The Path to a Cure for Hearing Loss and Tinnitus

By Laura Friedman

On May 21, 2015, Hearing Health Foundation hosted its first live-video research briefing as part of our effort to provide regular updates on our research programs and progress. Through these briefings, our goal is for our attendees to obtain new information and understanding about hearing loss, prevention and research toward a cure.

During this inaugural research briefing, Dr. Peter Barr-Gillespie, Scientific Director, Hearing Restoration Project presented the Hearing Restoration Project (HRP). The HRP was founded in 2011 and is the first and only international research consortium focused on investigating hair cell regeneration as a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus. The overarching principle of the consortium is collaboration: open sharing of data and ideas. The HRP consortium consists of 14 of the top investigators in the audiological space, as well as a scientific director, Dr. Barr-Gillespie.

We wanted to share with you highlights from the presentation, which is available to watch with live captioning or to read with notes summarizing each slide. 

1. History of Hearing Health Foundation

   • Founded in 1958, established reputation for pioneering breakthroughs in hearing and balance research.

     • Early supporters of the revolutionary cochlear implant. Today, over 220,000 children and adults benefit.

     • Advocated for the passage of Universal Newborn Hearing Screening legislation in the 1990s. Today, 97% of newborns are tested for hearing loss at birth.

     • The Emerging Research Grants Program provides seed funding for researchers in hearing and balance science such as discoveries in hair cell regeneration, tinnitus, hyperacusis, and Ménière’s research. 

2. The Challenge

   • In the past century, the primary treatment for hearing loss has been hearing aids and cochlear implants. While these have been very successful treatments, they have limitations.

   • For this century, we have a number of different avenues for more effective therapy. 

     • Preventing the damage to the hair cells to preserve hearing. By generating greater awareness of the effects of hearing loss, we aim encourage people of all ages to protect their ears.

     • Gene therapy, targeting those who have lost hearing due to genetic disorders.

     • The majority of people who have lost hearing have done so through noise damage or aging, and may be candidates for hair cell regeneration/restoration.

3. HRP Consortium History & Model

   • One of the key facets of the HRP’s approach is that we use three different animal models for studying hair cell regeneration

     • Two of those models, the chick and the zebrafish, show robust hair cell regeneration.

       • f you damage the hair cells of a chick or a fish, within a short time—only a day or two for the fish, a few weeks for the chick—the hair cells come back; new hair cells are formed.

         • So, that's spectacular, because it tells us that animals are capable of regenerating hair cells.

     • y contrast, the mouse is our other experimental model. Like in the human, the mouse shows no hair cell regeneration after a few days following birth.

       • You can damage the hair cells in the mouse and as far as we can tell, nothing much happens in terms of restoring hair cells. So, if we can figure out how to regenerate hair cells in the mouse, then we will be able to regenerate hair cells in people.

4. HRP Strategic Research Plan

   • Our strategic plan consists of three separate phases. We have already made a lot of progress on Phase 1 and we have initiated Phase 2:

     • Phase 1 – Discovery research:  Compare the fish, chick, and mouse to discover pro- or anti-regeneration pathways and determine supporting cell fates.

     • Phase 2 – Pathway validation: Verify pathways using fish, chick, and mouse models and describe regeneration strategies.

     • Phase 3 – Develop therapies and treatment options: Identify drugs that trigger hair cell regeneration in the mouse model.

5. Progress To-Date

   • Progress on Phase 1: We've identified a variety of candidates for hair cell regeneration and the pathways that are necessary. 

     • We have too many, so we really are continuing to use bioinformatics methods to winnow down and determine which are most important.

     • We have definitively shown, at least in the mouse, the specialized supporting cells remain.

     • We know now what our target cells are for triggering hair cell regeneration. 

   • Phase 2 has begun, but we haven’t stopped Phase 1: 

     • We've got multiple approaches to try and see whether or not we can block regeneration in the fish and chick or stimulate regeneration in the mouse.

   • Phase 3 is in sight:

     • Experimental models from Phase 2 will be used to screen for drugs—using the mouse first

6. The Next Five Years

   • With your help, we can continue to quicken the pace towards a cure. Here’s our plan for the next five years: 

     • Phase 1 will continue: more candidate generation for Phase 2

     • Phase 2 (pathway verification) already initiated in zebrafish, mouse, chick (low throughput)

     • Phase 2 must be scaled up: many more genes, combinatorial approaches; cell lines for screening

     • Phase 3 (drug screening) requires the right screening model, which will come out of Phase 2.

The Future is Very Bright – But we need your support!

Hair cell regeneration is a plausible goal for eventual treatment of hearing and balance disorders. The question is not if we will regenerate hair cells in humans, but when.  However, we need your support to continue this vital research and find a cure! Please make your gift today.  

Advocacy at Work

By Kathi Mestayer

Ever had a hard time hearing in the hospital? Or visited someone who did? You're in good company. Hospitals can be very noisy, with alarms, footsteps, noise from machines, televisions, and clanging carts and food trays. For starters.

And I would argue that the hospital is one of the most important places to hear things right. The two phrases "So, are you in any pain now?" and "You know what to do if you're in any pain, now?" can sound really, really similar to a person just out of surgery and who uses a cochlear implant.

In this actual situation, the patient—my father—answered, "Yes," which meant two very different things to each party. The nurse thought "yes" meant “Yes, I know what to do if I'm in pain," but what it really meant was, "Yes, I am in pain now." Over the course of 45 minutes, after multiple attempts by the patient to get help via the intercom system to contact the nurse, and the nurse using the intercom system to ask what the problem was, it became clear that:

1. He was now in a lot of pain.

1. The intercom system doesn't work for people who are very hearing impaired. He never heard a single word through the intercom system from the nurse's station, and was reduced to moaning louder and louder until help arrived, in person.

This is the kind of problem that the Department of Justice (DoJ) program called the Barrier-Free Healthcare Initiative is intent on addressing. The DoJ, which oversees compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has committed resources and attention to the important work of providing effective communication for patients with hearing loss in hospitals, pharmacies, rehab facilities, and doctors’ offices.

My home state, Virginia, has jumped on board with this initiative, and passed its own initiative to assist hospitals with ADA compliance. Signed by Governor Terry McAuliffe earlier this year, Chapter 113 reads as follows:

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

That the Department of Health shall (i) work with stakeholders to develop guidelines for hospitals to ensure that hospitals are complying with requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and that patients and family members with sensory disabilities are able to communicate effectively with healthcare providers and (ii) report on its progress in developing such guidelines to the General Assembly no later than December 1, 2015.

The bill would not have made it to the floor, much less the printer, had it not been for the efforts of Arva Priola, the outreach coordinator for the deaf and hard of hearing at the disAbility Resource Center in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Priola, who wears cochlear implants, saw the need firsthand from her experience in the recovery room. “I always direct the nurses to mark my cochlear implants so they are put into the correct ears. That’s also true for hearing aids. It allows us to use our hearing sense when we wake up from a procedure,” she says.

Virginia’s initiative is intended to help hospitals comply with the requirements of the ADA. Those requirements include (in layman's terms):

• assessment of each patient's communication needs

• provision of the technology or other assistance (for patients who are deaf, this is often ASL interpreters)

• covering the costs, if any, of providing that assistance

Priola not only saw the need for such an effort by the state but also consulted with agencies and stakeholders, such as the Hearing Loss Association of America's Virginia Chapter, the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind, Association for Late-Deafened Adults, the Virginia Association for the Deaf, and the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (where I serve on the advisory board). She then approached Delegate Robert "Bobby" Orrock (VIrginia House of Delegates) to sponsor the measure. He agreed.

The rest is history. Strong support (unanimous, in fact) was received in both legislative chambers, and the governor signed it in March. The ball is now in the Virginia Department of Health's court, since it is designated as the agency to make it happen (along with the stakeholders and cooperating agencies that will be involved in implementation).

It's a positive note, not only for Virginia and its governing bodies, but for demonstrating what we can do as advocates when we really put our minds, and energies, and focus, to work. And when we have a mover and shaker like Arva Priola.

The DoJ's ADA website is full of information about its national initiative. Click here to see some of its recent actions in enforcing the ADA for communications issues in all healthcare settings, not only hospitals.

Staff writer Kathi Mestayer serves on advisory boards for the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Greater Richmond, Virginia, chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America. She writes about the science of how our brains make sense of sound at BeaconReader.com.

Ages and Stages

By Maureen Plain

Effective communication is one of life’s greatest pleasures, and for those of us with typical hearing, we so often take this gift for granted. The process of verbal communication starts with being able to hear what is said. We then apply knowledge of the words we hear, so we can decipher its message.

When crafting a response, we must have the words in our repertoire of vocabulary readily available, so we can express our thoughts and then pronounce the words clearly enough to be understood by others. As we verbalize our response, grammatical markers for our words, intonation patterns, and understanding the social setting helps us share our thoughts effectively. This process of verbal communication begins in infancy with the use of eye contact, sounds, and body language, and continues throughout our lives. 

For those with hearing loss, all of this can be especially challenging.

Imagine the challenge for a 3-year-old girl who has just been diagnosed with a moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss in both ears. For three years until diagnosis, she communicated entirely by reading body language and other physical cues. But how did this affect her ability to effectively communicate with others in the hearing world?

In the first couple years of life, caregivers (i.e. parents, nannies, and family members) are acutely aware of small children and often times face them when speaking. This girl’s caregivers did not realize she was solely dependent on reading body language and other physical cues, including lips, to communicate. As she got older, her mother noticed that when faced away, her daughter was unresponsive. After many misdiagnoses, this little girl and her family were told she had hearing loss.

Fortunately this child has a dedicated family that responded to her diagnosis with unwavering commitment, and immediately started designing a team of professionals to support the best learning possible, which included top-notch audiologists and a speech-language pathologist/auditory therapist. The school district provided great support and I was fortunate to be this child’s speech/language pathologist from the very beginning, working with her a few times each week from age 3 until she graduated from high school. 

Vocabulary growth and clear and proper pronunciation of words were always a crucial components of our therapy, as well as benchmarking and tracking progress. A toddler needs vocabulary to engage in play and to learn, just as a teenager needs vocabulary to navigate school and friendships.

At every age, building vocabulary with a person with a hearing loss is multifaceted and hard work. First we worked on hearing and saying each word until it became familiar enough to begin the process of developing listening for each word. We paid extra attention to words with syllables extremely difficult for her to hear, in this case those that are considered high-frequency (S-, SH-, CH-,TH-, -ECT.).

As the child grew older, she spoke intelligibly but would often leave off the ending syllables, such as a plural “s” because she was repeating only the sounds she heard. We worked on learning grammatical marker patterns so she would pronounce a plural “s” based on grammatical rules. Practicing the articulation for each sound component in a word is also very challenging, since a hearing loss makes it difficult to hear your own speech sound errors and correct them. We also used an oral motor approach to complement our work on sound production. We focused on how a sound felt when it was pronounced; where her lips, tongue and jaw belonged to articulate different sounds properly. We also practice oral vs. nasal air flow and practiced making sounds in front a mirror to see how it looked. Through this process, she developed speech that is clear and understood by all listeners, in addition to being able to use verbal cues and grammatical markers that she has been trained to watch for, but was otherwise unable to hear.

We also integrated speech therapy with auditory training exercises. Listening practice included her looking and listening when I was visible, and repeating the sounds she heard back to me. Once she mastered that, I then moved farther away from her sight to advance this skill. We then moved to improving listening without looking; while still facing her, I covered my mouth with a paper to develop better listening and discrimination of sound. As accuracy improved, I then would sit behind her and continually moved farther away until I was 6 feet away, with her back facing toward me. We also practiced listening to the word so it can be recognized in quiet and in noise.

Listening skills were paired with our work on vocabulary comprehension to enhance communication. Beyond pronunciation and listening, learning the definition of each word to build comprehension is crucial. Vocabulary shapes our conversation, and since mishearing words is a constant challenge for those with hearing loss, they must rely on their vocabulary knowledge to fill in the gaps for greater conversation participation and quality of life.

These are just a few of the many strategies that we used to improve speech, language, and listening during our 15 years together. To succeed she, as well as her parents and family, needed to fully trust the process and integrate these strategies into her everyday life. While therapy was only 2-3 hours a week, speech and verbal communication is a chosen part of her everyday life.

Therapy was a lot of hard work and sometimes frustrating for her, as not every milestone was easy. Until there’s a cure for her type of hearing loss, she will not have the ability to hear as seamlessly as those with typical hearing or have perfect speech. 

May is Better Speech and Hearing Month and serves as reminder that verbal communication is a shared pleasure that brings us laughter, learning, and love. We should take this month to treasure the gift of communication and celebrate the hard work and success of all individuals whose ability to communicate is challenged, for whatever reason.

Maureen Plain M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist with 37 years of experience in the greater NY area. She is currently a Program Director for Sunny Days Consulting Services in New York.

Hearing Makes Me Happy!

By Alex Mussomeli

By all accounts Alex Mussomeli is a typical elementary school kid; he likes art, music, sports, cooking, and video games. But what is phenomenal about Alex is how much he is comfortable with and unfazed by his hearing loss, and also how much, for a 10-year-old, he understands the technology that helps him to hear. Diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss, Alex was fitted with hearing aids in both ears at age 3 months, and when he was 3 years old, he got a cochlear implant for his right ear. He continues to use both devices.

When his fourth grade teacher asked her students to write on a topic they know a lot about, Alex chose hearing loss and his hearing devices. The paper impressed the hearing-speech pathologist at school so much that it was shared on Speech4Hearing.com, a website that offers speech advice for parents of children with hearing loss. 

It also impressed us at Hearing Health Foundation (HHF). Here are some excerpts:

“There are two ways to help people with hearing loss hear,” Alex wrote. “One is a common way, a hearing aid, and the other way is not as common but is getting more common every day, which is a cochlear implant. I have both.”

“The reason people might need to get a cochlear implant is that they might not hear. They could be deaf or have hearing loss. The surgery of getting an implant can be a big decision. First the nurses give the patient sleeping medicine. Then, the surgeon drills into the skull. Next, the surgeon puts in a magnet. After the surgery you have to wait one month for the head to heal from the surgery.”

Once the healing period is over, the implant is turned on and it is programmed, or mapped, to fit the specific hearing requirements of the patient, and then the brain has to learn to process the sounds that the implant picks up and delivers directly to the brain via the auditory nerve. Nada Alsaigh, Alex’s mother, says Alex’s young age worked in his favor. “We were very lucky,” she says. “He was very fast learning how to use the implant to hear.”

“The way you hear with a hearing aid is like a first aid kit. The hearing aid assists the person in hearing,” Alex wrote in his paper. “An implant is better than a hearing aid because you can hear better with it. The reason is that the implant has a computer like processor that sends the sound through the nerve to the brain.”

Alex and his brother Joe, who is 12, are incredibly close. “We face challenges and we try to overcome them. This was a learning experience for all of us and made Joe more mature at a younger age. Joe is just a loving and supportive brother,” Nada Alsaigh says of Joe. The family treats Alex’s hearing loss as a part of who he is without defining who he is.

While thankful for existing technology, the family is also committed to helping HHF and its Hearing Restoration Project (HRP) find a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus. The HRP is on track to determine how to regenerate the inner ear sensory cells that, when missing or damaged, lead to hearing loss. The promise of a biologic cure for hearing loss could potentially remove the issues of adapting to hardware for Alex and the 50 million other adults and children in the U.S. who have hearing loss.

Smart and thriving, Alex realizes he is fortunate:

"Hearing makes me happy!” Alex says. “I am grateful that my parents got me a hearing aid and a cochlear implant. Someday, I believe that we will find a cure to have hearing cells come back to life! We can't give up hope! Hearing Health Foundation can help us find the cure!"

Alex's paper on hearing loss is availible in full, here.

Imagine...

By Kori Linae Carothers

Imagine for a moment that someone says to you, “Because you have a partial hearing loss, you cannot be a musician.” That happened to me. My name is Kori Linae Carothers and I am a concert pianist and composer. I was born with a hearing loss in my left ear—at least, that is what the doctors always told my parents.

When my parents and I found out I had a hearing loss, it wasn’t a big deal since I didn’t feel any different. I could hear with my right ear. I had a slight slur in my speech but other than that, I felt like everyone else! I loved to dance, sing, talk, dream, and listen to music. Just like most kids my age, I was busy and lived life with gusto.

My love for life changed once kids realized I could not hear as well as they did. Partial hearing was a challenge to me growing up because I had to sit up front in the classroom to hear my teachers. When kids and adults found out about my hearing loss, the teasing began. My peers called me names like “deafy,” and more. What hurt the most was when people laughed at me when I did not get an answer right because I did not hear the question properly. My answers were often out of context.

When I told one of my music teachers in grade school I wanted to be a pianist, she laughed at me, telling me I didn’t have the hearing for it. What? Never tell me I can’t do something, because baby, I will prove you wrong! When I look back on those days I realize that while some of the teasing was cruel, I became a musician and found my true calling: composing and playing the piano.

Skipping forward many years when I got married, I gave up my music to be a wife and mom, but when my husband realized that music is such an essential part of who I am, he encouraged me to pursue it and I have since released four albums. My fifth album, “Fire in the Rainstorm,” is my first solo piano album, while the other four albums are electronic and acoustic albums.

I remember that my first live experience with other musicians was difficult, as I needed to wear in-ear monitoring ear buds in ears, including in my right (hearing) ear. At one of our rehearsals, when I mentioned how difficult it was for me to hear what the other musicians were doing, my friend turned to me and said, “You don’t have to do this.” Well, again don’t ever tell me what to do! I bought an Audio-Technica in-ear monitoring system, and VOILA, problem solved!

While I fully accept my hearing loss, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit being a pianist would be easier with full hearing. I have tried wearing a hearing aid, but with my type of hearing loss, it did not work for me. Recently I wondered if there are any organizations that are researching hearing loss, and what they were doing with that research, as I would love to one day benefit from a cure. With the help of a friend, I learned of Hearing Health Foundation. I was SO impressed with the mission: to prevent and cure hearing loss and tinnitus through groundbreaking research and to promote hearing health. This made me SO happy and I knew right away that I wanted them to be recipients of my PledgeMusic Campaign for “Fire in the Rainstorm,” and I will also be donating proceeds from the sales from the album.

I am grateful for the folks at HHF and for the hope they provide me and others with hearing loss. I know they will continue their groundbreaking research, but not without the help of you and me. I ask you to join me on the journey to spread awareness, promote hearing health, and contribute to their mission so HHF can continue their quest to prevent and cure hearing loss and other hearing disorders.

Feel the fire! Visit Kori on the web. Her latest album is also available for purchase on iTunes. 

6 Facts Every Woman Should Know About Hearing Health

By Laura Friedman

National Women’s Health Week may only last a week (May 10-16, 2015), but women’s health is a year-round issue. A growing body of research shows an association between hearing loss, quality of life, and a number of common chronic diseases and health conditions.

In the United States today, as many as one-third of women in their 50s have some degree of hearing loss, along with nearly two-thirds of women in their 60s. The findings of a 2008 study also suggest that the prevalence of hearing loss among younger adults, specifically among those in their 20s and 30s, is increasing. Fortunately, for the vast majority of people with hearing loss, hearing aids can help.

For many years, experts have known the positive impact that addressing hearing loss has on quality of life. Research shows that many people with hearing loss who use hearing aids see an improvement in their ability to hear in many settings; and many see an improvement in their relationships at home and at work, in their social lives, and in their ability to communicate effectively in most situations. Many even say they feel better about themselves.

In honor of National Women’s Health Week, we are sharing 6 Facts Every Woman Should Know About Hearing Health from The Better Hearing Institute:

1. Women with hearing loss are more likely to be depressed. Research shows that hearing loss is associated with depression among U.S. adults, but particularly among women.
   

2. The ear may be a window to the heart. Cardiovascular and hearing health are linked. Some experts say the inner ear is so sensitive to blood flow that it’s possible that abnormalities in the cardiovascular system could be noted here earlier than in other less sensitive parts of the body. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, according to the American Heart Association.
   

3. If you have diabetes, you’re about twice as likely to have hearing loss. What’s more, having diabetes may cause women to experience a greater degree of hearing loss as they age, especially if the diabetes is not well controlled with medication. About 11% of women in the United States are affected by diabetes.
   

4. Many of the same lifestyle behaviors that affect the heart impact hearing. More evidence of the interconnectedness between cardiovascular and hearing health is found in three studies on modifiable behaviors: One found that a higher level of physical activity is associated with lower risk of hearing loss in women. Another revealed that smokers and passive smokers are more likely to suffer hearing loss. And a third found that regular fish consumption and higher intake of long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are associated with lower risk of hearing loss in women.
   

5. Hearing loss in women is tied to common pain relievers. Ibuprofen and acetaminophen are associated with an increased risk of hearing loss in women. The link is even stronger among those younger than 50.
   

6. Addressing hearing loss may benefit cognitive function. Research shows a link between hearing loss and dementia, which leads experts to believe that interventions, like hearing aids, could potentially delay or prevent dementia. Research is ongoing.

HI and HHF are encouraging women of all ages to take a free, quick, and confidential online hearing check at BetterHearing.org to help determine if they need a comprehensive hearing test by a hearing healthcare professional.

The content for this blog post originated in a press release issued by The Better Hearing Institute on May 8, 2015. 

What Animals Can Tell Us About Humans

By Yishane Lee

Recent findings in mice by University at Buffalo scientists may one day help us better understand human hearing loss. Mice have an inner ear structure and auditory system organization similar to humans, and they also progressively lose their hearing as they age. As published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America in October 2014, the researchers found that mice process and understand their “ultrasonic vocalizations” (USVs), which the human ear cannot perceive, in the same way humans make sense of our own vocalizations.

Like humans (and birds), it appears that mice can distinguish a vocalization when just the beginning part is heard, versus when the end part is heard. This helps strengthen the usefulness of mice as good models for understanding human communication and hearing loss.

Dogs also have a language comprehension ability similar to humans. According to recent British study, dogs process speech in a similar way to humans: They listen to our words, not just our intonation.

According to the report, published in the journal Current Biology in November, dogs use different parts of the brain—both the left and right hemispheres—to process the verbal components of a familiar sentence and the emotion or intonation of the speaker. The study suggests that dogs pay attention to the verbal content of human speech and perceive it in a way that broadly parallels human perception. The reseachers concluded, “Dogs may share ancestral or convergent hemispheric specializations for processing the different functional communicative components of speech with human listeners.”

Learn about the amazing chick discovery and HHF’s path to curing hearing loss and tinnitus.

What Does It Mean To Be 4-Star Charity?

By Sloan Blanton

The nonprofit sector is growing, with more and more organizations and foundations emerging daily. However, they are not all managed or held to the same standard. Because of this, donors want to be ensured their philanthropic dollars are being utilized and allocated properly. They are requesting higher accountability and transparency from the organizations they support.

Such donors look for third-party accreditation that their dollars are being maximized. Charity Navigator is America's most-utilized independent evaluator of charities in the competitive philanthropic marketplace, championing efficient, successful, open and ethical charities. By celebrating top charities, Charity Navigator provides the public with useful information needed to provide donors with confidence in their charitable choices.

Charity Navigator has rated Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) with 4 out of 4 stars, the highest possible rating. This indicates that HHF adheres to sound governance, accountability, transparency, and fiscal management, minimizing the organization’s chance of engaging in fiscally irresponsible activities. This rating from Charity Navigator also illustrates how HHF pursues its mission to prevent and cure hearing loss and tinnitus while promoting hearing health in a financially responsible way.

Hearing Health Foundation’s 4-star rating from Charity Navigator differentiates HHF from its peers, and assures the public it is worthy of their trust. "Donors have a choice as to where they invest their philanthropic dollars. We strive to make the greatest impact with every contribution to HHF and are honored to be recognized for our efforts by Charity Navigator, America's premier charity evaluator," said Claire Schultz, HHF’s chief executive officer.

Forbes, Business Week, and Kiplinger's Financial Magazine, among others, applaud Charity Navigator's unique method of applying data-driven analysis to the nonprofit sector. As the leading charity evaluator in the United States, it draws more website traffic than all other charity rating organizations combined.

More than 80 cents of every dollar donated to HHF directly benefits its research efforts towards a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus. Please consider making a gift today. Imagine the day when HHF finds a cure... you'll be able to say you helped made it possible!

HHF reports to the Internal Revenue Service using form 990 under the tax identification number of 13-1882107. HHF is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation. All donations to HHF are tax-deductible. 

Rhythm, Noise and Nature

By Jessica Greenwood

When you think about pollution, what comes to mind? Most of us imagine major oil spills, smoke pushing out from factory chimneys, piles of cars idling in morning traffic, pesticides spraying over our crops or plastic bags floating through air and water, only to find their way to our oceans. All of these images are accurate and deserve our attention. However, more notice should be directed towards another pollutant that disturbs the very rhythm of life: NOISE.   

All of our systems, from the small to large, work under the influence of rhythm. Rhythm is the arrangement of sound as it moves through time. Airplanes, electronics, traffic, construction, sirens, trains, poor building acoustics and many more sources of noise, sometimes at excessive levels, contribute to drowning out life’s natural rhythm.

As a society, we have become accustomed to a world with a constant buzz and general loudness, but at what cost? There are the more obvious issues, such as hearing damage (i.e. hearing loss, tinnitus, Meniere’s, and hyperacusis), which can be instantaneous and permanent, but that is only the tip if the iceberg. Noise pollution and hearing loss can cause many psychological issues such as stress, fatigue, insomnia and depression, to name a few.

It’s important to remember that humans are not the only creatures who are disrupted by all this noise; wildlife has been profoundly affected by the constant humming of this planet. Animals rely heavily on the ability to hear for survival; to hunt, mate and flee danger requires sensitivity to sound, sound that is becoming harder for wildlife to distinguish. Even in the deepest ocean waters the impact noise pollution is having on aquatic life is the source of many news articles.

So what can you do about all of this noise and drama created around our sensitive ears? There are several solutions to this problem, but the first step is simply becoming aware of the sounds surrounding us and educating ourselves about safe listening levels.

April 29th, 2015 is International Noise Awareness Day (INAD). In celebration, HHF and Puro Sound Labs, a Hearing Health Partner that shares HHF’s vision for a world where people can enjoy life without hearing loss and tinnitus, are joining forces. We are asking YOU to document any noisy part of your day by taking a short video or audio recording. It can be of anything, such as riding a subway car, sirens passing by, excessively loud restaurants or concerts, or the waves crashing onto to the beach, among other noises encountered on a regular, everyday basis. The only supplies you need are your ears and cell phone or camera to capture sounds and noises you experience. Once captured, please share it with us on Facebook and Twitter by using the hashtag #HearTheNoise.

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/HearingHealthFoundation

https://www.facebook.com/purosound?fref=ts

Twitter:

@HearingHealthFn

@PuroSoundLabs

As an organization dedicated to cure hearing loss and tinnitus, Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) understands the importance of prevention and awareness, which is why we recently added “promoting hearing health” to our mission. While HHF has an incredible and committed following, HHF cannot spread the word alone, and enlists the help of its corporate partners to help.

One such company is Puro Sound Labs, a small start-up that created headphones with volume limits at 85dB, the maximum sound level for safe listening. Volumes exceeding 85dB can cause irreversible damage, such as Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL). NIHL is a growing epidemic, with the numbers of people affected by hearing loss expanding, rapidly, especially among our youth. Personal listening devices and earbuds are likely the greatest contributor to this epidemic producing volumes well over a safe level, often exceeding 110dB, at which damaged can be sustained in a matter of minutes.

While Puro Sound Labs is company that has dedicated itself to providing great sound without the need of excessive volume, they wanted to take their commitment to hearing health and prevention to the next level: the company is contributing a portion of each pair of BT2200 headphones sold, to HHF’s mission of finding a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.  

Together Puro Sound Labs and HHF are Partners with a Purpose.

Visual Learning, Visual Teaching

By Caleb De Vries

My hearing loss is moderate; I hear highs and lows well but it is the middle of the spectrum where most human voices fall where I have trouble. Conversations can be very difficult, especially in noisy environments.

I first received hearing aids when I was 15 but was teased for wearing them; I felt different and somehow less than my peers. As a result I didn’t wear them for many years and struggled to find ways to cope without them.

Caleb De Vries

This provided a challenge for me academically. I hid in the classroom, avoided answering questions, and as a defense mechanism I acted aloof. The gym was the one place where I really felt at home. I excelled in ice hockey, track, volleyball, and basketball. 

I spent hours by myself every day after school mastering ball handling and shooting skills for basketball, and stick handling, inline skating, and shooting skills for hockey. I was very passionate about learning new and creative ways to teach myself how to improve. This passion led me to coach a variety of sports and to pursue bachelor degrees in education and physical education.

I wore hearing aids during university classes but they did not help much, as they were not working well and were too old to fix. I couldn’t afford to buy new hearing aids because they are extremely expensive, but about two years ago my sister Nadine [who works for HHF] paid for my new hearing aids—and they have changed my life.  

Now when I teach and play sports it is very different; voices are much easier to hear and I do not have to spend as much energy trying to hear my teammates or students. When playing sports, I wear a headband to protect my hearing aids and to prevent them from falling out.

I am the program coordinator for Fit Kids Healthy Kids in Winnipeg, Canada. This is run by a nonprofit organization, Sport Manitoba, whose goal is to encourage as many kids to be active as we can. We aim to provide opportunities for children to develop the confidence and competence to participate in any activity and to ultimately become active for life.

Many of the families I work with are recent immigrants whose first language is not English. My hearing loss is beneficial in this situation because it has led me to be a very visual and physical teacher. As a child I had learned by watching my favorite athletes and studying their movements, not by hearing them explain how they execute a skill.

I do not know whether I excelled in sports because of—or despite—having a hearing loss. I had to try harder to hear my coaches and teammates but it also caused me to have a high level of attention to detail, helping me develop my teaching style. When teaching I take every opportunity to give visual cues and demonstrations. In some ways this type of instruction can level the playing field for those who have trouble understanding verbal communication, whether because of hearing loss or because it is a foreign language.

My perceived disability has given me the ability to become more empathetic toward the kids who struggle with poor self-esteem and a fear of failure. When I was young I believed that I wasn’t good at math or science. The truth is I never knew how good I could be at these subjects because I was too afraid to fail.

It is the same fear that I see in kids who believe they are not athletic. Most often they are just too afraid to try because trying presents the possibility of failure. Helping a child overcome this fear is the most rewarding part of my job; it is such an incredible sense of accomplishment to know that I play a small role in this crucial step toward their development.

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