Running with only one goal

By Claire Schultz

I am running this race with one goal in mind:  To raise as much money as possible and accelerate the pace of Hearing Health Foundation's research that will lead to a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus (loud ringing in the ears) in our lifetime.

I decided to take on this enormous challenge of mental and physical endurance with just five weeks to go until the race. A bit daunting, yes. But it is for a good reason.  When I joined Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) back in April,  people were signing up to run on the HHF team to raise money for our mission.  I was told we had one spot remaining and could not fathom that HHF might not take full advantage of this opportunity to raise money to fund our research consortium of leading scientists who are working collaboratively toward a cure.   So, I made the commitment.  I will run the 26.2 miles throughout NYC, and I will cross that finish line with a smile and, hopefully, with your support!   

I am doing this for the people who I know personally who live every day with the challenges of hearing loss.  I he learned from them just how hard it is to live life in a world of silence.  There are 50 million women, men, teens, and children in the U.S. who live each day without their hearing. Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) and tinnitus are the top two service-connected disabilities among US troops.

You can support me and my goal to raise money for the Hearing Health Foundation. With your help we will make great strides toward a cure for all those people living with hearing loss and tinnitus.

Please go here to donate and those of you who live in and around NYC, come out on November 2nd and cheer me on. 

Advances in Brain Training

By Kathi Mestayer

Because the brain is an integral component of the hearing process, it sometimes needs help adjusting to new types of sound. The brain needs to fill in some of the blanks when hearing is impaired or when adjusting to a new hearing aid or cochlear implant. “Aural rehabilitation is so much more than speechreading [lipreading],” says Kathleen Cienkowski, Ph.D., an associate professor and the program director of audiology in the University of Connecticut’s Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Department. “It’s basically retraining the brain.” She adds, “Cochlear implants, hearing aids, and listening systems can do wonders, but no assistive device is as smart as your brain. Our brains know what we want— and don’t want—to hear; integrate the other senses; and interpret body language, tone, pacing, and context.” Getting used to new sounds is a big adjustment. That’s when aural or auditory rehabilitation comes in. Cienkowski, who also coordinates the Aural Rehabilitation Interest Group for the American Speech-Language- Hearing Association (ASHA), defines it as “improving the quality of life and communication for those with hearing loss.”

To read the full article please read Fall issue of Hearing Health Magazine by clicking here. 

Eating Sushi for Better Hearing Health

By Pallavi Bharadwaj

I recently became a pescatarian (mostly) and adore sushi. I am glad that after being a vegetarian all my life I finally added fish to my diet because according to a study published recently in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, women who eat fish regularly have a lower risk of developing hearing loss than those who rarely or never eat fish.

The authors of the study used data that were collected as part of the Nurses’ Health Study II, a prospective cohort study. On the basis of the data, they examined independent associations between consumption of fish and long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and self-reported hearing loss in 65,215 women who were followed from 1991 to 2009. Participants were asked to fill out questionnaires every two years.

The women who consumed fish at least twice a week were found to have a 20 percent lower risk of hearing loss versus those who consumed fish less often (less than once a month). This protective action was found irrespective of the type of fish consumed. A higher intake of omega-3s, particularly EPA (ecosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), was also associated with a lower risk of hearing loss. However, no association was found for consumption of omega-6 fatty acids.

“Omega-3 antioxidants, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and vitamin C have been the focus of a growing body of evidence showing potential hearing benefits,” says Gordon Hughes, M.D., the program director for clinical trials at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, which provided funding for the study.

Other studies had already established a link between eating fish—the omega-3s they contain in particular—and a lower risk of cardiac and cerebrovascular diseases. It is thought that a diet rich in these foods helps to maintain blood flow to the cochlea through similar mechanisms, thus providing oxygen and nutrients that the cochlea needs to function properly.

It's Reasonable to Continue Drinking Coffee

By Pallavi Bharadwaj

National Coffee Day was yesterday. A number of national fast food chains doled out free coffee to mark the day. But wait! There is more than one reason to celebrate this dark caffeinated drink.

New study findings have shown that higher caffeine intake is associated with a lower risk of tinnitus, although the underlying mechanism remains unknown. The study showed that intake of caffeine, in the form of coffee, tea, sodas, candy and chocolate, was on the contrary, associated with a lower risk of incident self-reported tinnitus.

Caffeine has long been thought to play a role in the development of tinnitus, but no pertinent clinical data are available. On the basis of data from the Nurses’ Health Study II, a team of researchers from Ontario, Canada and Massachusetts, USA, compared caffeine intake levels and the incidence of tinnitus. Study participants included 65,085 women in the survey, aged 30 to 44 years and who did not have tinnitus at baseline in 1991. Participants completed questionnaires about lifestyle and medical history every two years and food questionnaires every four years.

Information on self-reported tinnitus and date of onset was obtained from the 2009 questionnaire, with cases defined as those reporting experiencing symptoms “a few days/week” or “daily.” Multivariable adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using Cox proportional hazards regression models.

“We can’t conclude that caffeine is a cure for tinnitus,” says the lead author, Dr. Jordan T. Glicksman. “But our results should provide some assurance to people who do drink caffeine that it’s reasonable to continue doing so.”

Sources:

• Glicksman JT, et al. A prospective study of caffeine intake and risk of incident tinnitus. The American Journal of Medicine 2014 Aug;127(8):739-43;

• New York Times August 13, 2014

• For more tinnitus resources, please visit ‘What is Tinnitus’ section on HHF’s website

Communication Is Critical to Care

By Kathi Mestayer

I recently visited my father, who wears a cochlear implant, in a rehab facility, where he was recovering from surgery.

His room, right next to the nurses’ station, was pretty noisy. There was a constant array of beeps, rings, clanging equipment, and talk. I measured the noise level with my decibel meter smartphone app (AudioTools) and got a reading of around 65 dBA inside the room, about 10 feet from the door. That’s equivalent to normal conversation, but it could make it very difficult for a person with a cochlear implant to correctly understand a medical question.

The rehab center staff was well-meaning, attentive, and caring. But the level of awareness of communication problems for those with hearing loss was spotty.  

• No captioning phones (and no idea of whether they would work in the facility).  

• No idea of what a cochlear implant looked like.

• No way to communicate in writing.

To be fair, that’s not unusual. Earlier this year, I visited my uncle in the hospital. He had had a hearing loss for years. Due to his Parkinson’s disease, he also had a hard time speaking. They were having difficulty getting him to agree to the doctor’s recommendation of a colonoscopy. He was under the mistaken impression that they were talking about a colostomy, and hesitant to agree. Fortunately, I had brought in a whiteboard and marker the day before. I wrote the words “Colonoscopy” and “Colostomy” in big letters on the board, and crossed out “Colostomy” with a big X. He took the write board and wrote “U Sure?” on it. “YES,” I said, nodded, and wrote on the board. He agreed to the procedure on the spot.

I recently became aware of a two-year-old Department of Justice (DoJ) program called the Barrier-Free Healthcare Initiative. The Department of Justice, which also oversees the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has committed resources and attention to the important work of providing, among other things, effective communication for patients with hearing loss in hospitals, pharmacies, rehab facilities, and doctors’ offices.

Useful resources:

Click here to get the full scope of the Barrier-Free Healthcare Initiative.

The ADA’s primer on how to communicate effectively with people who have hearing loss.

And if you’re wondering whether the DoJ is making headway, read updates here including about the success the DoJ has had working with healthcare facilities to help them meet the ADA requirements.  

Kathi Mestayer writes about workplace noise issues. Read her articles here:

• This Is Your Workplace on Noise

• Undercover Noise Cop

• Closed Captioning: Keeping the Pace

• Restaurant Conversation: Not Just for the "Early Birds" Any More

The Harm from Noise

By Pallavi Bharadwaj

Workplace noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is among the most common type of NIHL in the United States, among other countries. In the U.S., 30 million workers are estimated to be at risk for NIHL, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Austrian researchers recently presented a study titled “Early prognosis of noise-induced hearing loss”  recently in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 

It has long been assumed that some individuals are more vulnerable to occupational NIHL than others because of the wide variation in hearing loss after equivalent exposures. Earlier attempts to define predictors of workplace NIHL susceptibility have been inconclusive. Recently in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Austrian researchers presented a study titled “Early prognosis of noise-induced hearing loss” that evaluated the potential of temporary threshold shift (TTS) to predict future NIHL.

Between 1982 and 1989, 311 participants (welders and fitters) were included in a prospective study during their initial health screening visit. At this occasion, a standardized noise exposure was applied: 20 minutes at frequencies of 200 to 500 hertz (Hz) and at a volume of 100 dBA. The TTS at 4 kilohertz (kHz) was determined during at least 10 minutes after exposure. Hearing loss was monitored at follow-up visits every three to five years, averaging 13 years in total.

The Austrian researchers say the temporary threshold shift (TTS) model can be successfully applied as a method to detect individuals at greater risk of workplace NIHL. It is recommended to routinely include such a procedure into initial workers’ examinations for suitability to work under occupational noise conditions and for counseling on the use of hearing protection.

Read the abstract here.

To learn more about workplace noises see:       

• Protection for All

• This Is Your Workplace on Noise

• Office Space

Tips for Hearing Well in the Classroom

By Yishane Lee

It’s hard to hear well in school. Between the hard surfaces, open spaces such as gyms and cafeterias, shouting teachers, and the children themselves who can be counted on NOT to be quiet, it’s hard for hearing children as well as children with hearing loss to always hear well.

TED Talk speaker Julian Treasure says children sitting in the fourth row of a classroom lose as much of half of what is being said.

“Now that's not just deaf children. That could be any child who's got a cold, glue ear, an ear infection, even hay fever,” he says. “On a given day, one in eight children fall into that group. Then you have children for whom English is a second language, or whatever they're being taught in is a second language,” Treasure says in his TED Talk on why architects need to use their ears.

Fortunately, there are ways you can hear better in the classroom. Here are some tips.

• Sit in the front of the classroom, and make sure the classroom is well lit, particularly the teacher or whoever is doing the talking.

• Don’t sit too close to air conditioners and other appliances or machinery that can make it difficult to hear.

• Use assistive devices. As 7-year-old Samantha Brownlie recounts in the YouTube video about how she hears better in school, “Samantha’s Fun FM and Hearing Aid Book” (which you can now buy), an FM unit can help. The teacher wears a microphone around her neck that transmits wirelessly to Samantha’s hearing device.

• Schedule time with the teachers to review how to use the FM unit. As the parents of Lily, who wears bilateral cochlear implants, note in their blog post about prepping for school, “Make sure there is a management plan in place, especially for the FM unit.... There are so many moving parts.”

• Bring extra batteries and cords.

• Encourage the school to use drapes, carpets, and soundproofing material to help dim noise and reverberation.

• Consider auditory training programs that can help your child hear better in noise. A recent study in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America found that auditory training boosted speech understanding in school children with hearing loss by 50 percent, even three months after the study. The training involved practicing the comprehension of speech in the presence of “interrupted” white noise—white noise with brief silences. Read about auditory training programs and other tips for hearing better in noise in the Spring 2012 Hearing Health magazine “Hearing Aids 101” column.

People Make Spaces Quieter

By Kathi Mestayer

I used to think that crowded spaces were noisier. But I was wrong. More people can make a space quieter, especially if it's an echoey, reverberant room. That's right—people make spaces quieter.

I noticed this the other day when I was leaving a large gathering that I attend often. The crowd was much smaller than usual, but the echoes were way worse than usual. I asked a couple of friends, who echoed (really!) my observation. Way noisier than usual.

So I got home and emailed an acoustician, Richard Peppin, of Engineers for Change. My question: "Is it possible that the space was really noisier with fewer people in it?"

His terse, but (as always) helpful, reply: "Yes. Because people absorb sound and hence reduce reflections."

Who knew?

Kathi Mestayer writes articles on a wide variety of aspects of hearing loss: office acoustics, building acoustics, ADHD and hearing loss, hyperacusis and recruitment, nonverbal communication, and language and culture.

ERG 2015 Announcement

By Pallavi Bharadwaj

We are excited to inform you of the opening of the application period for Hearing Health Foundation's 2015 Emerging Research Grants program. 

This program is designed only for the first year applicants, who are dedicated to explore new avenues for hearing and balance science. Please note that the current Hearing Health Foundation awardees, applying for a second year of funding, are no longer eligible. 

We encourage you to review our announcement and Policy on Emerging Research Grants, as several eligibility changes have gone into effect for this funding cycle. If you are eligible to apply for this program, please make note of the deadlines given below. 

For 1st year Applicants:

LOI deadline: October 25, 2014 by 5pm ET

Full Application opens: Early November, 2014

Full Application deadline: December 6, 2014 by 5pm ET
Then please review the instructions for submitting a LOI.

With any questions about this opportunity, please feel free to reach out to us at grants@hearinghealthfoundation.org . 

Thank you for your interest in this program and please do share this information with your interested colleagues as well. 

The Danger From Noise When It Is Actually Music

By Yishane Lee

Les Paul Ambassador

John Colianni

Noise-induced hearing loss affects anyone exposed to very loud or chronic noise. It doesn’t matter if the “noise” is actually music. It has been estimated that up to half of classical orchestral musicians have hearing loss because of their work in music, practicing or performing up to eight hours a day. Sound levels onstage, no matter the music genre, can reach up to 110 decibels (dB), although it is not usually continuous. That is equivalent to a jackhammer—even if there’s a melody behind it.

Researchers at the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine in Poland measured the exposure for classical musicians as 81 to 90 dBA (A-weighted decibels, a unit of measure for how humans perceive sound) for 20 to 45 hours a week. In their study published in the International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, they estimated that this exposure over the course of a career increases the risk of a hearing loss of 35 dB by 26 percent. At the greatest risk for hearing loss are those in the brass section—horn, trumpet, tuba—as well as those playing percussion, the study found.

Prolonged exposure at 85 dB (the sound of heavy traffic) will permanently damage the delicate hair cells of the inner ear, leading to hearing loss. Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, is another potential problem. Roughly 90 percent of tinnitus cases occur with an underlying hearing loss.

Not surprisingly, rock and jazz musicians are not immune. Indeed, there are a number of well-known rock and pop musicians who have publicly discussed their hearing loss and/or tinnitus, among them Sting, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Phil Collins, and Will.i.am.

But hearing loss due to noise (or music) is completely preventable. A related study by the Polish scientists determined that brass players benefitted the most from the use of custom-molded, silicone earplugs with acoustic filters that reduced sound levels. Woodwind, percussion, and string players also benefited.

In 2013, the Les Paul Foundation and HHF teamed up to launch the Les Paul Ambassadors program. Guitar great Les Paul was determined to find a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus, and through his foundation’s support of HHF’s Hearing Restoration Project, an international research consortium of top hearing scientists, we have the opportunity to find a cure. Learn about the program and the first Ambassador, Lou Pallo, as well as our other Ambassadors saxophonist Chris Potter and jazz pianist John Colianni.

Learn more about NIHL and its risk factors, treatment, and prevention in our new Summer issue of Hearing Health magazine.