are amazing, but they also come at a risk to our hearing. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 1.1 billion young adults are …
Connecting People | May is Better Hearing and Speech Month!
Do you know someone with hearing loss? You may not even know it. It’s currently estimated that 1 in 8 people (30 million) ages 12 and up suffer from hearing loss in both ears. Not just a condition that only affects the elderly, it’s likely that there is someone in your life struggling through conversations with you. One of the best things a person with a hearing loss can do for themselves is to test …
Tips for Virtual Communication from People with Hearing Loss
Do you work from home? The concept in the US used to be a bit rarer. Now, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home is common. Jobs that were previously never thought of as tasks performed from home are now commonly done remotely. This changes office and workplace culture as well as expands people’s flexibility of where they can live and where they can travel to. However, working from home does present some added …