http://www.tdf.org/lead/TeenHearingLossStudy.pdf

1 in 5 U.S. teens has hearing

loss, new study says
Earbuds may be to blame for sharp rise in hearing loss since 1988, experts say

By CARLA K. JOHNSON

CHICAGO — A stunning number of teens have lost a little bit of their hearing — nearly
one in five — and the problem has increased substantially in recent years, a new national
study has found.

Some experts are urging teenagers to turn down the volume on their digital music
players, suggesting loud music through earbuds may be to blame — although hard
evidence is lacking. They warn that slight hearing loss can cause problems in school and
set the stage for hearing aids in later life.

“Our hope is we can encourage people to be careful,” said the study’s senior author Dr.
Gary Curhan of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

The researchers analyzed data on 12- to 19-year-olds from a nationwide health survey.
They compared hearing loss in nearly 3,000 kids tested from 1988-94 to nearly 1,800
kids tested over 2005-06.
The prevalence of hearing loss increased from about 15 percent to 19.5 percent.

Q&A: How loud is too loud?
Most of the hearing loss was “slight,” defined as inability to hear at 16 to 24 decibels —
or sounds such as a whisper or rustling leaves. A teenager with slight hearing loss might
not be able to hear water dripping or his mother whispering “good night.”
hearing loss.

Those with slight hearing loss “will hear all of the vowel sounds clearly, but might miss
some of the consonant sounds” such as t, k and s, Curhan said.
“Although speech will be detectable, it might not be fully intelligible,” he said.
While the researchers didn’t single out iPods or any other device for blame, they found a
significant increase in high-frequency hearing loss, which they said may indicate that
noise caused the problems. And they cited a 2010 Australian study that linked use of
personal listening devices with a 70 percent increased risk of hearing loss in children.
“I think the evidence is out there that prolonged exposure to loud noise is likely to be
harmful to hearing, but that doesn’t mean kids can’t listen to MP3 players,” Curhan said.

The study is based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
conducted by a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings
appear in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

Loud music isn’t new, of course. Each new generation of teenagers has found a new
technology to blast music — from the bulky headphones of the 1960s to the handheld
Sony Walkmans of the 1980s. Today’s young people are listening longer, more than
twice as long as previous generations, said Brian Fligor, an audiologist at
Children’s Hospital Boston. The older technologies had limited battery life and limited
music storage, he said.

Apple iPod users can set their own volume limits. Parents can use the feature to set a
maximum volume on their child’s iPod and lock it with a code.

One of Fligor’s patients, 17-year-old Matthew Brady of Foxborough, Mass., recently was
diagnosed with mild hearing loss. He has trouble hearing his friends in the school
cafeteria. He ends up faking comprehension.
“I laugh when they laugh,” he said.

Fligor believes Brady’s muffled hearing was caused by listening to an iPod turned up too
loud and for too long. After his mother had a heart attack, Brady’s pediatrician had
advised him to exercise for his own health. So he cranked up the volume on his favorites
— John Mellencamp, Daughtry, Bon Jovi and U2 — while walking on a treadmill at least
four days a week for 30-minute stretches.

One day last summer, he got off the treadmill and found he couldn’t hear anything with
his left ear. His hearing gradually returned, but was never the same.
Some young people turn their digital players up to levels that would exceed federal
workplace exposure limits, said Fligor. In Fligor’s own study of about 200 New York
college students, more than half listened to music at 85 decibels or louder. That’s about as
loud as a hair dryer or a vacuum cleaner.

Habitual listening at those levels can turn microscopic hair cells in the inner ear into scar
tissue, Fligor said. Some people may be more predisposed to damage than others; Fligor
believes Brady is one of them.

These days, Brady still listens to his digital player, but at lower volumes.
“Do not blare your iPod,” he said. “It’s only going to hurt your hearing. I learned this the
hard way.”

 

Content is from the Healthy Hearing. com website October 2013 issue.

Tinnitus is often described as “ringing in the ears” and is the medical term to explain the perception of sound in one or two ears when no sound is actually present. According to a national health study performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 50 million individuals in the United States suffer from tinnitus to some degree. Nearly one-third of them find it so debilitating they seek medical attention for the ringing in their ears.

While there’s no proven cure for tinnitus, by better understanding the symptoms, causes, relief and related illnesses, it is possible to develop treatments to help ease or block out the ringing-in-the-ears sensation.
Symptoms of tinnitus
Described as a ringing-in-the-ears or fullness-of-the-head sensation, these are the two most common symptoms of tinnitus in an individual. The noise can range from a ringing, buzzing, hissing or whizzing sound and can change from a soft pitch, to a higher, louder frequency. Additionally, tinnitus can impact one or both ears and can remain constant or come and go. In more severe cases, the ringing in the ears is loud enough to interfere with daily activity, whereas individuals with mild cases of tinnitus experience a lower, duller sound.

Individuals with tinntius may experience discomfort or anxiety.
Tinnitus is commonly seen in adults, but can affect individuals in any age group. In addition to perceiving a noise that doesn’t exist, individuals with tinnitus may experience discomfort, lack of sleep and an inability to live life due to the condition. Anxiety also is a common symptom of tinnitus, as it can sometimes interfere with work or other stressful situations. Individuals with tinnitus also may complain of hearing clicking or sharp sounds; rushing or humming noises or continuous low-pitch noises.
Causes of tinnitus
With so many individuals suffering from tinnitus, it’s important to investigate what causes the ringing sensation. While many cases of tinnitus still remain undiagnosed, there are some common causes which are known to aggravate the condition:

Age: Around the age of 60, your hearing tends to worsen. This slight loss of hearing can cause tinnitus, which is referred to as presbycusis.
Loud noise exposure: Being exposed to loud noise on a regular basis from heavy equipment, chain saws or fire arms are common causes of tinnitus. However, anyone can have common exposure to loud noises by listening to music in headphones on a regular basis or attending live music performances frequently.
Unhealthy habits: Researchers are not entirely certain why, but drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, eating certain foods and consuming caffeinated beverages can play a role in tinnitus.
Common ailments: Having anemia, allergies, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, circulatory problems, diabetes and an underactive thyroid gland are all medical conditions that can lead to tinnitus.
Relief from tinnitus
Often individuals with tinnitus view their suffering as a commonality, a part of everyday life. Because many cases of tinnitus aren’t severe enough for people to seek medical treatment, they turn to finding relief in common, nonmedical varieties. While many of these vary from person to person, there are some remedies known to help ease the ringing in the ears sensation.

Many people find improving their health overall helps comfort tinnitus symptoms. This means controlling your blood pressure, reducing stress and decreasing caffeine consumptions. Because some of these items stimulate your body’s systems, it’s also possible that these encourage tinnitus to flare up as well.

Individuals also try to follow relaxation techniques to help cope with and balance the tinnitus symptoms. These types of relief involve muscle relaxation and visualization.
Treatment for tinnitus
Because there’s no proven cure for tinnitus, doctors have worked over the years to develop treatments which help make tinnitus easier to ignore or relives some of its symptoms. Noise suppression devices are commonly used to help combat the ringing-in-the-ears sensation. A masking device is worn in the ear and produces a constant, soft noise to reduce the ringing or whistling feeling in the ear. Hearing aids also are used as tinnitus solutions. These train wearers to not focus on the tinnitus sounds.

Another treatment option is called tinnitus retaining therapy and is designed to teach the patient to ignore the background ringing noise in the ear. Often a white noise generator is used and creates environmental sounds so override the tinnitus sounds.
Meniere’s Disease
Meniere’s disease isn’t directly connected to tinnitus, but often individuals with this condition experience many symptoms or temporary ringing in the ears. Meniere’s disease is an inner ear disease that typically only affects one ear. This disease can cause pressure or pain in the ear, severe cases of dizziness or vertigo and a ringing or roaring noise. While Meniere’s isn’t fully understood yet, it appears that several relief options for tinnitus also assist individuals with this disease. Caffeine consumption should be decreased, in addition to salt intake, and stress should be reduced.
BPPV
BPPV, or benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, is a common form of balance disturbance that originates in the inner ear. Individuals suffering from BBPV, sometimes referred to as “positional vertigo,” can experience a brief, but intense spinning sensation that generally occurs when they get out of bed or turn their head too quickly. Fortunately, BPPV is usually the result of a head condition and only lasts for a few short days, resolving itself once the body has returned to normal. BPPV can have a high recurrence rate, so a physician may be able to recommend positions, exercises and therapies which can help reduce the likelihood.
Dizziness
Many people don’t realize the organ which helps us balance is located in the inner ear and it partners with other systems in the body to allow us to remain stable and retain our sense of balance. Dizziness happens when there is a deficit in the balance organ in the inner ear, the visual system, the muscles and joints in the body or the brain centers that tie them all together.

Dizziness related to the inner ear is one of the most common types and it results from disturbances in the blood circulation or fluid pressure in the inner ear, pressure on the balance nerve or physiologic changes in the balance nerve. The dizziness can feel similar to vertigo or can make an individual feel nauseated or sick to their stomach.

Treatments for dizziness can vary depending on the cause, but can usually be subsided with dietary or lifestyle changes, medication or retraining therapies.

Reference: ATA’s Top 10 Most Frequently Asked Questions, American Tinnitus Association, http://www.ata.org/for-patients/faqs

Wednesday, June 26th 2013  (Reposted from Healthy Hearing . com)

Can allergies cause hearing loss?

Wednesday, June 12th 2013

With warmer winter patterns across the country and heavy spring rains, plants have more potential to produce pollen into the air to trigger allergy symptoms. Some allergy sufferers will experience runny noses and itchy eyes, but others may feel pressure in the ear, a ringing sensation in the ears or vertigo during this season.

Allergies and hearing loss

When the immune system reacts to an allergen, it produces antibodies that release histamine. This is what is responsible for your sneezing, itchy nose and congestion. The histamine causes an increased amount of mucus production as well, which can create problems in your ears. In particular, the Eustachian tube, which is a drainage passage for the middle ear, can become clogged.

“Typically, allergic patients have complained of a symmetrical hearing loss and a sense of fullness or pressure,” Dr. Michael Jones, of the Hearing Health Center told Medical News Today. “In most cases the hearing test shows a slight hearing loss and a tympanogramshows reduced mobility of the tympanic membrane. That means the middle ear has become inflamed.”

Types of hearing issues

Fullness: During allergy season, there can be excess fluid in the ear that creates a pressured or clogged feeling, which can impact your ability to hear correctly. This is because the fluid presses against the eardrum to cause discomfort.

Conductive hearing loss:  Conductive hearing loss is curable, but it makes it temporarily difficult to hear faint noises and often creates a reduced sound level. This type of hearing loss occurs when sound waves cannot properly flow through the ear and into the tiny bones of the middle ear. Having excess fluid or ear wax is a plays a major role in this type of hearing loss because sound cannot properly travel to the cochlea.

Allergies can also cause a fluctuating level of fluid in the ear, which can make you able to hear at some times while others can be difficult. Other common causes of conductive hearing loss include swimmer’s ear, the presence of a foreign body or benign tumors.

Ear infections: It should come as no surprise that with allergies comes the risk of infections. As there is increased moisture in the ear from fluid, bacteria are able to thrive more easily and cause a middle ear infection. If you experience regular middle ear infections, there is a possibility it could lead to tinnitus or hearing loss.

Increased allergens can also clog the microphone ports in hearing aids. Replacing the covers of microphone ports is an easy fix, and you should also make sure to maintain cleanliness of your device.

For people experiencing hearing loss or tinnitus during this season, it is likely that the symptoms will subside as allergy triggers dissipate. However, it is usually best to visit your audiologist to make sure that your issue is does not need long-term treatment.

 

Posted from healthy hearing.com

http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/what-is-misophonia
By
Melissa Breyer Thu, Oct 25 2012 at 6:02 PM

Chomping and lip-smacking are annoying to many, but for people with misophonia, such simple sounds can breed panic and extreme rage.
We all have noises that drive us to distraction. A recent study of unpleasant sounds found that a knife on a bottle is the most bothersome noise known to man. The most annoying sounds fall into particular frequency ranges that may actually cause physical pain and thus we find them intolerable. But what about soft and subtle noises — chewing, humming, even breathing — that drive some people to violence, while others barely notice?

Welcome to the world of misophonia. The recently recognized condition describes people who have strong reactions to the ubiquitous sounds of everyday life. Poorly understood, the condition (the name of which means hatred of sound) usually begins in late childhood and worsens over time. Trigger sounds, everything from mouth and nasal noises to pens clicking to the creak of floors, can create a “reflexive emotional flood of rage and panic with a storm of fight-or-flight reactions becoming paramount. Adrenaline flooding, face flushing, heart-pounding and/or shaking and the need to physically flee or attack are often experienced,” according to misophonia.org, a website dedicated to the condition.

No one knows exactly how many people are afflicted with the condition, but after the New York Times wrote about misophonia, people started speaking up about their experiences, including talk show host Kelly Ripa, who suffers from it. “If my husband eats a peach, I have to leave the room,” said Ripa.

The support organization Misophonia UK notes these key facts:

The age of onset is often around 10-12.
The “trigger” sounds that tend to be most difficult are connected with eating and breathing.
The reaction starts with the sound (or some aspect of the sound) and often develops to include actions associated with the sound and even anticipation of those actions.
The closer the sufferer is emotionally to the “trigger” person, the more offensive the sound tends to be.
The reaction is experienced most commonly as extreme rage.
The trigger sound can create an overwhelming fight or flight response in the sufferer, so they experience a desire to do extreme violence to the maker of the sound, or to escape the vicinity of the sound at all costs.

People suffering from the condition are often misdiagnosed with phobic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or bipolar, manic, and anxiety disorders. Experts say the condition is something people probably are born with and is probably not an auditory disorder but more likely a physiological glitch in parts of the brain activated by sound.

As of now there is no known cure or treatment. In an attempt to cope with misophonia, individual strategies include earplugs, eating in isolation, white noise generators, prescribed medications, hypnosis, cognitive behavioral therapy and other therapies. There are a number of online support groups, and even fact sheets and letters to help sufferers explain to friends, family or health care providers and legitimatize the condition.

That it is now recognized as a legitimate condition should help validate those who suffer from it. It is hoped that future research will lead to treatment. Until then, if the sound of chewing gum puts you on the brink of violence, know that you’re not alone. And likewise, if your child starts shying away from family dinner and cringing in response to a sibling’s humming, check the symptoms and triggers list and proceed accordingly.

For more information and support, visit misophonia.info and misophonia-uk.org.

University Studies Effects of Vitamins to Reverse Noise-Induced Hearing Loss

Posted from Healthy Hearing. com

About 10 million people in the United States alone—from troops returning from war to students with music blasting through headphones—are suffering from impairing noise-induced hearing loss.

The rising trend is something that researchers and physicians at the University of Michigan Kresge Hearing Research Institute are hoping to reverse noise-induced hearing loss, with a cocktail of vitamins and the mineral magnesium that has shown promise as a possible way to prevent hearing loss caused by loud noises. The nutrients were successful in laboratory tests, and now researchers are testing whether humans will benefit as well.

“The prevention of noise induced hearing loss is key,” said Glenn E. Green, M.D., assistant professor of otolaryngology at the U-M Health System and director of the U-M Children’s Hearing Laboratory. “When we can’t prevent noise-induced hearing loss through screening programs and use of hearing protection, then we really need to come up with some way of protecting people who are still going to have noise exposure. My hope is that this medication will give people a richer, fuller life.”

The combination of vitamins A, C and E, plus magnesium, is given in pill form to patients who are participating in the research. Developed at the U-M Kresge Hearing Research Institute, the medication, called AuraQuell, is designed to be taken before a person is exposed to loud noises. In earlier testing at U-M on guinea pigs, the combination of the four micronutrients blocked about 80 percent of the noise-induced hearing impairment.

Now, AuraQuell is being tested in a set of fourmultinational human clinical trials: military trials in Sweden and Spain, an industrial trial in Spain, and a trial involving students at the University of Florida who listen to music at high volumes on their iPods and other PDAs, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This is the first NIH-funded clinical trial involving the prevention of noise-induced hearing loss.

“If we can even see 50 percent of the effectiveness in humans that we saw in our animal trials, we will have an effective treatment that will very significantly reduce noise-induced hearing impairment in humans. That would be a remarkable dream,” said co-lead researcher Josef M. Miller, Ph.D., the Lynn and Ruth Townsend Professor of Communication Disorders and director of the Center for Hearing Disorders at the U-M Department of Otolaryngology’s Kresge Hearing Research Institute.

Until a decade ago, it was thought that noise damaged hearing by intense mechanical vibrations that destroyed the delicate structures of the inner ear. There was no intervention to protect the inner ear other than reducing then intensity of sound reaching it, such as ear plugs, which are not always effective. It was then discovered that noise caused intense metabolic activity in the inner ear and the production of molecules that damage the inner ear cells; and that allowed the discovery of an intervention to prevent these effects.

From “Shouting Won’t Help: Why I – and 50 Million Other Americans Can’t Hear You” by Katherine Bouton. From the Hearing Health Spring 2013 publication.

I recently had a patient tell me about this book. While I do not have the book yet, the excerpts from it that I have read are great.

The portion I want to highlight is in regards to protecting your hearing.
For example…

“For the adult with late onset hearing loss, there is no recovering the person you used to be. you can learn to hear again, but you can never be the person you once were. Even the best devices are a poor substitute for nature’s creation.”

“Accommodations can usually be made when one goes deaf as a child. but going deaf as an adult destroys your world, disables your life”

While hearing aids are ever increasing in their abilities to accommodate the various amounts and types of hearing loss, they will never be as good as your original ears. Whatever hearing you have, do your best to keep it. If you have hearing loss, then don’t waste another day missing the world around you.

http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/HomeHealthandConsumer/ConsumerProducts/HearingAids/default.htm 

Having trouble hearing? Over 35 million children and adults in the United States have so

me degree of hearing loss. Hearing loss can have a negative effect on communication, relationships, school/work performance, and emotional well-being. However, hearing loss doesn’t have to restrict your daily activities. Properly fitted hearing aids and aural rehabilitation techniques can help in many listening situations. Aural rehabilitation helps a person focus on adjusting to their hearing loss and the use of their hearing aids. It also explores assistive devices to help improve communication. Hearing aids for both ears are typically the norm for most hearing impaired people, but some may need only one hearing aid.

 

This site provides general information on hearing aids, types of hearing loss, different types and styles of hearing aids, how to get a hearing aid, benefits and safety of hearing aids, hearing aids and cell phones, other products and procedures to improve hearing, and a checklist of steps to remember and consider before purchasing a hearing aids.

 

This site also includes information on the difference between hearing aids and sound amplifiers that amplify environmental sounds for consumers with no hearing loss. FDA regulates hearing aids, which are intended to compensate for hearing loss. On the other hand, FDA does not consider sound amplifiers to be medical devices when labeled for recreational or other use by individuals with normal hearing. However, certain safety regulations related to sound output levels still apply to these products.

 

This site provides general information on hearing aids and is not intended to provide medical advice. If you have questions about your health, the best source of information is your hearing health care professional.

How do I get hearing aids?

To get hearing aids, you should first have a hearing evaluation to determine the type and amount of your hearing loss. The process begins with a medical and audiologic examination.

• Medical examination. The medical examination may be performed by any licensed physician including your family doctor or pediatrician, but preferably should be done by an ear, nose, and throat specialist (an otolaryngologist).   You will need an examination of your ear, nose, and throat and possibly other testing to rule out any medical reason for your hearing loss, such as infection, injury or deformity, ear wax in the ear canal, and, in rare cases, tumors. You will receive documentation of your medical exam and a statement that says you are a hearing aid candidate.
• Audiological examination. An audiological exam, or audiogram, involves a hearing evaluation by a hearing health professional who specializes in evaluation, non-medical treatment, and rehabilitation of hearing loss (an audiologist) to identify the type and amount of your hearing loss, to determine the need for medical/surgical treatment and/or referral to a licensed physician, and to provide rehabilitation of the hearing loss.