“A FIFTH OF AMERICANS HAVE SERIOUS HEARING TROUBLE. Twenty percent of Americans age 12 or older have hearing loss so severe that it may make communication difficult, researchers report in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Dr. Frank Lin and colleagues at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine used national survey data to project that 30 million Americans, or 12.7 percent of the population, have hearing loss in both ears, and that 48 million, or 20 percent, have hearing loss in at least one ear. These numbers far surpass previous estimates of 21 to 29 million, they said. “

Exposure to sounds with decibel levels of 85 or higher for a prolonged period of time poses the risk of hearing loss. The higher the decibel level of sound, the less time is needed before hearing loss from noise can occur.

whisper – 30 dB

conversation – 60 dB

vacuum cleaner, hair dryer – 70 dB

dishwasher, washing machine– 75 dB

restaurants – 80-96 dB

city traffic (inside car)  – 85 dB

noisy toys – 90 dB

lawnmower – 90 dB

train, garbage truck – 100 dB

CD players, iPods (max) – 110 -115

power saw, symphony orchestra – 110

leaf blower, chainsaw – 115

stereo – 110-125 dB

fire engine siren, thunderclap – 120 dB

rock concerts – 110-140 dB

fireworks -145 dB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KiZ8erY7M4&feature=youtu.be

Hear are several excellent articles:

We want to draw your attention to a wonderful article on tinnitus and strategies to protect & preserve your hearing in the May 2012 issue of Life Extension magazine (Volume 18/Number 5).
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2012_Strategies-Protect-Preserve-Your-Hearing-01.htm?source=search&key=Strategies%20to%20Protect

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My niece sent me the Boston Globe Health Issue from Monday, April 2, 2012 with a cover story “Now Hear This.” The article can be found on pages 12 & 13 and is entitled, “Hearing the Problem.”
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/articles/2012/04/02/finding_new_ways_to_solve_hearing_problems/

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Bottom Line Health (Volume 26 #5 May 12, 2012) has an excerpt from Dr. Frank Lin, MD, PhD (The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD) on the front page under Late Breaking News. “Hearing loss increases risk for falls. Researchers tested the hearing of 2,017 adults (ages 40 – 69) and asked them about recent falls. Finding: Those with even mild hearing loss were 3 x’s more likely to have fallen within the previous year than those with normal hearing. Each 10-decibel loss of hearing raised risk of falling 1.4-fold. Theory: Hearing loss may overwork the brain, leaving fewer resources to maintain gait and balance.”

Dr. Lin’s longer article on Hearing Loss in Older Adults is featured on our Blog.

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My daughter-in-law sent me an item entitled “Breaking through the silence” from the front page of the Washington Post Health & Science section, pages E-1,3,4,5, from Tuesday, April 10, 2012. Articles focus on new hearing aids (& their cost) & the wire loop (wires that circle a room or part of a room & can connect many hearing aids & cochlear implants directly to sound systems).

How hearing loops can help: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-hearing-loops-can-help/2012/04/09/glQAvhEb6S_story.html

Baby boomers who need hearing aids have many choices in a blue tooth – iPod world: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/baby-boomers-who-need-hearing-aids-have-many-choices-n-a-bluetoothipod-world/2012/04/09/glQACNCb6S_story.html

Unlike most insurers, United Healthcare is offering big discounts on hearing: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/unlike-most-insurers-unitedhealthcare-is-offering-big-discounts-on-hearing-aids/2012/04/09/glQA810Z6S_story.html

Soldiers exposed to the deafening din of battle have little defense against hearing loss, and are often reluctant to wear protective gear like ear plugs that could make them less able to react to danger. But what if a nutritious daily “candy bar” could prevent much of that potential damage to their hearing?

In a new study in animals, researchers report that a combination of high doses of vitamins A, C, and E and magnesium, taken one hour before noise exposure and continued as a once-daily treatment for five days, was very effective at preventing permanent noise-induced hearing loss (Free Radical Biology and Medicine Online, March 2007). The animals had prolonged exposure to sounds as loud as a jet engine at take-off at close range.

Clinical trials of a hearing-protection tablet or snack bar for people could begin soon, and if successful such a product could be available in as little as two years, says Josef M. Miller, PhD, the senior author of the study and a professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Michigan Medical School, in Ann Arbor, MI and former director of the U-M Health System’s Kresge Hearing Research Institute, where the study was performed.

Read the full story here…

Linda Baumgartner, MS, CCC-SLP, Auditory-Verbal Therapist,  a co-investigator in the study, said: “The study is exciting because it might offer a non-surgical option for some children with profound hearing loss.”

Read the full article here.

The NOHR Foundation recommends consulting an otolaryngologist (ENT specialist) about hearing loss.

The Off-Broadway production runs through September 2. It debuted in London in 2010 and was lauded by critics.

The play is billed: “In ‘Tribes’, Billy was born deaf into a hearing family, and raised inside the fiercely idiosyncratic and unrepentantly politically incorrect cocoon of his parents’ house. A lip-reader, he has adapted brilliantly to his family’s ways. It’s not until he meets Sylvia, a young woman on the brink of deafness, that he finally understands what it mean to be understood.”

With Academy Award nominee Mare Willingham, Jeff Perry, Russell Harvard and Susan Pourfar.