When Everyday Noise Is Unbearable

By Pallavi Bharadwaj

Like many people, George Rue loved music. He played guitar in a band. He attended concerts often. In his late 20s, he started feeling a dull ache in his ears after musical events. After a blues concert almost nine years ago, “I left with terrible ear pain and ringing, and my life changed forever,” said Rue, 45, of Waterford, Connecticut. He perceived all but the mildest sounds as not just loud, but painful. It hurt to hear.

Mr. Rue was given a diagnosis of hyperacusis, a nonspecific term that has assorted definitions, including “sound sensitivity,” “decreased sound tolerance,” and “a loudness tolerance problem.”

Hyperacusis can be extremely debilitating, and at present, there is no cure. The researchers in The American Journal of Audiology study provided an overview of the field, and possible related areas, in the hope of facilitating future research. They reviewed and referenced literature on hyperacusis and related areas. This study has been funded by Hyperacusis Research and Hearing Health Foundation. 

Hyperacusis encompasses a wide range of reactions to sound, which can be grouped into the categories of excessive loudness, annoyance, fear, and pain. Many different causes have been proposed, and it will be important to appreciate and quantify different subgroups. Reasonable approaches to assessing the different forms of hyperacusis are emerging, including psychoacoustical measures, questionnaires, and brain imaging. Hyperacusis can make life difficult for many, forcing sufferers to dramatically alter their work and social habits.

Loud noises, even when they aren’t painful, can damage both the sensory cells and sensory nerve fibers of the inner ear over time, causing hearing impairment, said M. Charles Liberman, a professor of otology at Harvard Medical School, who heads a hearing research lab at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. And for some people who are susceptible, possibly because of some combination of genes that gives them “tender” ears, noise sets in motion “an anomalous response,” he said.

This article has been adapted from a post on The New York Times’s Wellness blog. To read the original article, please click here.

For information about tinnitus (ringing in the ears), please see these resources on the HHF website.

Read the story on Hyperacusis on HHF’s website.

What Is That Noise? My Take on Living with Tinnitus

By Shari Eberts

I have a 40-50% hearing loss in both of my ears, but only mild tinnitus.  I am grateful for that.  Sometimes I feel that the tinnitus is worse than the hearing loss!  Unexplained sounds buzzing and whistling in your head can make you question your sanity.  And give you the worst headache known to man.  The lack of sound seems almost a relief in retrospect.

Thus far, I have experienced two types of tinnitus. The first has been occurring on and off for several years and is not that troublesome.  I am not sure what the trigger is, or even if there is a trigger, but all of a sudden, I will hear a sound like a fluorescent light was just turned on, followed by a high-pitched beeeeeeeep that lasts for 30-60 seconds.  It will often start softly; build to a crescendo, and then taper off, like someone has turned the fluorescent light back off.  It happens in noise and in silence.  It comes and it goes, maybe once or twice a week.  Strange, but not bad.

But recently, a new type of tinnitus has started, and this one is more debilitating. Again, I’m not sure if there is a specific trigger, but it seems to happen more often after I am exposed to rhythmic loud noises (like a bathroom fan) or to bright lights.  It starts suddenly, is much louder than my friend the fluorescent light, and can continue for an hour or more.  It is exhausting.  I cannot think.  I can’t hear what people are saying to me over the ringing. I want to lie down, but sometimes that is not possible.  I work to focus on the real sounds around me and carry on. 

To read more, please click here. 

Shari Eberts is Board Chair, HHF. She regularly writes on her blog and tweets at @sharieberts. 

Marion Downs Appreciation

By Amy Gross

I had no idea how influential Marion Downs had been—and at the time, still was—regarding newborn infant screening, but it didn't take much research to discover that this woman was a big, big deal. I don't know why, but her passing on November 13, 2014, caught me by surprise. It didn't matter that she had reached her 100th birthday; I, like many of her fans, found it difficult to accept that the force known as Marion Downs had moved on, peacefully, in her sleep.

Marion (she wouldn't let me call her "Ms. Downs") was 92 when we spoke. She was still skiing and swimming and playing tennis competitively, and one of the photos in “Shut Up and Live!” showed her gleefully skydiving with a handsome young instructor (she made sure to point out the "handsome" part several times). I had read every word of her book, in which she provided candid advice for anyone dealing with the aging process: the importance of weight training, why hearing aids are critical in the health of a marriage, and how to maintain a healthy sex life into one's senior years. I loved that she was able to make me blush more than a few more times; the woman minced no words.

What had put Marion Downs on the map, audiologically speaking, were her pioneering efforts, beginning in the early 1960s, in the essentially unheard-of area of infant hearing testing. An audiologist herself, Marion and a research partner started hearing testing for newborns before those infants had even left the hospital, fitting even the tiniest babies with hearing aids. Today, thanks to Early Hearing and Detection Intervention programs, 97 percent of newborns have their hearing screened. Knowing what we know today about the importance of hearing with respect to language and even cognitive development in extremely young children, there's no telling how many infants with hearing loss were identified as such in a timely manner, and their developmental skills saved, because of Marion Downs's work.  

The Marion Downs Center in Denver, Colorado, a nonprofit organization that espouses, as Marion did herself, a cradle to grave approach in dealing with hearing loss, will continue her efforts in advocating for those with hearing loss. Marion was a visionary in the world of hearing health. Her legacy lives on, quite visibly, in the children whose lives she touched.

Hearing Health Foundation at Partnering for Cures 2014

By Pallavi Bharadwaj

Convened by FasterCures, the Washington, D.C.-based center of the Milken Institute, the conference will bring together nearly 1,000 medical research leaders, investors and decision-makers to forge the collaborations needed to speed and improve outcomes-driven R&D. The ongoing promise of hair-cell regeneration is closer to reality than ever.

Hearing Health Foundation’s Hearing Restoring Project consortium has identified major roadblocks that have stymied the field, and has designed rational approaches to overcome these barriers.

Partnering for Cures is designed to facilitate informed investments and cultivate relationships, adapting the outcomes-oriented approach of investor conferences, and building on the networking opportunities at industry partnering meetings. In addition to innovator presentations, it also features panels that spotlight solutions to long-standing challenges in medical research.

 “We are very pleased to be present and participate in this conference. It is a unique opportunity to raise visibility for hearing loss and the path to a cure among an important audience.” says Claire Schultz, CEO HHF.

Hearing Health Foundation is one of 30 innovators presenting their cross-sector research collaboration to potential partners and funders at the conference.  Selected through a competitive proposal process, each partnership is aimed at reducing the time and cost of getting new medical solutions from discovery to patients.

“These collaborations address some of the thorniest issues in medical research using models that can be scaled and translated across diseases,” said FasterCures’ Executive Director Margaret Anderson.

“From re-imagining clinical trial infrastructure to improving and expanding data sharing, to creating the tools and resources needed to translate basic science into cures, they are accelerating the path from lab to market for novel – and needed – therapies.”

For more information and to register for the conference, go to www.partneringforcures.org

To know more on HHF’s Hearing Restoration Project presentation at Parterning for Cures 2014, please click here. 

Constant Companion

By Bill Meehan

I am a rock drummer. As a teen and young adult, we played very loud and for hours at a stretch. I sensed nothing bad happening at the time besides some bothersome post-concert ringing in my ears. I was in my 20s and invincible. 

In my early 30s I noticed a slight ringing in my ears for the first time—without a loud event as the cause. It was troublesome enough that I went to the doctor. After a thorough examination I heard that word for the first time: “tinnitus.” Okay, great, there is a name for this. “What pill do I take?” I asked the doctor. “There is no treatment currently,” he said with a knowing smile and walked out the door. Seriously, he walked out the door and didn’t even give me a chance to ask another question. I sat there for a moment in the empty examination room and listened to the ringing in my ears for a few minutes in disbelief. Will I never be able to sit in a quiet room again?

I lived with this for years and it was only troubling in very quiet surroundings. A fan blowing or a TV playing in the background was usually enough to drown out the faint, high-pitch ringing.

Then one day it all changed. I was watching TV and noticed a loud sound of crickets. I thought it must be the TV. I turned off the TV and still heard the clear and very loud sound of crickets mixed with a high-pitched tone. I was convinced the TV must be about to explode. I ran over and pulled out the plug. The sound was still there. I covered my ears and was horrified to realize the sound was in my own head. It was well over 100 decibels. I felt sick as the hours passed painfully and slowly. I didn’t sleep.

The next morning I went to the only doctor in all of San Francisco who could see me that day. After the exact same examinations I received years earlier, he told me that same thing, “Sorry, there is nothing I can do.”  

After a couple of weeks I was suicidal. Every day was torture. My only relief was to re-create the sound and pitch on my keyboard and play it at maximum volume. When I stopped playing the loud tone I had 10 seconds of relative peace and then the tinnitus came back. I did this over and over again.

Six weeks had gone by and I noticed a slight reduction in the volume. It was something to hold out onto—a little bit of hope. Could it actually be decreasing even though several doctors told me there was no hope? Little by little, day by day, I found moments of peace and an overall easing of the torment. Finally it was bearable most of the time.

A few years later I had another acute attack, but this time I knew there was hope and light on the other side. I went to an upscale doctor who specialized in tinnitus. He had awards all over his wall. He must be good, right? I told my tale. I told him about the acute attack that lasted for weeks, that it was much worse after waking from a nap, and that the ambient noise level had no impact on severity. He was a much-lauded doctor who specializes in tinnitus and I thought he would understand. “That’s not how it works,” he said, as he walked out of the room.

I now have a hearing aid I wear (I have mild-moderate hearing loss) that gives me some relief during the worst bouts. I wear it in my left ear. I also have an app on my phone that can help soothe me to sleep using white noise. I still play the drums, but they are electronic and I can control the volume. I can live a full and rewarding life, but my tinnitus is always there—my constant companion.

One Day in 1967

By Michele Ahlman

Growing up, I remember thinking how cool it was that I had a German birth certificate: a hand-typed, raggedy piece of paper identifying, in German, my birth in a U.S. Army hospital in Heidelberg.

In the late ’60s my dad, Richard Uzuanis, was a 23-year old tank commander for the 3rd Battalion 68th Armor stationed in Mannheim. I’ve always known my dad lost a lot of his hearing while serving in the military. But we never talked about it or the impact it had, until recently. Apparently, during a live fire tank gunnery exercise in 1967, one of the tanks misfired. And at the time, hearing protection was not standard-issue equipment.

It was Dad’s responsibility to remove the misfire. “I got into the tank and opened the breach to remove the misfired round,” he says. “But the round was swollen due to overheating. I couldn’t get it out or close the breach. As I moved quickly to evacuate through the tank hatch, the round exploded, sending me 20 feet in the air.”

To read the full article, please visit the Fall 2015 Issue of Hearing Health Magazine.

If you are a veteran, current service member, or have family or friends who have bravely served our country, review these resources about hearing loss and tinnitus.

Show support for our veterans via one of these ways:

• Sharing your hearing loss or tinnitus story

• Donating at the workplace

• Donating via HHF’s website

• Reading and sharing the veterans’ special issue of Hearing Health magazine

Show our Veterans that You Are Hear For A Cure

By Pallavi Bharadwaj

Can you imagine returning home after serving in the military for your country without your hearing and with constant ringing in your ears?

Credit: @srz/Unsplash

Tinnitus and noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) are the number one and two war wounds among veterans returning home. In the past decade, over one million service members have been impacted by tinnitus, hearing loss, and/or other auditory disorders.

To provide support to the community of veterans with hearing problems, Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) launched a veterans’ resource center on our website. This section is designed to help veterans cope with hearing loss and tinnitus. Resources such as research updates on new treatment options, stories from veterans who have been affected, and topical features from Hearing Health magazine can be accessed here.

Most importantly, we would like to share with our service members the exciting prospect of a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus through our Hearing Restoration Project (HRP). The HRP is working to translate the ability in chickens to restore hearing for humans in order to deliver a cure for veterans and for all those suffering from hearing loss and tinnitus.

If you are a veteran, current service member, or have family or friends who have bravely served our country, review these resources about hearing loss and tinnitus.

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.