Why all old fogies are stone deaf, but only when it suits us

Motivational: David Richer led a walkout at his local gym due to its pumping music Photo: ANDY JONES

Three not-too-loud cheers for the old fogies who staged a mass walkout from the £300-a-year gym at the Marsh Academy Leisure Centre in New Romney, Kent, because they were fed up with listening to techno music while they lifted the weights and trod the treadmill. David Richer, aged 75 and the leader of the rebellion, handed in his membership because he could not stand all that pumping music any longer on his visits between 7am and 9am. According to reports, eight other older members followed his example.

It must be trying for a member of the Royal family gradually to lose one’s hearing. The sound does not carry right up to the Royal Box, and the bashful, murmured reply of the recipient as you hang the CBE round his or her neck must be hard to catch. Imagine what it must be like for the Duke of Edinburgh at a banquet, as the knives and forks of a hundred VIPs, dignitaries and worthies clatter on the best china and the wife of the president of somewhere-or-other, makes a polite observation. All he can do is smile graciously. It must be a relief to have a good old 21-gun salute or a fanfare of trumpets now and then.

Hearing loss happens gradually you may not even notice what you’re missing. The best thing you can do for yourself and your family is getting a free hearing evaluation from an audiologist to determine if you even have a hearing loss. If you do, at Hidden Hearing our friendly staff will guide through the path to better hearing.

Source: The Telegraph by Oliver Pritchett: Read More>

How much of a threat is an ailing senior to Airline Security?

This article from the Calgary Herald makes a very good point.

Ailing senior presented no threat to airline security.

By Hilary Argento, Calgary Herald

Wednesday morning, I took my parents to the airport. I watched them go through security so I could wave goodbye.

My dad will be 81 next week, has hearing aids in both ears, braces on both ankles and walks with a cane. I watched with growing anger as security made him walk through the scanner without his cane and then made him stand with his arms out as they wanded him and patted him down for three minutes.

He has trouble with his balance since the nerves in his feet have deteriorated and he cannot stand upright unassisted. He has had a knee replacement which sets off the scanner, but I am not sure how much of a threat my elderly dad would constitute on a plane. The most damage he could cause is if he lost his balance and fell on a flight attendant.

It is time that common sense was brought into our security measures. No one is safer on a plane because some seniors have been thoroughly searched and made to stumble through the scanner without their canes.

The time and effort it took the security person to search my dad could have been used to better effect elsewhere.

Hilary Argento, Calgary

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com

If you have a hearing loss you may not pass some other medical tests

Study Shows Poor Hearing May Cause False-Positive Results on Cognitive Tests

If you’re going to take your elderly parents in for a memory checkup, you may want to have their hearing tested first.

So suggest researchers who found that a substantial number of people may have false-positive results on cognitive tests designed to detect dementia due to undiagnosed hearing problems.

“A hearing test should be imperative prior to cognitive testing,” says study researcher Michael Lerch, MD, of Diakonia Mark-Ruhr Hospital in Hagen, Germany.

Hearing problems can be overlooked, especially if they are mild, says William Thies, PhD, chief medical and scientific officer at the Alzheimer’s Association.

“Just missing one word can distinctly affect performance on a cognitive test, particularly if it’s done in a hurried fashion,” he tells WebMD.

Thies’ advice: If dementia is suspected, make sure cognitive testing is performed by a doctor with experience treating Alzheimer’s disease patients.

Hearing Loss and Dementia

It’s not uncommon for hearing loss and dementia to coexist, Lerch says. One in eight people over age 65 have dementia. And more than half of people over age 70 have hearing loss, he says.

The new study involved 1,600 patients in a geriatric practice. About 900 had scores suggestive of dementia on the Mini-Mental State Exam, a brief test of cognitive skills, including attention span and memory. Then, patients underwent hearing testing, with treatment if needed.

One-third of those with possible dementia were found to have a relevant hearing impairment and showed an improvement in cognitive testing results after treatment, Lerner reports.

The findings were presented here at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2011.

About 5.4 million Americans and 35 million people worldwide have Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia.

These findings were presented at a medical conference. They should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the “peer review” process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.

By Charlene Laino
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

If you have any questions about hearing loss contact Hidden Hearing

 

Hearing aids help battle Alzheimer’s

When Lisle resident Angela Perosi, 85, started forgetting things and tuning out conversations, her daughter took her to a doctor — and then got her fitted for new hearing aids. Studies have shown hearing loss can increase a person’s risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

When Lisle resident Angela Perosi, 85, started forgetting things and tuning out conversations, her daughter took her to a doctor — and then got her fitted for new hearing aids.

Studies have shown hearing loss can increase a person’s risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Perosi had hearing loss before she was diagnosed with mild dementia. But her arthritis made it difficult to keep taking the over-the-ear hearing aids in and out, said her daughter, Debby Berger, a Naperville resident and registered nurse. So Perosi started wearing “invisible” hearing aids that fit inside the ear canal and can be worn for months at a time.

“She’s more into the conversation at the dinner table,” Berger said. “(Before,) she just sort of sat there. I thought maybe this will help. The way to help her dementia is to get mental stimulation, and way to get mental stimulation is to hear.”

Over the last two years, doctors at the Hearing Health Center in Naperville have fitted 11 patients with the completely-inside-the-canal hearing aids. Audiologist Ronna Fisher, founder and president of the Hearing Health Center, said eight of those patients have experienced significant improvements in memory, mood and social interaction.

“I’ve been impressed, but not surprised,” Fisher said in a statement. “Studies show even mild hearing loss impairs patients’ relationships, incomes and emotional states. I’d always suspected it impairs their memories as well.”

In a recent National Institutes of Health study, researchers who followed 639 adults for 12 years found the worse the subjects’ initial hearing, the greater their likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s. The risk doubled with mild hearing loss, tripled with moderate loss and went up five times for those with severe hearing loss.

The researchers theorized hearing loss may cause Alzheimer’s disease by creating cognitive stress or social isolation. Whether hearing devices affect cognitive decline and dementia will require further study.

Berger has noticed the link between hearing loss and memory loss with both of her parents. Her father, who died two years ago, lived with Alzheimer’s for 15 years. He also had hearing loss.

As a result, she’s consciously keeping her own mind — and ears — alert. When she took her mom to the Hearing Health Center, the doctor invited Berger to get a hearing test as well. It turns out she has high-frequency hearing loss from going to loud concerts when she was younger.

“I do not require any hearing aids as of yet,” Berger said. “But I do crossword puzzles every day, trust me.”

If you have any questions about hearing loss contact Hidden Hearing

Musicians ‘have less hearing loss’

Learning music may improve the listening ability of older generations.

Learning music may offset some of the effects of ageing and improve the listening ability of older generations, a study has found.

Years spent playing a musical instrument “fine tunes” the nervous system, said scientists.

As a result auditory memory – the ability to remember what is heard – and to distinguish sounds is improved.

“Lifelong musical training appears to confer advantages in at least two important functions known to decline with age – memory and the ability to hear speech in noise,” said researcher Professor Nina Kraus, director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University in Illinois, US.

Previous research has suggested that learning music confers learning advantages on youngsters in the classroom.

The scientists carried out tests of memory and speech recognition on 18 musicians and 19 non-musicians aged 45 to 65.

All the musicians started learning an instrument at the age of nine or earlier and had continued to play throughout their lives.

In the tests they outperformed the non-musician group in auditory memory and sound processing tasks, and were better at detecting speech against background noise. Both groups showed an equal ability in tests of visual memory.

“Difficulty hearing speech in noise is among the most common complaints of older adults, but age-related hearing loss only partially accounts for this impediment that can lead to social isolation and depression,” said Prof Kraus. “It’s well known that adults with virtually the same hearing profile can differ dramatically in their ability to hear speech in noise.”

The research was published in the online journal Public Library of Science One.

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