ROCK TAKES ITS TOLL
As a Baby Boomer, attending your share of rock concerts may have caused you to have the same problem as many of your musical heroes. Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, and Neil Young have all professed to have hearing loss. One symptom you should be on the lookout for is difficulty hearing your partner’s side of […]
SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION
In a crowded restaurant, people often blame their inability to hear their conversation partner on loud background noise. While this may be true for most situations, some folks, however, may be deceiving themselves into thinking that they do not have a hearing problem. Until an appointment is scheduled with an audiologist to test hearing levels, […]
ARE YOU OVERLOOKING SOMETHING?
In today’s day and age of personal listening devices, most people often take their hearing for granted. Many others are either unaware that they have a hearing deficiency or dismiss the fact that they are placing their hearing at risk by exposing their ears to loud noises. Think you are immune to hearing loss? Think […]
WHO GIVES A HOOT?
Who cares if barn owls retain their excellent hearing ability well into old age? We all should. Our ability to hear relies on small sensory cells in the inner ear, called “hair cells,” that convert sound vibration into electrical signals that are sent to the brain. Unfortunately, when these hair-like extensions become damaged due to […]
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
According to a recent report from the CDC, nearly 10 percent of millennials (those born between approximately 1976 and 2004) have some degree of hearing loss. The primary cause of this hearing damage is loud noise. While previous generations were mostly exposed to loud noise in work situations, millennials and younger children receive most of […]
IS HEARING LOSS AN INEVITABLE PART OF AGING?
Hearing loss among the elders in certain primitive tribes is nearly nonexistent because their ears have not been continuously exposed to loud noise. As a result, the health of the “hair cells” of their inner ears (which convert sound waves into nerve signals sent to the brain) remains relatively undiminished. Conversely, older individuals in our […]
THE WIND AT YOUR BACK
By some estimates, up to three-quarters of the hearing instruments being purchased today are of the “behind the ear” (BTE) style, which is valued for its comfort, discretion, and high battery life. However, these types of hearing instruments are exposed to wind that creates noise in the wearer’s ear. The good news is that technology […]
LESS MAY BE MORE
Music lovers may want to consider that the type of sound processing provided by technically advanced hearing instruments to help wearers make speech more understandable may also make music enjoyment more difficult. Current hearing instruments utilize “wide dynamic range compression,” which is sound processing that leaves loud sounds untouched while amplifying softer sounds. Although this […]
DEMONSTRATING IMPULSE CONTROL
Today’s digital hearing instruments use “algorithms” (which are sets of step-by-step instructions that are used to accomplish a task) to analyze and categorize incoming sounds. In effect, these sophisticated algorithms can intercept sounds, code them, and cleanse them before they reach the listener’s ear. With this in mind, a hearing instrument with the “impulse noise […]
AUDITORY FATIGUE
The inner ear contains delicate “hair cells” that are responsible for converting sound-induced vibrations into electrical impulses that are recognizable to the brain. These hair cells resemble blades of grass on a lawn. When subjected to loud noise, however, these hair cells look as though they had been beaten down by hard rain. This is […]