#GivingTuesday Shines in Its Second Year

By Tara Guastella

Yesterday was Giving Tuesday, the official kickoff to the holiday giving season.  After Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, I am glad to finally see a day in honor of charitable giving!

In its second year, Giving Tuesday seemed much larger and more diverse than last year with a wide range of charities devising unique ways to raise funds. According to one report, donations nearly doubled compared with last year.

I have been looking forward to Giving Tuesday since July. Yet over the past week or so, I began to worry as I started to receive countless emails and updates in my Facebook and Twitter feeds about Giving Tuesday from every charity I have ever heard of. I wondered if HHF would get drowned out by larger, more well-known charities like American Cancer Society or The Boys and Girls Club.  

People always tell me that I worry too much. And, in this case, they were right. I am proud to report that yesterday HHF received the largest amount of individual donations in one day ever (with the exception of December 31)! Since this was HHF’s first year as an official partner of Giving Tuesday, we are thrilled at the support our community has shown in support of a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.  

HHF’s National Junior Board celebrated Giving Tuesday by hosting the second annual “Hear, Hear for Holiday Cheer” benefit at Connolly’s Pub in NYC last night. Over 100 attendees enjoyed free beer and wine, fun conversation, and great raffle prizes. Raffle items included a DASHA wellness package, tickets to a New York Giants football game, a photography session with a top NYC photographer, and multiple trip packages to Antigua, Barbados, Panama, and much more.

Now that Giving Tuesday is over, I can look forward to making next year even better and more successful for HHF!

Give the Gift of Healthy Hearing

By Yishane Lee

As soon as the holidays roll around every year, I try to think of ways to give and receive gifts that are truly valuable, and not merely the season’s hot toy or other things that, when it comes down to it, you don’t really, really need. (I have used last year’s immersion blender exactly once. Yipes!)

As I try to remind my kids, the season is about gift giving, not receiving, and this year, I’ll talk to my family about giving the gift of healthy hearing. An annual hearing test taken every year around the holidays is the perfect way to show your family you care, and for them to show you they care.

Why? Undiagnosed and untreated hearing loss has been shown to detrimentally affect personal relationships, as the Better Hearing Institute reports. “Research demonstrates the considerable negative social, psychological, cognitive, and health effects of untreated hearing loss with far-reaching implications that go well beyond hearing alone. In fact, those who have difficulty hearing can experience such distorted and incomplete communication that it seriously impacts their professional and personal lives, at times leading to isolation and withdrawal.”

And it’s well known that social isolation is a risk factor for dementia and other cognitive disorders. The social isolation that can come with untreated hearing loss may be one reason why hearing loss has been linked to dementia, according to a 2011 study led by Frank Lin, M.D., Ph.D., at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. It is also possible that whatever leads to dementia may also cause hearing loss. Or, the brain’s constant efforts to understand and interpret sounds eventually taxes the brain, leading to dementia.

I don’t mean to be such a downer in a time of holiday cheer. But since having a hearing loss can be even more challenging during the holidays, when family and friends gather and when the noise level can be even louder, you owe it to yourself and your family—and vice versa—to get your hearing checked by a hearing professional this holiday season.

If you’re really looking to give a gift that will impact a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus, consider a gift to HHF.  You can make a gift in memory or in honor of a loved one, contribute to an item on our wish list, or fundraise for a cure and ask your family and friends to donate to HHF in lieu of holiday gifts to you.

While you are doing some online shopping, consider using Amazon Smile where a portion of your proceeds will be automatically donated to HHF at no cost to you! Just register (or sign in to your Amazon account) and choose HHF as your charity of choice. Also, be sure to avoid these toxic toys—including noisy toys that have the potential to cause hearing damage over time.

Here’s hoping you and yours enjoy a happy, healthy holiday season!

Stuffed After Thanksgiving? Don't Be a Turkey - Get Active!

By Tara Guastella

Over Thanksgiving this week, many of us will spend time giving thanks with family and friends. Thanksgiving is also unique in that it’s a holiday specifically about food (and not, say, gift-giving or something religious). I can’t wait to devour many traditional Thanksgiving foods (cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie!) because I wait for them all year long. Yet each year I always find myself overeating, including on Thanksgiving leftovers. I can’t resist a cold turkey sandwich with stuffing and mashed sweet potatoes.

After the long Thanksgiving weekend, I force myself back to the gym to burn off those excess calories. But participating in sports and other physical activities can be a challenge for those with hearing loss who use hearing aids or cochlear implants. The potential for moisture damage, losing the device, and sacrificing sound quality can cause many to (happily) skip a good workout.  

You can’t use these reasons as excuses, though. Hearing aid manufacturers have boosted technology, styles, and accessories to allow you to take part in your favorite activities.

Waterproof hearing aids (such as the Siemens Aquaris) and cochlear implants (such as the Advanced Bionics Neptune processor) eliminate worry about water damage. Ask your hearing healthcare professional for details. And in case your hearing device is not fully water-resistant, follow these tips for emergency care of water-damaged devices.

If you enjoy an outdoor run or bike ride in the park, wind noise can pose a problem for hearing aid users. The next time you are considering an upgrade, remember that completely-in-the-canal (CIC) hearing aids sit deep enough in the ear canal that wind won’t affect it. All hearing aids also have “wind noise reduction” settings which can help reduce noise from wind as well.  

There are also accessories that can help keep your hearing aid in place while you are in motion. The waterproof Neoprene Ear Band-It is worn like a traditional sweatband and helps keep any style of hearing aid in place. (It’s also useful for limiting water exposure to the ears—reducing the risk of ear infection, if you or your child is prone to them in water.) You can also choose brightly colored safety cords or clips that attach hearing aids to a piece of clothing and/or to each other or eyeglasses for added security.

Before trying a new activity, always be sure to speak with your hearing healthcare provider so you can make sure your hearing device is up to the task (or learn about one that is). Be sure to ask about the warranty or insurance in case something does happen to your hearing device.

Learn more ways to protect your hearing gear from Hearing Health magazine’s “Get Active.”  

Happy Thanksgiving!

You Can Help Us Find a Cure!

By Tara Guastella

Do you, or a family member, or a friend have a hearing loss? Do you know someone returning from military service who developed a hearing loss or tinnitus while serving our country? Do you want to help us find a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus?

Help us fundraise for a cure!  

We are excited to announce the launch of our new giving platform that will help you do just that. Join us in finding a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus by creating a fundraising event for Giving Tuesday, on December 3 this year, an international day of giving that kicks off the holiday giving season.

But don’t worry--if you aren’t able to plan something for for Giving Tuesday, no problem. Our giving platform will be available to you year-round for any event or giving idea that you may have.

There are many different ways to create your own fundraising event, ranging from golf outings and bake sales, to birthdays and weddings, to marathons and triathlons. Let your talents and interests lead you--no event is too large or too small!

If you’re looking for a unique way to create a fundraising event, we have several examples of past events, such as Publishing for Vision & Hearing and DJ’ing for a Cure, alongside more traditional sporting event examples like the NYC Marathon, Marine Corp Marathon, and Aquaphor NYC Triathlon. Looking for other ideas? We have those for you too!

If you’ve never fundraised before, don’t let that stop you. We provide email templates and examples of how to reach out to friends and family to ask for support of your event. We also provide a host of social media sharing options. Did you know the average person has 300 friends on Facebook? If you create an event and ask each of your Facebook friends to donate $5, you can raise $1,500!

Once you’ve nailed down how you’d like to fundraise, in three easy steps you’ll be on your way to helping us support groundbreaking research to cure hearing loss and tinnitus. 1.) Register; 2) Create your Giving Page; 3) Share your personal page with family and friends and ask for their support.

Get Started!

Thank you in advance for your help toward finding a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.

Have questions or need help setting up your fundraiser?  Email fundraise@hhf.org or call (212) 257-6140.

How Your Smartphone Can Help You Hear Better

By Yishane Lee

Since they first became available, smartphones such as those from Google and Apple have provided a boon to people who have hearing loss. Because of the sophisticated, built-in microphone in these phones, there is a panoply of apps (applications) that help boost the volume at varying levels of sophistication, and many are free or nearly free to download. Composer Richard Einhorn (a friend of HHF) has described the various apps he uses in his work as well as hear better.

There are also apps that measure decibel levels, allow you to mix sounds to favor high frequencies, and help you program your hearing device. In Hearing Health magazine, we have written about and reviewed various apps—see “12 Apps to Help You Hear Better” and “Apps Explosion”—and the field is constantly evolving and expanding.

Now we have what promises to be an even more seamless integration between the smartphone and hearing aid. Last year, Apple, the maker of the iPhone and iPad, made its programming interface accessible to hearing aid manufacturers so that they can better integrate hearing devices with those devices. In October, as reported by David Copithorne on the blog Hearing Mojo, Denmark-based hearing aid maker ReSound has announced the first “made for the iPhone” hearing aid, the LiNX.

Copithorne predicts that Apple’s “cool factor” will encourage more first-time hearing aid users to try a hearing aid such as LiNX. Plus, the technology in LiNX eliminates the need for an added device (such as a neck loop) in order to stream sound between a smartphone and hearing aid—a simplification both first-time and long-time hearing aid users will appreciate.

Among the many tech upgrades that Copithorne reports, ReSound also says it has resolved a nagging issue for people who use wireless technology and/or Bluetooth for extended periods of time: battery drain. It promises its new device  is more powerful and less power hungry than others.

It’s nearly impossible to keep up with all the new apps that are introduced (and keep in mind that Apple reviews apps before allowing them into iTunes, whereas Google does not have a vetting process for apps available on Google Play). That said, two new apps are taking fresh approaches to sound and hearing. The first is Lumisonic, which was originally designed to work for music. The app (available for the Nintendo Wii console, iPhone, or a PC or Apple desktop computer) adds real-time graphics and vibrations to any sound. Its software translates soundwaves from music or speech into radiating circles that are altered based on the sound. You can also alter the sounds yourself, like a synthesizer.

Proloquo2Go is an iPhone-only app that aims to help people who have no voice to communicate. After selecting a sentence using easy-to-understand graphical icons, the app pronounces it and writes it for you. You can add words not in the app’s vocabulary database by typing them in and selecting new icons; you can even take photos using the iPhone and assign them to words. Voices varied by gender and age are available to read the sentences.

As the smartphone (and tablet) market continues to expand, you can bet we’ll have ever more hearing-related apps. Let us know about your favorites below.

3 Days, 14 Scientists, 1 Goal

By Tara Guastella

From November 10 to 12, the annual meeting of the Hearing Restoration Project consortium took place in Seattle to discuss progress of their research toward a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.  

The weekend started with a team-building outing at two of Seattle's iconic attractions: Chihuly Glass Museum and the Space Needle. The group first admired a colorful array of beautiful glass sculptures at the museum, followed by a marvelous 360-degree view of Seattle. The group then enjoyed a relaxed dinner together before the real work of the meeting was to commence.

Early Monday morning, each group of researchers began presenting their progress on the five funded HRP projects. Each of the groups presented their initial findings on the genomics of mouse, chicken, and zebrafish studies. This work helps us learn how these animals are capable of inner ear hair cell regeneration in order to identify ways to translate this to humans. Each member of the consortium contributed to the discussion on how we can compare this cross-species data, something that would not be possible without the collaborative design of the HRP.

The progress of the work on each project led to a discussion of how to update the HRP’s Strategic Research Plan to reflect what we have learned through the first year and a half of funding these HRP projects. Check back on our website for the updated plan, to be published online soon, as well as in a future issue of Hearing Health magazine.

See more meeting photos in our Facebook album.

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.

A Tiny Frog That Hears Without an Eardrum

By Yishane Lee

An intriguing discovery in one of the world’s smallest frogs points to the power of hearing through bone conduction.

Gardiner’s Seychelles frogs, named for islands off the coast of East Africa where they are found, evolved without a middle ear or an eardrum, both of which transmit sound waves to our inner ear. Scientists had always assumed that the tiny vertebrates (which measure just 11 millimeters) could not hear at all. But the frogs croak, and animals usually create sound only in response to hearing sound.

So they must be hearing—but how?

French researchers recently discovered the answer. In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in September, they say that the frogs hear with their mouths.

The scientists first used recordings of frog sounds to verify that the frog could hear. It did: Male frogs hopped closer to the sound and croaked in response only to calls from their own species.

Then, they used X-rays to examine the frog’s anatomy. The theory that the frogs were using their lungs to capture sound vibrations was discounted when it was discovered that their lungs are too small to catch the right wavelength. (Other frogs and many fish do use their lungs to hear.) So they focused attention on the frog’s head.

After creating 3-D simulations of sound entering a frog’s skull, the researchers found that the frog’s oral cavity resonates at nearly the same frequency as its call. The frog, they found, has unusually thin layers of tissue between the mouth and inner ear meaning that, in essence, the frog’s mouth amplifies sound waves.

“Our models show how bone conduction enhanced by the resonating role of the mouth allows these seemingly deaf frogs to communicate effectively without a middle ear,” the authors wrote. “The presence of a middle ear is not a necessary condition for terrestrial hearing, despite being the most versatile solution for life on land.”

Since the Seychelles islands, located in the western Indian Ocean, are relatively isolated, hearing through the mouth may be an ancient way that animals heard, before the middle ear and eardrum evolved, they added.

Read the abstract here.

Five NYC Marathon Finishers: Winners in the Search for a Cure for Hearing Loss

By Tara Guastella

A wave to the thousands cheering my name

On a crisp, cool morning this past Sunday, November 3, Tom Abbey, Veronica Calhoun, Kim Montini, Andy Shepard, and I rose early and made our way to the starting line of the 2013 ING NYC Marathon. After ferry rides and shuttle buses, our marathon team stood at the starting line of the greatest running race in the world for one important reason: to support a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.

Over the past several months we have spent hours on training runs, thanks to Abbey, team trainer from Functional Fitness VA, who prepared our team to tackle this great feat. Each team member also worked together to raise funds for HHF. In total, we raised nearly $20,000 to support a cure.

"I would have never done it if it wasn't for the cause. And I'm so happy that I did," says Calhoun, who ran for her 4-year-old daughter, Marlowe, who was born with a hearing loss.

Veronica poses with her medal after finishing

All five team members crossed the finish line in their bright green HHF T-shirts, and we couldn't have felt happier about what we had just accomplished—not only completing 26.2 scenic miles through all five boroughs of New York City, but also knowing that journey is contributing to a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus. The accomplishment is something that goes much further than Marathon Sunday—something that, one day in the near future, will restore a vital sense to the nearly 50 million Americans with hearing loss.

Interested in running in next year’s NYC Marathon for HHF? Email development@hhf.org today!

All Hail Supporting Cells

By Yishane Lee

We have the ability to hear, thanks to the sensitive hair cells located in our ears. They are called hair cells because of their hair-like shape, long and thin (resembling the hairs on your head yet having nothing to do with them). When these hair cells die or are damaged, it is permanent. And so is the resulting loss of hearing. Unlike in other species—such as birds, fish, and amphibians—in mammals including humans, once these cells die, they don’t grow back or repair themselves, which makes it even more critical to keep them alive.

Supporting cells, as their name suggests, support hair cells both structurally and nutritionally. But a new study of supporting cells in the inner ears of mice reveals yet another role—one that is hugely important for researchers working to restore hearing in mammals.

Writing in July in an online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, scientists at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), found that supporting cells can actually actively help repair damaged sensory hair cells.

Supporting cells and a chemical they produce called heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) appear to play a critical role in protecting damaged hair cells from death in the ears of mice. Senior study author Lisa Cunningham, Ph.D., said, “Our study indicates that when the inner ear is under stress, the cell that responds by generating protective proteins is not a hair cell, but a supporting cell.” Cunningham and her team are collaborating with a clinical team at the NIDCD to design a clinical trial. It will look at ways to induce the production of HSP70 in the inner ear.

Further, our Hearing Restoration Project consortium members Albert Edge, Ph.D. of Harvard Medical School, Stefan Heller, Ph.D. of Stanford University, and Elizabeth Oesterle, Ph.D. of University of Washington are trying to figure out what happens to supporting cells after hair cells die or are damaged. Their project, “Supporting Cell Fate Mapping,” has so far found that some promising news regarding supporting cells and their function. In “Making a Map,” an article in the Fall issue of Hearing Health, Dr. Oesterle writes:

“After some severe insults (damage), the nonsensory supporting cells in the [auditory] epithelium [the organ of Corti] can retain some normal cellular identity for long periods of time. This is encouraging because in non-mammals it is the supporting cells that give rise to new replacement hair cells after hair cells are lost. After various severe insults, our data suggest that the supporting cells die and neighboring cells—cells that are normally abutting the sensory epithelium—move in.”

Both recent research results show that while we still have more to learn about the roles of supporting cells, their support they provide may be crucial to the search for a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.