Noise: Exposed

By Nadine Dehgan

Aboard my noisy flight to the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) Convention in June, I couldn’t help but reflect upon loud sounds—and what can be done to reduce our exposure.

I’d recently learned that the word “noise” is derived from “sea sickness” or “nausea” in Latin. Noise has literally been associated with poor health outcomes for thousands of years.

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Synonyms for “loud” include “ear-splitting” and “deafening.” In fact, vibrations from loud noises travel through the eardrum to reach our inner ear, where sensory hair cells change them into electrical signals to be interpreted by the brain. Hair cells, however,  come in limited supply. Humans are typically born with 16,000—and when these cells are damaged by noise, age, ototoxic drugs, or other factors, the brain’s ability to communicate with the ears is significantly weakened, resulting in permanent hearing loss.

Concerned about my fellow plane passengers’ hair cells, I opened my phone’s decibel (dB) measuring app, which indicated the maximum noise level after takeoff was 92 dB, while the average was 83 dB. The app also pointed out that this dB level is equivalent to that of alarm clocks. While this doesn’t seem uncomfortable, it’s actually not recommended for periods over two hours. I’d come prepared with both earplugs and noise-canceling headphones—which I limit to 60 percent of maximum volume in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO)’s recommendation. But not everyone taking flights comes prepared for the dangerous levels of noise inside the plane.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) states noise greater than 75 dB can harm hearing, and in 1974, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommended that sound exposure should remain at or below 70 dB to prevent noise-induced hearing loss. Sudden loud noise—such as from blasts, gunfire, firecrackers, and bullhorns—also can cause hearing loss with levels reaching 165 dB! This is why so many veterans return with hearing loss and tinnitus. Tragically, they are the two most common disabilities for those who serve.

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And yet our society glorifies noise. Two confessions explain my frustration. The first is I love to listen to love songs from the ’90s and my children think these songs are current hits. My second is when my kids are not in my car I often listen to classical music, but once in awhile I listen to current hits. One station’s tagline actually is “Ear-Popping Music.” I couldn’t believe that damaging eardrums was being advertised as a good thing! My youngest daughter, Emmy, had many eardrum ruptures—from infections, not noise—and she truly suffered. My anguish as a parent watching my baby and then toddler in pain was nothing compared to the pain she endured with no understanding of why.

How can we be okay with hearing loss and ear damage advertised as a positive experience? No one would advertise skin cancer from excessive sun exposure as a perk of a beach vacation. Nor would a beverage manufacturer tout soda’s negative impact on dental health.   

It is my wish that one day we take the real risk of hearing loss seriously and recognize it for the epidemic that it is. Experts say approximately one in five American children will have permanent hearing loss (largely noise-induced) before reaching adulthood. University of Ohio scientists report that even mild hearing losses in children can cause cognitive damage that would typically not occur until at least age 50. This is horrifying.

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Still, we surround our children with damaging noise. Birthday parties, movie theaters, weddings, and family celebrations can blast noise exceeding 115 dB. Football stadiums, hockey arenas, exercise classes, and music concerts have clocked in at over 140 dB, which can cause irreversible hearing loss—whether sudden or progressive damage—in minutes.

Recently, a friend told me she complained of high noise levels (105 dB) to her daughter’s dance studio. Instead of offering to turn down the volume, management told her that she could leave the class. While her daughter can no longer attend dance class, my friend has the consolation of knowing her child is safer. My thoughts go to the employees of fitness centers, stadiums, restaurants, bars, and other commercial establishments whose ears are constantly assaulted.

Before becoming CEO of Hearing Health Foundation (HHF), I didn’t appreciate the dangers and consequences of loud sound. I now know that even a mild untreated hearing loss can lead to social issues including isolation, depression, and poor academic performance in children. In adults, the stakes are also high, with untreated hearing loss bringing the risks of mental decline, falls, and premature death.

Hearing loss can be mitigated by technology including hearing aids and cochlear implants. While these treatments are beneficial and life-saving, HHF is funding research toward permanent cures. Birds, fish, and reptiles are all able to restore their inner ear hair cells once damaged—but mammals including humans cannot. HHF funds a consortium of top hearing scientists through our Hearing Restoration Project (HRP) who study how other species are able to regenerate their hearing in order to apply this knowledge to humans through a biological cure.

As the plane descended toward Minneapolis, my ears popped, but I know the minor discomfort can’t compete with what Emmy experiences. As the mother, sister, daughter, and granddaughter of individuals with hearing loss, I remember my two biggest wishes: for society to place a greater value on hearing protection, and for HHF to continue to support researchers on their quest to treat and cure hearing loss and related conditions.


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FCC Announces Intent to Automate Phone Captions

By Kathi Mestayer

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently announced in the Federal Register that it intends to allow telephone captions (IPCTS) to be 100 percent provided by automated speech-recognition (ASR) software. I wrote about how it's done currently by a human/software "team."

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The change would save money by making the role of the human captioning assistants optional. But nobody knows what the effect would be on caption quality, as there are no current standards for accuracy or delay in telephone captioning provided under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and regulated by the FCC.

Underscoring that issue is the letter posted by a group of consumer groups, which states:

"The Commission is putting the cart before the horse by allowing ASR-based IP CTS services without developing standards and metrics for the provision of IP CTS to ensure that consumers receive robust service from all providers, regardless of the underlying technologies used to provide the service. Inaccurate and unreliable IP CTS service stand to substantially harm consumers who rely on them for communications with family, friends, employers, and commercial transactions and lack the means to qualitatively compare services in advance."

That document, available online, was filed by the Hearing Loss Association of America, Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc., National Association of the Deaf, and Gallaudet University’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technology for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

The public comment period for this proposed change is open until Sept. 17, 2018. You can submit a formal comment at the top of the page in the Federal Register that announces the proposal.

Kathi Mestayer is a Hearing Health magazine staff writer.

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How Nutrition Affects Our Hearing

By Meagan Rowley

Nutrition is fundamental to health, but seldom does one learn about the relationship between diet and the auditory system. Nutrition and hearing ability are, in fact, connected.

There is no specific food that will definitely cause or prevent hearing loss. Likewise, lost hearing cannot be restored through a diet change. However, new research suggests that certain nutrition patterns may actually decrease—or increase—your risk of developing hearing loss.

A 22-Year Diet Study

A Brigham and Women’s Hospital study monitored the hearing health of more than 70,000 women on various diets for 22 years. These diets included the Alternate Mediterranean Diet (AMED), Dietary Approaches to Shop Hypertension (DASH), and Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 (AHEI-2010). These diets favor fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, legumes, whole grains, seafood, poultry, and low-fat dairy. All three also advise limiting foods that are high in sodium (salt) and LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol, discouraging consumption of refined and red meats, processed foods, and sugary drinks.

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Women following diets similar to the AHEI-2010, DASH, and AMED decreased their likelihoods of hearing loss by at least 30 percent, with DASH and AMED showing the greatest benefits. The researchers found that diets that prioritize fruits and vegetables with minerals like folic acid, potassium, and zinc decreased the risk of hearing loss.

Beneficial Nutrients

Other findings indicate that certain nutrients are associated with positive hearing health outcomes. Potassium—a mineral found in bananas, potatoes, and black beans—plays a large role in the way that the inner ear functions and converts sounds into signals for the brain to interpret. Regular intake can help you maintain your current level of hearing, says Sherif F. Tadros, M.D., of the International Center for Hearing and Speech Research in a Europe PubMed Central published study.

George E. Shambaugh, Jr., M.D., of the Shambaugh Hearing and Allergy Institute reports that the zinc in almonds, cashews, and dark chocolate can be an effective treatment for tinnitus, hearing ringing or buzzing without an external sound source. Magnesium is believed to combat free radicals emitted during loud noises and act as a barrier protecting inner ear hair cells.

Folic acid has also been shown to possibly slow the onset of hearing loss. Blood flow is restricted by homocysteine (an amino acid), so folic acid works to metabolize it to keep blow flow regulated. According to Jane Durga, Ph.D., of the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, because the inner ear relies on a regular flow of blood, folate is extremely important. Foods high in folic acid include spinach, broccoli, and asparagus.

Adverse Effects of Malnutrition

Conversely, malnutrition negatively affects the human body. In an examination of 2,193 participants ages 16 to 23, Susan D. Emmett, M.D., and colleagues found that malnutrition not only stunts anatomical development in children, but slows inner ear development. Malnourished children were observed as being twice as a likely to develop hearing loss as young adults compared to their well-nourished peers.

Further, the study acknowledges that that stunting often begins before birth. A malnourished woman who is pregnant or nursing is likely to pass on any deficiency she may have to her child. Hindered inner ear development in utero caused by malnutrition contributes to a higher risk of hearing loss than does malnutrition in vivo.

Diabetes Connection

Individuals with type II diabetes also are more likely to develop hearing loss than their nondiabetic counterparts, according to an National Institutes of Health-funded project by researcher Chika Horikawa, Ph.D., of Japan’s Niigata University. Subjects with prediabetes—those who have elevated blood sugar levels but not elevated enough for a diagnosis of diabetes—also have a 30 percent increased risk The study authors attribute the higher risk to damaged nerves and blood vessels of the inner ear, a consequence of having type II diabetes for an extended period of time.

Though rarely acknowledged, diet has a lot to do with the auditory system. Adding just a few foods to your daily diet and paying attention to the nutrients that your diet is missing may significantly impact hearing over the long term.

As an aspiring doctor currently studying nutrition during my undergraduate years, I understand how important it is to look at an individual's state of health from different angles and perspectives. Nutrition is vital to every aspect of health.

An HHF summer intern, Meagan Rowley is a senior on the pre-medicine track studying human nutrition at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.


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Quantifying the Effects of a Hyperacusis Treatment

By Xiying Guan, Ph.D

A typical inner ear has two mobile windows: the oval and round window (RW). The flexible, membrane-covered RW allows fluid in the cochlea to move as the oval window vibrates in response to movement from the stapes bone during sound stimulation.

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Superior canal dehiscence (SCD), a pathological opening in the bony wall of the superior semicircular canal, forms a third window of the inner ear. This structural anomaly results in various auditory and vestibular symptoms. One common symptom is increased sensitivity to self-generated sounds or external vibrations, such as hearing one’s own pulse, neck and joint movement, and even eye movement. This hypersensitive hearing associated with SCD has been termed conductive hyperacusis.

Recently, surgically stiffening the RW is emerging as a treatment for hyperacusis in patients with and without SCD. However, the postsurgical results are mixed: Some patients experience improvement while others complain of worsening symptoms and have asked to reverse the RW treatment. Although this “experimental” surgical treatment for hyperacusis is increasingly reported, its efficacy has not been studied scientifically.

In the present study, we experimentally tested how RW reinforcement affects air-conduction sound transmission in the typical ear (that is, without a SCD). We measured the sound pressures in two cochlear fluid-filled cavities—the scala vestibuli (assigned the value “Psv”) and the scala tympani (“Pst”)—together with the stapes velocity in response to sound at the ear canal. We estimated hearing ability based on a formula for the “cochlear input drive” (Pdiff = Psv – Pst) before and after RW reinforcement in a human cadaveric ear.

We found that RW reinforcement can affect the cochlear input drive in unexpected ways. At very low frequencies, below 200 Hz, it resulted in a reduced stapes motion but an increase in the cochlear input drive that would be consistent with improved hearing. At 200 to 1,000 Hz, the stapes motion and input drive both were slightly decreased. Above 1,000 Hz stiffening the RW had no effect.

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The results suggest that RW reinforcement has the potential to worsen low-frequency hyperacusis while causing some hearing loss in the mid-frequencies. Although this preliminary study shows that the RW treatment does not have much effect on air-conduction hearing, the effect on bone-conduction hearing is unknown and is one of our future areas for experimentation.

A 2017 ERG scientist funded by Hyperacusis Research Ltd., Xiying Guan, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, in Boston.


We need your help supporting innovative hearing and balance science through our Emerging Research Grants program. Please make a contribution today.

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Introducing the 2018 Emerging Research Grantees

Our grantees’ research investigations seek to solve specific auditory and vestibular problems such as declines in complex sound processing in age-related hearing loss (presbycusis), ototoxicity caused by the life-saving chemotherapy drug cisplatin, and noise-induced hearing loss.

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My Magic Ear Kid

By Joey Lynn Resciniti

Julia was a full-term baby born exactly one week before her due date. She was healthy and perfect. She passed her newborn hearing screening.

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The hospital bassinet had a cabinet underneath where the diapers were stored. If I wasn’t very careful with the doors, they would slam loudly. Julia would startle and cry.

At least she can hear, I thought. This would prove ironic to me when Julia showed signs of having problems hearing. When Julia was 15 months old, I became concerned with her speech—or its lack. She’d babbled a little bit as an infant and then didn’t say much until at a year or so when she said hi, once.

No one wanted to admit there was a problem. My husband was even a little defensive about the subject. Grandparents chimed in that she was just a “late talker.” When I mentioned my concerns to the pediatrician, he recommended the state’s early intervention program, which led to our qualifying for twice-weekly speech language pathologist visits.

All this time, no one suspected Julia wasn’t hearing. With the specialist’s help, small gains were made in her speech. She developed a vocabulary of a few dozen words but never progressed to speaking two-word sentences or multisyllabic words.

So by the time we made it to the audiologist over a year later, when she was nearly 3, I had come to terms with Julia having some level of hearing loss. I knew when she turned her back to me, she wouldn’t respond if I called, and that was a big sign to me.

A Series of Tests

Sitting on my lap in the soundproof booth, Julia turned toward the speaker that was making a loud sound. But as the sounds got quieter, I got a heavy feeling in my stomach. She stopped turning toward the speaker. Finally the audiologist leaned into the microphone and told me she was coming over to our room. I willed myself not to cry as she said she’d found a moderate hearing loss in both ears.

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The audiologist next used little headphones to transmit sound directly to Julia’s auditory nerve. The results showed Julia’s hearing loss is sensorineural, a nerve problem, and not a mechanical problem like a tube that is too small in the ear. I was told that it is not uncommon for a newborn to pass a hearing screening, like Julia did, and then find something later. The audiologist reassured me that we’d found it sooner rather than later, and that intense speech therapy would catch her up.

The next few months were tough. We scheduled an auditory brainstem response (ABR) test. For this test, the audiologist sedates the child and plays a series of clicks while measuring brain activity. This test is often done for young children to confirm their hearing loss before they’re fitted for hearing aids.

Our family was not ready to accept the first diagnosis and kept questioning the results. But I was with Julia in the booth, and knew it was correct. So when the ABR confirmed the hearing loss, I set to work managing the appointments and paperwork that would eventually help my daughter speak and thrive.

The first thing the audiologist showed us after the ABR testing was the “speech banana.” This was a confusing bit of information at first—banana? Speech? The speech banana is a visual aid for a very quick introduction to hearing loss and the varying levels of severity.

Normal hearing is in the 0 to 20 decibel (dB) range at the top of the banana. All speech sounds (vowels as well as consonants and consonant pairs) are above where Julia can hear with her 55 dB loss. Theoretically, without hearing aids she can’t hear any of those sounds.

Things louder than 55 dB, like a dog barking or a piano, would be accessible for her without hearing aids. But the tricky part is that it isn’t so cut and dry. Julia wasn’t unable to hear all language, and she also wasn’t always able to hear dogs barking.

Instant Change

We ordered hearing aids and earmolds. The audiologist showed us how to insert the tiny size 13 battery and talked to us about school accommodations and speech therapy as she programmed the little hearing aids for Julia’s specific hearing loss.

I’d thought about the moment she’d first hear with her new hearing aids. It was going to be the first time she’d hear my voice. Maybe the first time ever. I wanted to say, “I love you.” I wanted to say something nice, something comforting.

The audiologist worked the molds into her ears and clicked the battery doors shut. Julia’s eyes opened wide and her hands clenched on the arms of her chair. She could hear—and she was terrified!

“These are your new magic ears,” the audiologist said.

I didn’t say anything nice or comforting. I couldn’t help myself, I started to laugh! She looked so adorable, like she was on a roller coaster rather than an office chair. I forgot all about making a grand first speech and instead just beamed at her. Julia’s head swiveled to the ceiling. I noticed an obnoxiously loud fan for the first time.

On the way home, Julia tried to repeat just about everything we said. She could hear above the banana, all the vowel and consonant sounds. She began mimicking speech immediately. Every noisy thing that I had never taken the time to notice before was new and interesting.

We were warned that it might be difficult to get Julia to wear her new magic ears. The audiologist told us to be very firm so she wore the devices during all waking hours. If she tried to take them out, back in they went.

Eventually, at age 5, Julia learned to insert her hearing aids herself, with the promise of a sleepover once she could show responsibility. She began to take ownership of the aids, poring over earmold colors and designs (striped, swirled, polka-dotted) with the practiced eye of a stylish tween (she wasn’t yet 8). She became a connoisseur of the hand-shaped earmold (great) vs. one that is made through an automated process (not so great).

Responsibility Shifts

As time goes by, those early years begin to fall into their proper perspective. I used to think it would mean something to me if Julia could someday tell me that she heard me when she was a toddler. Time and distance have shown that she doesn’t remember much of anything from her prelingual years. Her memories start when she was about 4. Everything prior to that comes from pictures and videos.

Some of the videos, like one when she is about 2 showing her fascination with lightning bugs, are painful for me to watch. In the video, you can hear me prompting Julia to say the word “bug” over and over, and watching it now I see plainly that she is confused and cannot hear us saying the word.

I wish I’d realized back then that she needed help. I wish I hadn’t spent a whole year frustrating myself and my baby. If I had to do it again, I would tell myself to get her hearing tested. And also that she was going to be okay and that in three short years she’d be saying so much more than “bug.”  

Life with a 13-year-old hearing aid user is much easier. Julia is an independent seventh grader who gets straight As. We have as a family weathered ear infections with the potential to wreak havoc on a spelling test, late-night searches for a hearing aid battery among tangled twin sheets, and hearing aids that can’t be worn in the pool.

Now there are whole chunks of time when I don’t think about her ears, a blessing made possible by experience. We agonized when Julia’s hearing ability dropped another 15 dB to 70 dB, putting her in the severe category, and feared her hearing would progress even more, but it did not.

At the very first diagnosis, the ENT (ear, nose, and throat specialist, or otolaryngologist) assumed Julia’s loss is genetic, but the markers haven’t been discovered yet. The overwhelming majority of children with hearing loss—more than 90 percent—have typical hearing parents. We just don’t know.

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Years later Julia’s audiologist explained the drop: “Sometimes with a change in a child’s ear canal size, it may seem as if there is a 10 to 15 dB change in hearing across the frequency range. As the ear grows, a little more sound pressure may be needed to detect sound. This will result in what looks like a change in hearing but may just be growth of the ear canal.” This makes sense. After eight years of steady audiograms and this explanation, I am finally able to let go of those lost decibels and my fear of losing more.

Every now and then there’s a head cold, dead battery, or damaged bit of ear tubing, and I am once again that younger mother, riddled with anxiety about taking care of Julia’s hearing. But the shift in responsibility has become hers. Julia is the one taking the lead on troubleshooting her technology at home, school, the pool, wherever she goes. At 13, she is the one always needing to think about her ears. Perhaps that’s what we’ve been working toward all along.

This article originally appeared on the cover of the Summer '18 issue of Hearing Health magazine with a supporting story from Julia Resciniti  

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Challenges: A Sibling’s Perspective

By Joe Mussomeli

Everyone has challenges in their life; they can be small or big, but they’re still challenges. My brother, Alex, was born with severe hearing loss—the first in my family to have the honor.

Alex’s diagnosis marked the start of very stressful period for our family. It took some time for my mother to process his hearing loss, but both of my parents quickly recognized the importance of helping Alex get access to sound as soon as possible. They equipped Alex with hearing aids before three months old and our journey began.

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I don’t remember too much of the details, as I was only two years old at the time, but I was told that my parents spent many nights with Alex, practicing the sounds of letters, and making sure he could distinguish and pronounce each of them correctly.

What I do remember is initially feeling left out as a little kid. At first, all of my parents’ time was occupied by Alex. At 15 years old, this is understandable to me now, but as a little kid it wasn’t. My parents picked up on my feelings and began to make sure I wasn’t left out. They did their best to make sure I was involved and helping Alex. They taught me how to practice sounds with Alex, how to change his hearing aid batteries, and most importantly, how to be there for him when he needed me most.

Today, whenever I think of my brother Alex, I rarely think about his hearing loss. I almost always think of him as just Alex—not Alex with hearing loss or anything like that. I’ve almost always treated him the way any other older brother would treat their younger brother. We roughhouse, tease each other, laugh together (mostly at each other), and most importantly, we care for each other.

Alex has been in my life so much that by now I barely notice his cochlear implant on his right ear, or his hearing aid on his left. To me, they’re just ears, just like Alex is just Alex.

But there are certain times when his hearing loss is very evident to me, like when he takes off his hearing aid and implant and can’t hear my mom call him for dinner or answer a question I might ask him.  

These moments by now are part of our daily routine. They’re small and I don’t think about them often, but when they happen, they remind me how lucky I am. How I’m able to hear our mom call us for dinner without devices. How I can tell my dad I love him back when he says it, without taking the time to put on a hearing aid or implant. Thinking about this doesn’t make me pity Alex, it makes me admire him. I admire his strength and I admire how he doesn’t let hearing loss bring him down.

Alex’s hearing loss started out as a struggle, but it wound up bringing my brother and me closer together. I wouldn’t be as close with Alex as I am today if I never helped him overcome the challenges he faced with hearing loss. Challenges are tough and hard to deal with at times, but overcoming those challenges are even harder. If someone can overcome the challenges that life throws at them, then they can do anything.

Joe Mussomeli is an upcoming 10th-grade student who lives in Westport, CT. His younger brother, Alex, has been featured in Hearing Health magazine and is a participant in HHF’s “Faces of Hearing Loss” campaign.


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Age Effects on Speech Recognition

Age-related changes in perceptual organization have received less attention than other potential sources of decline in hearing ability. Perceptual organization is the process by which the auditory system interprets acoustic input from multiple sources to create an auditory scene. In daily life this is essential, because speech communication occurs in environments in which background sounds fluctuate and can mask the intended message.

Perceptual organization includes three interrelated auditory processes: glimpsing, speech segregation, and phonemic restoration. Glimpsing is the process of identifying recognizable fragments of speech and connecting them across gaps to create a coherent stream. Speech segregation refers to the process where the glimpses (speech fragments) are separated from background speech, to focus on a single target when the background includes multiple talkers. Phonemic restoration refers to the process of filling in missing information using prior knowledge of language, conversational context, and acoustic cues.

Kenneth Vaden, Ph.D.

Kenneth Vaden, Ph.D.

Judy R. Dubno, Ph.D.

Judy R. Dubno, Ph.D.

A July 2018 study in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America by William J. Bologna, Au.D., Ph.D., Kenneth I. Vaden, Jr., Ph.D. (2015 ERG), Jayne B. Ahlstrom, M.S., and HHF board of directors member Judy R. Dubno, Ph.D. (1986–88 ERG), investigated these components to determine how their declines may contribute to increased speech recognition difficulty with age. As expected, older adults performed more poorly than younger adults. Older adults were less able to make use of limited speech information and reduced continuity. A competing talker created hearing challenges regardless of age. The study concludes, “Taken together, these results suggest that age-related declines in speech recognition may be partially explained by difficulty grouping short glimpses of speech into a coherent message.” —Elizabeth Crofts 

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Hearing Loss Film “Hearing Hope” Captures Personal Strength, Scientific Vision

Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) has created a new short film, “Hearing Hope,” to expand awareness of hearing health through the voices of those who benefit from and those who carry out the foundation’s life-changing work.

"It took me longer to talk than most kids. Because I couldn't understand what they were saying so I couldn't copy it," explains Emmy, 7.

"It took me longer to talk than most kids. Because I couldn't understand what they were saying so I couldn't copy it," explains Emmy, 7.

The third most prevalent chronic physical condition in the U.S., hearing loss can affect anyone—from first-grader Emmy to retired U.S. Army Colonel John—but its reach is often underestimated. “It’s one of the most common sensory deficits in humans,” explains cochlear implant surgeon Dr. Anil Lalwani. “I think we have to go from it being hidden to being visible.”

Both a hearing aid user and cochlear implant recipient, seventh-grader Alex is doing his part to make hearing loss less hidden. Smiling, he says he wants people to know that hearing with his devices makes him happy. John wishes to be an advocate for veterans and all who live with hearing loss and tinnitus.

When she received her hearing loss diagnosis at 17, NASA engineer Renee never thought she'd be living her dream.

When she received her hearing loss diagnosis at 17, NASA engineer Renee never thought she'd be living her dream.

The film also highlights resilience in response to the challenges associated with hearing conditions. Video participant Renee saw her dream of becoming an astronaut halted at 17 when her hearing loss was detected. Now she helps send people to space as an engineer at NASA.

Sophia describes the “low, low rock bottom” she hit when she was diagnosed with Usher Syndrome, the leading cause of deafblindness. Yet she feels special knowing her disability shapes her and sets her apart.

Jason recounts having no resources for hearing loss in children when his son, Ethan, failed his newborn hearing screening. Today he’s grateful for Ethan’s aptitude for language, made possible through his early hearing loss intervention.

With the support of HHF, more progress is made each year. “I’m glad that the doctors are trying to figure out how fish and birds can restore their hearing,” says Emmy.

For the past 60 years, HHF has funded promising hearing science and in 2011 established the Hearing Restoration Project (HRP), an international consortium dedicated to finding biological cures for hearing loss using fish, bird, and mouse models to replicate the phenomenon of hearing loss reversal in humans.

“If [the HRP] can achieve that goal of hearing restoration...that would be a marvelous thing for hearing loss,” reiterates Dr. Robert Dobie.

Through “Hearing Hope,” HHF would like to share its mission and message of hope to as many individuals as possible and reassure those with hearing loss and their loved ones they are not alone. As an organization that channels all efforts into research and education, HHF would greatly appreciate any assistance or suggestions to increase visibility of the film.

Watch the full film at www.hhf.org/video. Closed captioning is available.

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Celebrate Founder’s Week Starting August 1

By Nadine Dehgan

This August marks the 100th birthday of Hearing Health Foundation (HHF)’s late founder, Collette Ramsey Baker. She formed our foundation 60 years ago in gratitude for surgery that restored her own hearing. Her legacy lives on as we continue to fund innovative hearing and balance science. HHF exists to better the lives of the millions who live with hearing and balance disorders, and we would like to acknowledge those who are most important to you.

June 1966: Collette Ramsey Baker (left) is presented with an award at the Rotary Club of New York.

June 1966: Collette Ramsey Baker (left) is presented with an award at the Rotary Club of New York.

To celebrate the spirit of Mrs. Baker’s birthday, HHF will dedicate a week to your loved ones and those connected to hearing loss. When you make a gift to HHF between August 1 and August 7 in honor of, or in memory of someone special, we will notify them (or their family) of your generosity and add their name to our “Honor Wall” page. As you share your names and stories, we will see the many faces of hearing loss.

Commemorate the most extraordinary people in your life by participating in Founder’s Week and dedicating a gift to hearing research in their honor.

As always, 100% of your gift will be invested in life-changing research and awareness programs, and you can choose where to direct your donation. Thank you for supporting our important work - we couldn’t do it without you!

Make your tribute gift at www.hhf.org/foundersweek beginning August 1, where you will have the opportunity to tell us who you are recognizing and why and to submit their photo.

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