Julian Simmons and Hidden Hearing Northern Ireland Launch Hearing Action Week 2012

Julian Simmons and Hidden Hearing Audiologist Tim Pringle

TV presenter Julian Simmons today launched Hearing Action Week 2012 – a province wide awareness campaign around hearing loss run by Hidden Hearing Northern Ireland, highlighting the lack of action around hearing loss in the region.

Northern Ireland research into hearing loss has revealed that high television volume is one of the first signs of hearing loss and encourages people to take action and seek treatment.  While Julian may be a big TV star, it didn’t stop Hidden Hearing Audiologist Tim Pringle from asking him to lower the volume on his television during the photo-call.

Further  research has shown an alarming lack of action on hearing loss, with 77% of people leaving it more than a year to seek treatment.

 

Hidden Hearing’s mobile hearing screening clinic will tour Northern Ireland throughout the week, stopping off in Belfast, Newtownabbey, Lisburn, Craigavon and Derry providing free hearing screenings as well as advice and information on hearing loss. For further information contact Hidden Hearing or see our Hearing Action Week website.

A short history of the Hearing Aid

Hearing aid history is interesting and goes back to the 1700s. Over the years, hearing aids have remained consistent with one basic function – to increase the volume of sound. Here’s a fun, yet informative look at the history of hearing aids.

In the 1700s, a simple ear trumpet was used to help those with impaired hearing. There were different versions of this trumpet that ranged from bull’s horns to seashells. It’s suspected that the human race has used both of these basic “assistive devices”for thousands of years.

In the mid 1880s, the French were very ingenious and came along with the Clarvox Lorgnette Trumpet. This cumbersome gadget combined ‘spectacles’ (glasses) with a light tortoiseshell ear trumpet. This was rather an awkward device so it was made with dark material in hopes of being somewhat concealed when the user wore dark clothing. The British came up with something a bit spiffier around the same time, the London Dome. It came in a variety of sizes and was often decorated as the makers tended to cater to opera fans. While at the opera, this dome greatly improved the quality of the performance for those with hearing challenges.

In 1887 the ear tube came along and this allowed the user to obtain sound directly from the source – the speaker talked into it at one end, and the user listened.

The 1900s saw many hearing aid advancements. In 1914 the Stethoclare came along measuring 11 cm in diameter and it was placed on a table. It caught sound and an attached tube went to the listener’s ear.

The history of hearing aids continues with electric hearing aids which entered the market in 1901; although this technology was bulky and impractical. It wasn’t until 1930 that the electric hearing aid was designed smaller. This desktop device came with several components and the batteries never lasted more than a few hours. This was also something very few people could afford as it cost almost the same as a new car in today’s currency.

Carbon microphone aids became popular throughout the 1930s and 1940s and all varied in size. Technological advances eventually brought smaller models. The microphone was worn around the neck and it was connected to the earpiece by wires. From this point on technology greatly advanced.

In the late 1950s, transistorization changed everything. Much smaller over-the-ear hearing aids came along followed by in-the-canal hearing aids in the 1970s. Digital processing hearing aids made their debut in the 1990s and now at the top of the micro-technology scale there is the Lyric – a miniscule hearing device so small and unobtrusive that is often compared to being a contact lens for your ear.

It’s wonderful to review the history of hearing aids and to see the amazing advancements. Technology will continue to help those with hearing impairments. For more information about how hearing aids can help you, please visit Hidden Hearing.

Hearing loss spreads to our vocals. Study finding may show human parallels.

Zebra Finch in Study about Hearing Loss

How quickly and – and deeply – can deafness penetrate the brain? For a study on this, researchers at Duke University Medical Center turned to male zebra finches.

Songbirds differ from most animals in that males’ mating songs fall apart when they lose their hearing. This feature makes them an ideal organism to study how hearing loss may affect the parts of the brain that control vocalization, said Richard Mooney, Ph.D., professor of neurobiology at Duke. He is the senior author of the study’s report.

Portions of a songbird’s brain that control how it sings began to decay within 24 hours of the animal losing its hearing. As the size and strength of nerve-cell connections visibly changed under a microscope, researchers could even predict which songbirds would have worse songs in coming days.

“When hearing was lost, we saw rapid changes in motor areas in that control song, the bird’s equivalent of speech,” Mooney said. “This study provided a laser-like focus on what happens in the living songbird brain, narrowed down to the particular cell type involved.”

Using a protein isolated from jellyfish that can make songbird nerve cells glow bright green when viewed under a laser-powered microscope, they were able to determine that deafening triggered rapid changes to the tiny connections between nerve cells, called synapses, which are only one thousandth of a millimeter across.

The study was published last week in Neuron journal online.

“I will go out on a limb and say that I think similar changes also occur in human brains after hearing loss, specifically in Broca’s area, a part of the human brain that plays an important role in generating speech and that also receives inputs from the auditory system,” Mooney said.

About 30 million Americans are hard of hearing or deaf. This study could shed light on why and how some people’s speech changes as their hearing starts to decline, Mooney said.

Helping the one you love come to terms with hearing loss

People don’t realize what they are missing in conversations and how many sounds they no longer hear.

Acknowledging hearing loss begins with complex reactions, but the most common one is denial. Although there are many reasons why people have denial, the bottom line is: taking that first step to get a hearing test may confirm their worst fear — that they do have a hearing loss.

There are factors that make denial logical for many people. Hearing loss often progresses slowly. People don’t realize what they are missing in conversations and how many sounds they no longer hear. It is a known fact that it takes about seven years for someone to acknowledge hearing loss. They may hear well in some situations — good acoustics, quiet atmosphere without background noise, one-on-one conversations with a familiar person. Denial can be a tricky thing when that person uses it as a defense mechanism: everyone else has the problem — the world “mumbles!” But most of the time denial goes back to our society’s historical “taboo” of aging.

To help your loved one move beyond denial — don’t push too hard. Find out where they are having the most trouble hearing. If the TV volume becomes too loud, look into assistive listening devices for TVs. Find a phone or handset with stronger volume control if they are missing phone calls. If they can’t hear the door bell, alarm clock or smoke alarm, look into visual/vibrating alerting systems. Use safety as the motivator to get them to consider taking that hearing test. These are the first steps to get people to be aware of their hearing loss and of what they can do about it.Iit is important to know the other reasons for making them take a hearing test. Long-term, unchecked hearing loss can cause auditory deprivation (a condition that results in the brain “forgetting” how to hear and understand speech). Ninety-five percent of people with hearing loss can be treated with hearing aids. Nine out of 10 hearing-aid users report improvements in quality of life. If you have any questions about hearing loss or hearing aids contact Hidden Hearing.

FREE HEARING TESTS FOR DUNGANNON

FREE HEARING TESTS FOR DUNGANNON

SOURCE: TYRONE TIMES Published on Tuesday 20 March 2012 09:06

 

FREE hearing tests will be available in Dungannon throughout Hearing Action Week 2012 which takes place from Monday 26th March.

 

The free tests will be provided by Hidden Hearing Northern Ireland at Northland Healthcare on 14a Northland Row, Dungannon, Tyrone.

Hearing Action Week is a national awareness campaign run by Hidden Hearing Northern Ireland highlighting the issue of hearing loss. This year the campaign will focus on encouraging people to take action on their hearing loss, highlighting that some people delay for up to 15 years in addressing the issue.

A host of initiatives will be held during the week making it easier for people to take action. These include a mobile hearing screening clinic visiting towns and cities across the province offering free hearing screenings. A website http://www.hearingactionweek.org has been set up to provide tips and advice of hearing loss, details of the mobile clinic itinerary and an online hearing test. Hidden Hearing Northern Ireland will also be providing free hearing tests at each of its 11 clinics during the week.

Discussing Hearing Action Week 2012, Dr. Nina Byrnes, Hidden Hearing’s Medical Advisor said: “We are delighted to launch Hearing Action Week 2012, which will help people take a proactive approach to their hearing health. Loss of the ability to hear or discriminate sounds is one of the most common everyday disabilities in Northern Ireland. Research in the area has shown that hearing loss affects almost one of every six people in the province and a third of Northern Irish people over the age of 60. It’s important if you notice issues with your hearing that you address the problem early and take positive action. Research has shown that some people delay far too long in addressing their hearing loss and this can affect their social interaction and confidence”.

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