HHF’s Fiscal Practices Endorsed by Consumer Reports for Second Consecutive Year

By Nadine Dehgan

Source: Getty Images

Hearing Health Foundation (HHF), the largest nonprofit funder of hearing and balance research, is thrilled to be recognized by Consumer Reports as one of the “Best Charities for Your Donations” for the second consecutive year.

Consumer Reports’ prominent charity roster, released annually to facilitate informed giving, includes 11 categories ranging from Animal Welfare to Youth Development. HHF is acknowledged as a top-rated nonprofit in the Blind and Hearing-Impaired category, and the only organization listed whose mission is to better the lives of those with hearing loss.

The “Best Charities for Your Donations” are determined using metrics from three major charity watchdogs: BBB Wise Giving Alliance, Charity Navigator, and Charity Watch. These watchdogs independently research charities’ financial histories and moral standards to evaluate how donors’ contributions are used. Each of them have previously highlighted HHF for its excellence in fundraising, governance, effectiveness, and financial standards.

HHF’s superior charity ratings and our placement on the Consumer Reports list illustrate how we pursue our mission in a financially responsible way. These accolades differentiate HHF from its peers and assure donors we are worthy of their trust.

HHF exists to better the lives of those with hearing loss by funding life-changing research and through our awareness and education programs. Our endorsements from Consumer Reports and charity watchdogs show our commitment to our mission. We have achieved many scientific milestones in our 60 years, but more work is needed. We are grateful to those who give their time and financial resources in pursuit of better treatments and cures for hearing and balance conditions.

The Strength of Our Olympians

By Vicky Chan

The competitors in this year’s Winter Olympics are full of drive and determination. Olympians throughout history have overcome various challenges for a chance to win the gold, including hearing loss. Hearing loss has played a big role in the lives of some Olympians. In spite of their disability, or, perhaps, because of it, hard-of-hearing Olympians have thrived as athletes. Rather than viewing their hearing loss as a limitation, these Olympians—our very own Gold Medalists—have claimed that compromised hearing has shaped their work ethics and contributed to their success.

Adam Rippon

American Figure skater Adam Rippon. Credit: Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group.

Adam Rippon is a figure skater participating in the 2018 Olympics. He was born with an eye infection and 80% hearing loss. Before his first birthday, he had major surgeries to correct both issues. At age 5, he survived a bursted appendix and severe respiratory condition. Despite his early health difficulties, he won a gold medal at the Four Continent Championship and the national title in 2016.

Tamika Catchings

Tamika Catchings is a retired American WNBA star who was born with hearing loss. She participated in more than 15 WNBA seasons and won four Olympic Gold Medals. Catchings has attributed her success to her hearing loss—compared to her typical-hearing opponents, she is more observant on court which allows her to react faster than they can. Catchings said, “As a young child, I remember being teased for...my big, clunky hearing aids, and the speech problems...Every day was a challenge for me...I outworked [the kids who made fun of me], plain and simple.”

Frank Bartolillo

Frank Bartolillo is an Australian fencer who competed in the 2004 Olympics. He was born with hearing loss, but Bartolillo states that his hearing loss has actually helped him improve his fencing skills by allowing him to fully focus on his opponent.

Carlo Orlandi

Carlo Orlandi was an Italian boxer. At age 18, Orlandi became the first deaf athlete to compete and win a Gold Medal in the 1928 Olympics. Later, he became a professional boxer with a career that spanned 15 years and won nearly 100 matches.

David Smith

David Smith is an American volleyball player who was born with severe hearing loss. At age three, he was fitted for hearing aids in both ears. As an athlete, he relies heavily on hand signals and lip reading to communicate with his teammates. On the court, Smith can’t wear his hearing aid, so his coach, John Speraw, uses the “David Smith Rule.” This rule mandates that “when David wants it, David takes it,'" says Speraw. "Because in the middle of a play, you can't call him off...He's mitigated any issues he has by being a great all-around volleyball player."

Chris Colwill

Chris Colwill is an American diver who was born with hearing loss. Although his hearing aid allows him to hear at an 85-90% level, he can not use it while diving and relies on the scoreboard for his cue to dive. But Colwill stated that this is an advantage for him—noise from the crowd doesn’t distract his concentration on diving.

Katherine Merry

Katherine Merry is a former English sprinter who won a Bronze Medal in the 2000 Olympics. At age 30, she developed tinnitus when a nurse made a mistake during a routine ear cleaning procedure. Ever since, she has lived with a constant high-pitch buzzing sound in her ears. It becomes worse when she is tired, overworked or on a flight. Today, Merry works as a BBC Sports Presenter.

These Olympians prove that those affected by hearing loss can pursue successful careers in sports. Refusing to let anything hold them back, they turned their disabilities into advantages in their respective competitions. Hearing loss allows them to block out distractions and focus on the sport. Their disability has shaped their determination, forcing them to become stronger and better athletes.

Giving Imagery to an Invisible Disability

By Lauren McGrath

Hearing loss is not readily visualized. Scientifically, hearing loss can be observed as hair cell damage in the cochlea in the inner ear. This representation is not only an abstract concept to most, but invisible in everyday interactions.

Priscila, a hard-of-hearing artist and mother of three living in California by way of Brazil, has a different idea about how to portray hearing loss.

Introduced to drawing and sculpture by her grandmother as a child, Priscila has always been an artist, but did not until very recently—well after she developed bilateral hearing loss—give herself permission to actualize her dreams of pursuing art professionally. Her hearing loss, for which she wears a bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA), began more than two decades ago.

Artist Priscila Soares' Abutment painting is a self-portrait that prominently shows the screw she has on her head that connects to her bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA).

Cholesteatoma, a destructive skin growth that develops in the middle ear and typically requires removal, was the catalyst for Priscila’s hearing loss. She first received a cholesteatoma diagnosis for her right ear at 17, which she believes was the result of many ear infections as a younger child. A surgical problem rendered her profoundly deaf in her right ear following the procedure.

At 24, Priscila’s left ear showed the same condition. Though the surgery was successful, the cholesteatoma had already corroded all three bones in her middle ear, resulting in hearing loss.

Incidentally, Priscila's youngest son, Jason, 11, also has hearing loss—with no genetic connection to her own. Undaunted by his diagnosis of moderate to severe hearing loss at birth, Priscila was grateful that her own experiences would guide her care. When Jason was just a few months old, she enrolled him in a very supportive preschool for deaf and hard-of-hearing children where she worked as an aide for a time and became highly educated on pediatric hearing loss.

When he was 2 ½, Jason’s diagnosis was modified: he was profoundly deaf. Once believing her own hearing loss would be an advantage to her parenting, the drastic change left Priscila frightened. Together they’ve overcome this challenge and, today, Priscila is overjoyed that Jason, who hears with cochlear implants, is fully mainstreamed, attends school at grade level, and no longer needs the help of an interpreter or aide.

Two years ago, Priscila overcame a challenge of her own. Despite a happy family life, she felt a tremendous void. She knew that it was time to return to painting, drawing, and clay. Not only did Priscila resolve to create again, she vowed to empower people with hearing loss through art.

Priscila poses in front of one of her paintings, "Weigh," which represents the weight felt by hearing loss. Source: My Luckyears.

Priscila loves to portray the human figure and life’s journeys with tremendous emotion. She primarily uses acrylic paints, dry pastels, and a homemade clay that looks like porcelain. The work she says she’s most proud of is what she calls her Abutment painting—a self-portrait that prominently shows the screw she has on her head that connects to her BAHA. Creating this painting was freeing for Priscila because it allowed her to share such an intimate part of herself with others, something that very few people know about.

Priscila’s mission as an artist is to give imagery to an invisible disability. She seeks to show “that hearing loss doesn’t define or disempower who you are.” Instead, she says, “It gives you a unique way of experiencing the world that is yours only.”

Learn more about Priscila and view her artwork on her website, My Luckyears. Priscila is a participant in HHF's "Faces of Hearing Loss" campaign to raise awareness of hearing loss and related conditions. 

Mapping Better Hearing

By Vicky Chan

Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) is grateful to the many individuals and organizations who have empowered groundbreaking hearing loss research in the last 60 years. A new interactive map displays every institution in the U.S. where HHF has been fortunate to fund groundbreaking research, yielding outstanding advancements in hearing and balance science. The map also indicates the rates of hearing loss in each state, signaling that additional work is urgently needed.

The colors—light yellow, yellow, green, teal, blue, and purple—represent the rates of hearing loss in each state. The calculations are based off 2015 U.S. Census Data, using estimates from the well-known prevalence of hearing loss among specific demographics. At the lowest end of the range in light yellow, hearing loss affects 13.71% of Colorado’s population. The highest rate was found in Missouri, purple, where the prevalence measured 20.15%. The mean for all states was 18.16%. The numbers signal the significance of hearing loss research.

Nearly all of the institutions on the map represent recipients of the Emerging Research Grants (ERG) who have carried out investigations related to tinnitus, hyperacusis, Ménière's disease, Usher syndrome, hearing loss in children, Central Auditory Processing Disorder, and strial atrophy.

A few institutions are home to the work of the Hearing Restoration Project’s (HRP) domestic consortium members, who focus on investigating hair cell regeneration as a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus. They conduct research at Baylor College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Oregon Health & Science University, Stanford University, Stowers Institute, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Southern California, University of Washington, and Washington University.

By mid-year, the institutions corresponding to HHF’s newly formed Ménière's Disease Grants (MDG) program will be added to the map.

HHF envisions a world in which no one lives with hearing loss and tinnitus—until this is realized, we’ll do everything we can to put more innovative hearing loss research on the map.

Research Aims to Improve Fit and Increase Use of Hearing Aids in U.S.

By University of Maryland Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Although about 28.8 million Americans could benefit from wearing hearing aids, less than a third of that population actually uses them, according to the National Institutes of Health. While cost is a contributing factor, experts say many people with hearing loss choose not to wear hearing aids simply because they have difficulty adjusting to them. Researchers with the University of Maryland Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences (HESP) are hoping to improve those figures by developing better procedures for fitting people with hearing aids for the first time.

“Right now when someone is fitted with hearing aids, the focus is on increasing audibility of sounds reaching the ear,” says HESP Assistant Professor Samira Anderson, Au.D., Ph.D. “However, in order to actually understand what someone is saying, sound has to travel from the ear up to the brain. We’re interested in understanding how wearing a hearing aid affects that process.”

Dr. Anderson, University of Maryland Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences

In a study published recently in Ear & Hearing, Anderson and colleagues outfitted 37 older adults with mild to severe hearing loss with new, in-the-ear hearing aids donated by Widex USA. The researchers placed electrodes on the surface of the patients’ skin to measure electrical activity produced in response to sound in the auditory cortex and midbrain. They found that the brain’s processing of sounds improved while wearing hearing aids.

“There’s a growing body of research showing that hearing loss can lead to accelerated cognitive decline and isolation as people age,” Anderson says. “My hope is that we can develop enhanced testing procedures that will allow more people to benefit from hearing aids and enjoy a better quality of life.”

The UMD research team plans to continue evaluating the patients in their study during the first six months of hearing aid use. In future studies, researchers hope to investigate the effects of manipulating hearing aid parameters on neural processing. The study was funded by the UMD Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Hearing Health Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health (NIDCD Grant T32DC000046).

Samira Anderson, Au.D., Ph.D., is a 2014 Emerging Research Grants researcher generously funded by the General Grand Chapter Royal Arch Masons International. We thank the Royal Arch Masons for their ongoing support of research in the area of central auditory processing disorder. Read more about Anderson and her research in “A Closer Look,” in the Winter 2014 issue of Hearing Health.

We need your help supporting innovative hearing and balance science through our Emerging Research Grants program. Please make a contribution today.

The Next Two Million Days

By Lauren McGrath

The future sounds clearer and looks brighter for Ethan, age 6, who recently began wearing ReSound LiNX 3D hearing aids recommended by his audiologist. His new hearing aids were very generously donated to him by ReSound.

Ethan was born with mild-to-moderate hearing loss in his right ear and moderate hearing loss in his left. Thanks to universal newborn hearing screening legislation, an initiative promoted by Hearing Health Foundation and other organizations, Ethan was diagnosed at birth and able to receive immediate intervention. In 1993, only 5 percent of newborns were tested at birth for hearing loss; today 97 percent of babies are screened before they leave the hospital. Since age 6 weeks, Ethan has worn hearing aids and received speech therapy. He is now a happy first grader at a New Jersey school with many on-site services for students with hearing loss.

Ethan is an older brother to twin girls, an avid self-taught reader, a math enthusiast, a soccer player, and a martial arts student. He is ecstatic that his new hearing aids have already improved his life; from the moment he put them on, he noted how much more easily he could hear with them compared with his previous pair.

He especially appreciates their small size; the devices do not impede his favorite activities and don’t fall out. As Ethan is easily overwhelmed by noise, he also likes that he can seamlessly adjust the volume on his hearing aids through the ReSound Smart 3D smartphone app. He’s so proud of their style and features that he brags about them to his soccer teammates.

“Ethan asked me, ‘Can I wear my new hearing aids for the next two million days?’” says Jason, Ethan’s dad. It speaks volumes to Ethan’s experience that he is ready to make a 5,500-year commitment to his new hearing aids. At a young age, he is already on track to overcome the challenges associated with hearing loss. Ethan is confident about his hearing loss, and he and his family are thankful he was graciously provided with hearing devices that make him happy.

Ethan is one of our youngest participants in "Faces of Hearing Loss." This article originally appeared in the Winter 2018 issue of Hearing Health magazine. 

HHF Celebrates 60 Years

By Yishane Lee

The legacies of Collette Ramsey Baker and Wesley H. Bradley, M.D., underscore the shared mission of Hearing Health Foundation and the medical community to support and fund groundbreaking scientific research.

Sixty years ago, Collette Ramsey Baker founded Deafness Research Foundation, now known
as Hearing Health Foundation (HHF). After living with a hearing loss for decades, she found relief through fenestration surgery, an early otosclerosis treatment. In gratitude, Ramsey Baker wanted to give back. Her daughter, Collette Wynn, says, “My mother made a promise that, if the operation worked, she would do something to support research to find the causes of deafness and develop better treatments.” HHF was launched in 1958.

Ramsey Baker introduced her surgeon, Julius Lempert, M.D., who pioneered the fenestration surgery, and Walter Petryshyn, M.D., her otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat specialist), to finance and industry leaders, and from this talented group came HHF’s first Board of Directors, with Ramsey Baker becoming HHF’s president.

In 2006, this magazine ran a profile of Ramsey Baker featuring the recollections of HHF’s early years from Wesley H. Bradley, M.D., a skilled surgeon who went on to lead what became the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). Bradley passed away in 2012, two years after Ramsey Baker.

In the article, Bradley recounts how HHF’s mission so impressed Lempert that he spoke about the organization to leading otologists. “These individuals quickly saw the advantage of supporting a group that was firmly established to promote otological research,” Bradley said.

One early effort was the creation, in 1960, of a program to encourage people to donate their temporal bones to hearing science upon death. The National Temporal Bone Registry, now
overseen by the NIDCD, has led to countless research breakthroughs.

In 1963, physician support of HHF was formalized with the creation of The Centurions, a group of doctors who covered HHF’s administrative costs so all funds raised went directly to hearing research. Physicians also joined the board and launched the Emerging Research Grants program, which remains HHF’s flagship along with the Hearing Restoration Project research consortium.

Bradley’s three-decade involvement with HHF, including as a founding Centurions member and medical director, was recognized with the Wesley H. Bradley, M.D., Memorial Grant, awarded to a promising ERG scientist in 2014. “I had the idea of honoring Wes’s work,” says Bradley’s wife, Barbara. “The many years he spent working at Deafness Research Foundation, it really was a labor of love. He believed very strongly in its mission.”

Says Elizabeth Keithley, Ph.D., the chair of HHF’s Board of Directors, “Planned giving is a major component of HHF’s success today and into the future. It is with these achievements and many more in mind that we celebrate 60 years and look toward more groundbreaking discoveries in hearing and balance science.”

Yishane Lee is the Editor of Hearing Health magazine, a quarterly publication of HHF. This article originally appeared in the Winter 2018 issue of Hearing Health magazine. Read more about Bradley in “A Family Gift” in the Fall 2014 issue and “A Tribute to Wesley H. Bradley, M.D.” in the Winter 2013 issue.

Get Moving to Preserve Your Hearing

By Yvonnie Phan

As 2018 begins, many Americans, motivated to improve their physical and mental wellbeing, have already made the popular New Year’s Resolution to exercise more frequently. This commitment has an additional, lesser-known benefit; exercise is proven to preserve hearing health. Engaging in physical activity with proper safety precautions can delay or prevent age-related hearing loss, or presbycusis, which affects a quarter of adults 65-74 and half of those older than 75.  

Cardiovascular exercise is vital to hearing health as one ages. A person over 50 years old without a genetic predisposition to hearing loss and who engages in cardio for 20-30 minutes five times weekly is more likely to maintain a healthy auditory system than someone with low cardiovascular activity. In a decade-long Miami University study of 1000 subjects of all ages, those over 50 with moderate-to-high cardiovascular fitness levels maintained hearing sensitivity comparable to people in their 30s, effectively delaying presbycusis.

An additional investigation from the University of Florida affirms that routine cardio provides the necessary blood flow, oxygen, and nutrients to maintain the health of important auditory systems within the cochlea. Lead author Shinichi Someya, Ph.D. explains that  “the cochlea, or inner ear, is a high-energy demanding organ.”

Stretching and yoga are healthy alternatives to cardiovascular exercise. These activities facilitate proper blood flow throughout the body and activate the muscles. While stretching or performing yoga poses, it’s important to focus on breathing to increase oxygen and blood flow. There are even yoga poses designed specifically for those with tinnitus.

The hearing health benefits of exercise can be negated by noise exposure or improper ear care, however.

Listening to audio through headphones at a loud volume can increase one’s chances of Music-Induced Hearing Loss (MIHL), as can the music played during exercise classes. Turning down the volume on your device, wearing earplugs, and giving ears time to recover from loud noises can help prevent damage to the auditory system.

Those who swim are encouraged to keep their ears dry. Moisture in the ear allows for bacteria, or even fungi and viruses, to attack the ear canal, which can lead to Swimmer’s Ear and cause temporary hearing loss. Dry ears immediately and do not insert anything, such as cotton swabs, into them.

Health professionals strongly recommend everyone incorporate exercise into their daily routine. There are many benefits in maintaining a consistent exercise regimen and we can now add hearing loss prevention to the list. Before starting a new fitness routine, consult your physician to assure the routine is safe and suitable for your health.

HHF Partner Hyperacusis Research Shares 14-Year-Old’s Heartbreaking Story to Fight Noise Intolerance

Photo Credit: Hyperacusis Research

By Lauren McGrath

Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) Emerging Research Grants (ERG) grant funder Hyperacusis Research—a nonprofit dedicated to developing effective treatments for hyperacusis and to funding research that will eliminate the underlying mechanisms that cause hyperacusis—has a new reason to fight to cure the noise intolerance disorder.

Cindy, 14 years old, has suffered from hyperacusis since she was blasted in the face with an airhorn one year ago. The blast almost immediately prompted “a burst of pain in [her] ear” that made it “feel like someone was stabbing [her].” Six months and several doctors’ visits later, an occupational therapist recognized her symptoms and diagnosed her with the disorder, which causes Cindy to experience pain at low levels of sound relative to what a person with typical hearing can withstand.

Once a happy and social eighth-grader, Cindy now rarely leaves her home. Secluded from the painful sounds of the outside world, her house has become “her sanctuary,” her mother explains. Her intolerance of everyday noises like the school cafeteria and teachers’ voices has forced her to leave public school in exchange for an isolating homeschool experience. “The thing I hate most is that I can’t see friends,” Cindy shares.

Cindy suffers from one of four hyperacusis subtypes called pain hyperacusis. The other three types, according to Hyperacusis Research, are loudness hyperacusis (which causes moderately intense sounds to be perceived as very loud), annoyance hyperacusis (which causes negative emotional reactions to sounds), and fear hyperacusis (which prompts an aversive response to sounds that causes anticipatory response and avoidance behavior). Specific medical treatments, at the moment,  do not yet exist for pain hyperacusis.

Those inspired to help Cindy can donate to Hyperacusis Research to advance the ontological knowledge of hyperacusis through research grants, including those awarded to HHF’s ERG investigators.

Since 2015, Hyperacusis Research has generously funded grants for a total of five ERG investigators focused on hyperacusis at the University at Buffalo, Oregon Health and Science University, and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. You can learn more about our ERG researchers’ efforts to better understand the mechanisms, causes, diagnosis, and treatments of hyperacusis and severe forms of loudness intolerance here.

We need your help supporting innovative hearing and balance science through our Emerging Research Grants program. Please make a contribution today.