My friends and I were at a college basketball game, hollering and stomping on the bleachers. The shouting and pounding merged us into a single, vibrating, noise envelope of our own making, and we loved every decibel of it. That was long before I paid much attention to noise, or started losing my hearing.
The USPSTF Sticks to Its Recommendation: No Hearing Screenings for Older Adults
As in its draft recommendation released a few months earlier (which I wrote about), the USPSTF “concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for hearing in older adults.”
How Far We've Come: Opportunities for Children With Hearing Loss Then and Now
Pioneering educators in the 1970s and 1980s created a new vision for infants and toddlers with hearing loss, emphasizing early identification and family training—revolutionary ideas then, best practices now.
From Macrame to Masks
This adjustable elastic was designed for those with special needs, such as those with autism and wearers of hearing aids. The principal is simple: One strap goes around the neck, the other one around the head. The problem was the bottom elastic—it gets caught in the hearing aids and the elastic turns into a slingshot.
The Things I Miss
I formally learned of my mild to moderately-severe bilateral sensorineural hearing loss at age 49. The ear, nose, and throat (ENT) doctor’s verdict was unexpected. Almost 13 years later, I wear hearing aids vigilantly, but there’s still so much that I miss about having typical hearing.
COVID-19 and Hearing Loss, Tinnitus, and Vertigo
Over the past year of the COVID-19 pandemic, case reports and studies have suggested a link between the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 and hearing loss and related conditions.
Finding a “New Normal” After Sudden Single-Sided Deafness
Michael Goldsmith realized he had lost his hearing in his left ear when he woke up from his medically induced coma in March 2020. His account demonstrates the learning process and journey to a cochlear implant when sudden deafness occurs as just one part of a more complex medical situation.
Doing My Part to Break Sound Barriers
In September 2020, I conducted my own fundraiser for Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) online. I don’t live with a hearing and balance condition and do not have any family members affected. Rather, I became inspired to help after a very memorable elementary school experience.
Keep It With You
Like many of you, this past 12 months have been an almost overwhelming avalanche of change, stress, and “new normals.” While COVID-19 has been a universal experience for all, it has also changed our individual needs and behaviors patterns in both large and small ways.
Aging Actively
Aging actively is more than a phrase. It’s about extending healthy life expectancy and quality of life for all people as they age. We all know that connecting to one another and our physical world is absolutely vital in preserving our wellbeing, so as we think of our five senses, many would agree that hearing plays an important role in maintaining our quality of life.