Hearing loss can affect your life in many ways. One of the biggest impacts it can have is on your ability to drive safely. For many older people, driving is one of the best ways to stay independent. However, if you suffer from hearing loss you could also be putting yourself or others unnecessarily at risk when driving. If you …
Adjusting to New Hearing Aids
Although we hear with our ears, we process the information from external noise with our brains. One of the most interesting aspects of the brain is its ability to adapt and to change. The term neuroplasticity refers to changes in neural connections, pathways, and networks as a result of maturation and development, sensory deprivation, injury, disease, dysfunction, and learning. When you …
As an Invisible Disability, Hearing Loss Often Goes Ignored
Hearing loss can start subtly and develop over years. Because of this lack of visibility, it is easy for people to be unaware of the severity of their condition. People with hearing loss are among those whose condition is overlooked, belittled and subject to stereotypes based on widespread ignorance. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders …
Tips for Selecting Hearing Aids
Evidence is mounting that untreated hearing loss is a significant national health concern, and studies have linked it with other serious health problems, including depression, a decline in memory and concentration, and perhaps even dementia. While hearing loss is usually irreversible, hearing aids have been proven to improve one’s ability to hear by making sounds louder and easier to understand. …
May is Better Speech and Hearing Month!
When the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) designated May as Better Hearing and Speech Month back in 1927, their goal was to raise awareness about speech and hearing challenges. More importantly it was a call to action to encourage people to treat their own hearing and speech problems. That mission is just as important today as it was 92 years ago. …
The Benefits of Treating Hearing Loss
The most common type of hearing loss today is sensorineural hearing loss. This comes from damage to the inner ear structures that are tasked with receiving auditory information. The most widely used and effective treatment for this type of hearing loss is hearing aids. But how much benefit do we really benefit from hearing aids? A lot, it seems. In a …
Encouraging a Loved One to Take a Hearing Test
Communication is the most important thing to maintain in any relationship, and some people are certainly better at this than their partners are. But when one person in a couple has hearing loss, communication on both sides will suffer. This can erode any relationship, no matter how strong the foundations are. Are you finding that your loved one doesn’t hear …
Recognizing the Signs of Hearing Loss
When you stub your toe, your body wastes no time in letting you know that it has happened. But this is not usually the case with hearing damage. The effects occur very slowly over a number of years, and when it finally begins to make itself known, it never leaves. The daily changes are so small that it’s tough to …