Surprising Facts About the Five Senses

By Tamara Keeney, EarQ, Guest Blogger

I used to think I knew a lot about the five senses. When I’m writing, I often use a person’s senses and incorporate different hypothetical situations to connect with a reader. After all, isn’t that something that everyone has in common? After doing some research on how the sense of hearing actually works, I realized that I didn’t really know much outside of my own perception. My technical knowledge was certainly lacking, so I decided that a blog post on surprising facts about the five senses would be a fun way to share what I had learned. Here are some of the “sensible facts” that I learned:

• Do you remember all those times the doctor told you not to use cotton swabs to clean earwax from your ear canals? Not only is there a danger of puncturing the eardrum, but there are cilia in the canal that push earwax out naturally, so there’s no need to use cotton swabs!

• People have admired the ear for centuries; ear piercing is one of the earliest known forms of body modification.

• The only senses that are types of mechanosensation are hearing and touch.

• The catfish has somewhere around 100,000 taste buds.

• Grizzly bears are able to smell food from a whopping 18 miles away!

• The purpose of whiskers is still being researched and discovered, but among the known purposes are water current detection and texture discrimination.

• On average, by the time a person reaches age 20, half of his or her taste receptors are gone.

Our senses allow us to experience the world around us and understand it in ways that let us interact uniquely with people, nature, and ourselves. There are so many different ways that humans and animals use their senses. It truly helps me to appreciate what my senses provide for me.

The original full list of surprising facts about the senses can be found here.

10 Fun Easter Facts From Our Mascot, the Baby Chick

By Tara Guastella

As you’ve seen on our previous blog posts, a baby chicken may hold the key to a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus. Chickens have the remarkable ability to restore their own hearing naturally by regrowing inner ear hair cells that, once they are damaged, lead to hearing loss.

In fact, most animals other than mammals can regenerate these delicate cells, regaining their hearing after the cells are damaged by noise, age, or ototoxic drugs. This is the basis for the work of our Hearing Restoration Project, which is aiming to translate this remarkable capacity to humans.

So with Easter right around the corner we thought our mascot, the baby chick, would provide you with 10 fun Easter facts:

1) Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ three days after his death. It is the oldest Christian holiday and the most important day of the church year.

2) Like rabbits and hares, eggs and chicks are often associated with Easter because, in pagan times, they were signs of fertility and new life.

3) After Halloween, Easter is the biggest candy-consuming holiday. About 120 million pounds of candy are bought each year, enough to fill four dump trucks.

4) Roughly 90 million chocolate bunnies, 91.4 billion eggs, and 700 million Peeps (sugar-coated marshmallow sweets) are produced each year in the United States.

5) About 76 percent of people eat the ears on chocolate bunnies first.

6) Half of the states in the United States have banned the practice of dyeing live chicks for Easter.

7) To help Americans in need, egg farmers across the country are donating more than 11 million eggs to food banks across the nation.

8) The White House hosts an Easter Egg Roll on its Front Lawn each year. This tradition was started by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878.

9) Like many holidays, Easter also has its own catchy tunes or carols such as “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” and “Easter Parade.”

10) Some 16 billion jelly beans are made specifically for Easter, which is enough to fill a plastic egg the size of a nine-story building.

If you celebrate Easter this coming Sunday and enjoy chick-shaped marshmallows or other fun Easter candy, remember that it is a little chick that is helping us to achieve the next great medical breakthrough: curing hearing loss and tinnitus.

Protect Your Ears (and Health) on St. Patrick's Day

By Yishane Lee

St. Patrick’s Day is a celebration of Ireland’s patron saint, who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. (The three-leaf clover is allegedly how he explained the Holy Trinity.) These days, the holiday is, for better or worse, associated with heavy drinking, and at the risk of dampening the festivities, we thought we should remind readers of the dangers of consuming excessive alcohol and hearing loss.

German researchers reported in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research that lifelong alcohol consumption damages the brain. Specifically, it leads to brain shrinkage. (Alzheimer’s disease has also been linked to brain tissue shrinkage.)

The disturbing news was that social drinkers with a lighter consumption of alcohol were just at risk as people who drank heavily, although more research is needed. To do their study, the scientists measured brain currents called brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEPs) to assess central auditory pathways in a group of 38 men who were undergoing tumor removal or plastic surgery.

Separately, a British report in the journal BMC Ear, Nose, and Throat Disorders found that drinking alcohol blunts lower frequencies—which happen to be the ones you need the most to understand speech.

Combine this with the difficulty people with hearing loss have mastering the “cocktail-party effect”—the ability to discern one person’s speech in the presence of a lot of background noise—and no wonder large, celebratory gatherings involving alcohol are a minefield for people with hearing loss as well as for those trying to protect their hearing. In other words, if you’re on your third or fourth Guinness and can’t understand the Irish bloke shouting about shamrocks (foreign accents are tricky, too!) in a crowded pub, have a tall glass of water next round.

There are yet more risks. Drinking alcohol also causes your blood vessels to expand. This puts you at risk for tinnitus. However, there has also been a hearing-protective effect ascribed to drinking red wine (or eating red grapes). This is due to the presence of resveratrol, a substance found in the skins of red grapes.

The bottom line? There’s no reason not to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a pint of Guinness, but as the saying goes, everything in moderation.

Catch the ReelAbilities Film Fest in New York City This Week

By Tara Guastella

The ReelAbilities Film Festival kicks off today in New York City and runs through next Tuesday. This is the largest film festival in the country—it includes films that are screened at more than a dozen locations across the U.S.—dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with different disabilities.

Launched in 2007 in New York City, the festival presents award-winning films by and about people with disabilities in multiple locations throughout each hosting city. Post-screening discussions and other engaging programs bring together the community to explore, discuss, embrace, and celebrate the diversity of our shared human experience.

Festival highlights this year include Lindsey Dryden’s Lost and Sound, which follows three artists who lose their hearing and journey deep into sound and silence to rediscover music, and Sounds for Mazin, which chronicles how a 12-year-old boy with hearing loss looks forward to getting cochlear implants, but his friends make him second-guess the decision.

A special offer for friends of HHF - use code EFDHHF for $3 tickets to Lost and Sound at the JCC in Manhattan!

There are many additional films to enjoy: Check out the schedule for a complete listing and buy your tickets today.

If you’re not in the NYC area this weekend, don’t fret! The ReelAbilities Film Festival makes its way through many cities across the U.S., including Atlanta, Boston, Houston, the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington D.C., and many more. Find out more on the ReelAbilities website.

Congratulations to the First Deaf NFL Player to Play in the Super Bowl: Derrick Coleman!

By Tara Guastella

Hearing loss is sometimes considered an invisible disability. You usually can’t see hearing loss but the impact it has can be life-altering. Many even try to hide their hearing loss for fear of embarrassment. Others embrace it and do everything in their power to not let it hamper them. Seattle Seahawks fullback Derrick Coleman—who played in the Super Bowl Sunday—embraces it.

I was so moved when I first watched the Duracell commercial (below) that featured Coleman. Over the years at HHF we’ve been in touch with so many actors, sports stars, politicians, and other celebrities that are afraid of “coming out” about their hearing loss. But Coleman freely and openly talks about his hearing loss in a positive way.

Coleman, at the age of 23, broke the mold and has had an enormous impact on each and every person that experiences or knows someone who experiences hearing loss. He has become a role model for those young and old alike. He told the New York Times, “If you really want something, you find a way to make it happen.”

Coleman made it happen during last night’s game. And over the past few weeks he has made it happen for some of his biggest fans: children and young adults with hearing loss. He personally responded to an inspirational letter sent to him via Twitter from Riley Kovalcik, a 9-year-old girl who wears two hearing aids. A couple of days later Coleman surprised Riley and her twin sister with tickets to last night’s big game. Adham Talaat of Bridgewater, N.J., who is training for May’s NFL draft, believes that Coleman will pave the way for other players who are deaf. The senior at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., says he never had a deaf role model until he learned of Coleman.

I am so proud of Coleman and the Seahawks for their victory against the Denver Broncos last night (and this is coming from a diehard NY Giants fan!).

Do Your Super Bowl Sunday Plans Include Ear Plugs?

By Yishane Lee

Professional football games this season have put the spotlight on a disturbing trend: the purposely loud stadium, as a strategy to flummox the opposing team.

Leading the charge are the Seattle Seahawks, who made it to the Super Bowl XLVIII. Regardless of whether or not they beat the Denver Broncos this weekend, the Seahawks fans will already be remembered—for better or worse—as the noisiest in history. They broke the Guinness record twice this season, most recently with a rating of 137.6 decibels (dB) in December.

Seattle’s own Derrick Coleman, who doesn’t experience the din of the crowds, confronts his hearing loss head on in this Duracell commercial. Coleman has become an inspiration for all those with hearing loss.

At 130 dB, the human ear is subject to immediate and permanent hearing loss. By comparison, a jackhammer is 110 dB, an ambulance siren is 120 dB, and a jet taking off is 140 dB.

My ears hurt just thinking about this insanity. People routinely bring their children to games, subjecting them to lasting hearing damage. All of this is in the name of not only team spirit but, perhaps more importantly, messing up communication for the opposing team and causing them to make mistakes. According to a January 17 article in the Wall Street Journal, “Seahawk opponents committed 174 false start penalties since [Seattle’s CenturyLink Field] opened in 2002, the most in the National Football League.” During the NFC Championship game on January 19, San Francisco 49ers players were even fitted with custom earplugs to drown out the noise and protect their ears.

Some of the organizers of these extremely loud crowd roars—the fan association leaders—seem completely unperturbed by the risk of permanent hearing loss. Earlier this season, the Seattle Seahawks were in a noise-off with the Kansas City Chiefs, whose fans are led by Ty Rowton. (Alarmingly, he says he brings his kids to games, and they do not use ear plugs.) “If we can help our team win, that's what matters most to us. We don't think about hearing loss,” Rowton told Soundcheck, a public radio program, in December.

The author of a front-page New York Times article last November about the phenomenon, Joyce Cohen (who has hyperacusis), was also interviewed for the show, and said, “I think truly, ignorance rules the day. People have no idea, there's been no education about this.” While a Seattle hearing healthcare center donated 30,000 earplugs to fans, they were too big to fit children. A sixth-grader told Cohen that he endured a steady roar “so loud that the insides of you rattle.”

The noise from Seahawks fans is loud enough to trigger a seismograph, used to measure earthquakes. In 2011 the fans’ jumping, stomping, and screaming created enough sound energy equal to a magnitude 1 or 2 earthquake, according to the Seattle Times.

If you’re lucky enough to score tickets to this Sunday’s big game, please don’t forget a pair of earplugs. I’m all for rooting for your team, but not at the expense of your hearing. Frankly, this makes the painted, shirtless fans braving subzero temps seem like geniuses by comparison.

This Is Your Workplace on Noise

By Kathi Mestayer

Imagine that this is the view from your office window. Not bad—residential neighborhood, skyscrapers in the distance, and the train nearby means you can get to work without driving.

This view is from the Post Office Distribution Center in Oakland, Calif. It’s only 100 feet from the tracks where Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) trains line up to cross San Francisco Bay.  

The office has windows, too, which is nice. When the trains go by (every three to four minutes), accelerating and decelerating (think screeching brakes), those single-paned windows with metal frames not only let the view in, they let the sound in. And if you open them for a little fresh air, well… you can almost feel your teeth rattling.

Ethan Salter is an acoustician at the San Francisco-based Charles M. Salter Associates and was called to help reduce the noise pollution. “It was definitely difficult to communicate by phone, or even face to face, and the noise interfered with the work people were trying to do,” Salter says.   

This presents an entirely different noise problem than an office setting where the printer or a conversation in the next cubicle is the culprit. But the principles acousticians use are the same.

The rule of thumb they use is that a signal-to-noise ratio of at least 10 decibels (dBA) is required in order to be able to hear speech over noise. That means the “signal,” or what you’re trying to hear, has to be 10 dBA louder than the background noise, in order for the speech to be intelligible. (The unit dBA measures how humans perceive sound.)

With frequent BART trains and single-paned glass or open windows, that’s a tall order.

Salter worked with the Post Office staff to evaluate the alternatives in terms of cost, aesthetics, and constructability. “One type of window was too expensive, and the owner and contractor wanted to use another, more common window system that would get them a good price,” he says. “So we retrofitted one room at the facility with a double-paned window that had a layer of plastic in between the two panes of glass.” The improvement was about 10 to 15 dBA compared with the existing windows.

Now when postal employees look out their office windows, they can at least have a conversation while getting the job done. And still enjoy that expansive view.

For more:

• If you have a hearing loss, learn how you can hear better in the workplace in Hearing Health magazine's “Office Space.”

• Learn what rights you have as an employee working in a noisy space in Hearing Health magazine's “Caution: Noise at Work” and the dangers of loud gyms in “No Pain, No Gain?”

• See what steps one busy Northern California restaurant is taking so its patrons can hear one another while dining.

Hearing Health magazine staff writer Kathi Mestayer serves on advisory boards for the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Greater Richmond, Va., chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America.

Undercover Noise Cop

By Kathi Mestayer

New Year, New You? If you’re planning to hit the gym as part of a New Year’s resolution, don’t forget that being healthy includes protecting your hearing. Look for “No Pain, No Gain?” this January in Hearing Health magazine.

To write my story, I had to do some sleuthing. I’ve been doing undercover noise data collection for a few months. My instruments range from two virtually invisible smartphone apps (SoundMeter+ and AudioTools) to a very visible, unwieldy, professional sound meter. Everyone can see it, but nobody knows what it is.

Picture me in my bathing suit (be kind), walking around a huge, cavernous, swimming pool area at a community recreation center. I’m cradling the professional sound meter like a baby in my arms, its 3-inch-diameter sponge microphone cover sticking out like a huge Tootsie Roll. In my other hand is my smartphone, its decibel app meter flying back and forth at a rate so fast I can barely see it.  

The folks in the aquatics class at my end of the pool are working out, following the instructor’s movements. The boom box is barely audible due to the extremely resonant sound bouncing off of the glass and steel.

The teacher, who knows me from classes I’ve taken, gives me a “what on earth are you doing?” look, and then quickly goes back to her teaching. The lifeguard, on the other hand, is taking the liberty of really staring at me. I’m feeling pretty conspicuous.  

I take a few readings with both meters, and get a range of 74 to 78 dBA (the unit dBA measures sound levels as perceived by humans). Then, I skulk along the side of the pool to the aquatics boom box, to see how much it is adding to the din. It adds about 4 dBA, which is a significant jump in decibel terms.

As I note in my story on noisy gyms (coming up in the Winter 2014 issue of Hearing Health, out in January):

“Remember that decibel increases are magnified: 80 dBA is twice as loud as 77 dBA—the sound energy doubles with each 3 dBA increase. So while 4 dBA doesn’t seem like much on a linear scale, it’s a big difference in dBA terms.”

On my way out, I slink over to the lifeguard and tell her what I’m doing. She doesn’t ask what readings I’m getting but luckily for her, it’s within Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) limits for her as a worker. Fortunately, she doesn’t have to worry about hearing damage, at least at this sound level.

LEARN MORE:

• Be sure to read our guide to hearing aids for an active lifestyle in “Get Active” by staff writer and audiologist Barbara Jenkins, Au.D.

• If you have a hearing loss, here’s how you can hear better in the workplace in “Office Space.”

• See what steps one busy Northern California restaurant is taking so its patrons can hear one another while dining.

Hearing Health magazine staff writer Kathi Mestayer serves on advisory boards for the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Greater Richmond, Va., chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America.

"Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow," says the NYC Department of Health

By Tara Guastella

Last week, the New York City Department of Health announced the launch of a new public health awareness campaign. Rather than targeting oversize soft drinks or styrofoam containers, this ad campaign focuses on a very important issue: noise-induced hearing loss. The campaign warns that listening to headphones at a high volume can lead to both hearing loss and tinnitus.

The health department collected data on levels of hearing loss and found that nearly one out of four adults ages 18 to 44 who report heavy headphone use say they have hearing problems. This group was also more than twice as likely to report hearing problems than those who report light-to-moderate use or no use of headphones.

“Listening to headphones at a high volume for too long can damage your hearing,” says Health Commissioner Thomas Farley, M.D. “If you want to continue to enjoy music in the future, you’ll turn down the volume today.”

The hearing loss is permanent. Unlike birds, fish, and reptiles, humans and all mammals cannot restore their own hearing because we don’t have the ability regenerate inner ear hair cells. So when those hair cells are damaged by chronic exposure to loud sounds, our ability to hear is irreversibly compromised.

HHF’s Hearing Restoration Project (HRP) is working toward a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus. Our HRP consortium members are working collaboratively and sharing data on their findings in bird, zebrafish, and mouse studies. By doing so, they are able to assess how birds and zebrafish show regeneration while a mouse does not, after a very early developmental time. Other HRP research examines which cell types we are likely to need to target in damaged human ears to induce regeneration.  

As our HRP researchers work toward a cure, it is important to take precautionary steps to prevent further loss of hearing. Follow this advice from the NYC Department of Health:

• Reduce the volume, limit listening time, and take regular breaks.

• Never listen at maximum volume and do not turn the volume up to drown out external noise.

• Use volume limiting features of personal listening devices.

• Know the early signs of hearing loss and ask a doctor for a hearing test if you have trouble hearing conversation, need to turn up the volumes on TV, radio, or personal music players or experience ringing in the ear.

Safe listening!

Today, We Honor our Vets: 60% of Whom Return with Hearing Loss or Tinnitus

By Yishane Lee

Veterans are uniquely affected by noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and tinnitus. These two conditions are the top complaints among returning military personnel. In part due to ongoing conflicts abroad, there have been more than 1 million cases of tinnitus, hearing loss, and other auditory disorders over the past decade.

Noise exposure during service in Iraq and Afghanistan is to blame, but veterans from older conflicts also report their hearing has been damaged, likely in part due to their military service decades ago.

At HHF, we have been working with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to bring attention to this major health threat among veterans. Among the average population, the risk of NIHL in the workplace is something that is very preventable, through the use of earplugs, sound-damping architectural or interior design features, and plain-old noise breaks, as mandated by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

But out in the field, with the machinery that is necessary for military readiness and the constant risk of facing potential enemy combatants, hearing well—and the ability to hear signs of danger and fellow soldiers—can be a matter of life or death. Sudden noises, such as from an improvised explosive device (IED) or other weapons, can’t necessarily be predicted—and protected from.

What’s more, the temporary hearing loss that results from a sudden loud explosion puts the military personnel even more at risk. (Think about how your hearing is muffled after a loud concert. Now think about experiencing that muffled hearing in a tense combat situation.) Although recent research has found that short-term hearing loss may actually protect hearing, if it is repeated often enough, the sensitive hair cells in the inner ear die, leading to permanent hearing loss. (HHF is working to find a way to regenerate hair cells, through our Hearing Restoration Project.)

The VA has been working to remedy the situation. Together with the Department of Defense, its Veterans Health Administration launched the Hearing Center of Excellence to provide education and resources to members of the military. Among the Texas-based center’s mission drivers and goals are prevention and education, accurate and comprehensive data collection, and research into effective treatments, according to otolaryngologist Mark D. Packer, M.D., its founding director. (And yes, we here at HHF have the same goals, along with the search for a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.)

The VA is also conducting clinical trials to find an effective tinnitus treatment, including the landmark Tinnitus Retraining Therapy Trial, headed by Craig Formby, Ph.D. A sequential tinnitus treatment, called Progressive Tinnitus Management, is also showing promise among veterans. For one thing, part of the treatment can be done remotely, over the phone or the computer. This diminishes the need for frequent trips to a VA hospital, which veterans say can be difficult to maintain because of work, other injuries, finances, or sheer distance.

This Veterans Day, please take a moment to remember the service that our fellow Americans have volunteered to perform for the rest of the country, and share your stories and comments below.