A Plug For Earplugs (And For Newsweek, Too)
The recent Newsweek hearing-loss cover story (“A Little Bit Louder, Please”) was the biggest, most complete and most prominent coverage of this vital issue in the 21st century so far. With nearly half the story devoted to the many simple steps people can take to prevent hearing loss now and in the future, Newsweek actually made the deadly dull topic of prevention interesting — a near-impossible feat. Read more
Newsweek Hearing-Loss Cover Story: I Guess Half A Loaf Is Better Than None At All
While the Newsweek cover story this week is notable for the attention it gives to hearing loss as a major societal issue, it’s also notable for what it doesn’t cover. But at least the cover picture is worth a million words. Read more
Did Someone Say Those Noises In My Head Are Real? Or Am I Hearing Things Again?
A few weeks ago I posted an item about the noises I constantly hear in my head. These aren’t the usual hissing or ringing noises commonly associated with tinnitus. I’m talking about distinct sounds such as dump trucks and payloaders working at a hallucinatory construction site outside my window, a chain saw whining in the distance, several orchestral arrangements of “God Bless America” that played in my head without a break for two full days…. the list of real sounds heard distinctly goes on. Read more
Okay, It’s Time To Get A Portable Bed-Shaker. Any Recommendations?
When my family toured Washington, D.C., in 1964, we stayed in a Holiday Inn where one of the beds was equipped with something called “Magic Fingers.” My brother and I scraped together two quarters and shoved them into the sliding arm that dropped the coins into a metal box above the headboard, and the entire bed started vibrating. Read more
Excuse Me, I Have To Fall Down Now
Right after college, I had three roommates in their first year of medical school. Once a week, one of them would run up from the mailbox shouting, “MMWR is here! MMWR is here!” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the newsletter from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), chronicles every known malady afflicting the populace, providing graphic details of the latest horrific diseases and extensive weekly documentation of Who and How Many are Dying from What and Why. Read more
Carbon Monoxide Speeds Up Hearing Loss
I knew carbon monoxide was bad for your health and in large quantities can kill you. But I never knew it was bad for your hearing too. Two researchers from the University of Montreal have conducted a long-term study of workers in industries where high noise levels and high levels of carbon monoxide are common. Read more
More Boomers Than We Knew Have Hearing Loss
Bad news for boomers, good news for hearing aid manufacturers: A survey by The Ear Foundation finds that more American baby boomers than previously thought are losing their hearing, with nearly half the total of those aged 50 to 59 reporting some degree of hearing loss. A 1990 National Health Interview Survey by the National Center for Health Statistics found that only 20 percent in a comparable group were suffering from hearing loss. Read more
Turn Down The Volume On Your IPOD
So now it’s Apple Computer’s IPOD. The London Evening Standard this week published a warning issued by the Royal National Institute of the Deaf in the U.K. that London commuters are permanently deafening themselves by turning up the volumes on their IPODs to drown out the noise in the city’s underground subway system. Read more
If You Ever Wondered Whether Early Screening Works….
Read “In This Silent World,” today’s entry in the personal weblog of British journalist Charles Arthur. It’s a beautiful, moving account of the agonizing process of discovery he and his wife went through with their newborn son. Read more
William Austin, Hearing-Aid Promoter Extraordinaire
The only thing William Austin seems to work at harder than promoting himself is promoting the benefits of hearing aids. But in fact, the two go hand in hand. Over the past 40 years, the founder of Starkey Laboratories, one of the world’s seven dominant hearing aid manufacturers, has waged what at times has seemed a one-man war against the stigma of wearing hearing aids. Read more