If we’re lucky, we’ll live long enough to experience age-related hearing loss, also known as presbycusis. But what are we doing in the meantime to make sure that we’re hearing our best once we leave the workforce? Here are a few suggestions;

• Protect against noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), as many as 40 million American adults have hearing loss attributed to excessive exposure to noise. Sounds over 85 decibels (dB) are particularly harmful, especially if you’re exposed to them for more than 8 hours a day. If you enjoy a noisy hobby, such as hunting or motorcycle riding, wear appropriate hearing protection. Turn down the volume on your electronic devices, most especially anything you listen to through earphones. Limit your exposure to noisy environments -- sports stadiums, concerts -- and be intentional about moving away from loud noise you encounter accidentally.
• Find a hearing healthcare professional and get a baseline hearing evaluation. If you don’t have a relationship with a hearing healthcare professional (HHP), now is the perfect time to establish one and make an appointment. Hearing evaluations are quick, easy and painless. The results will tell your provider how well you’re hearing now and provide the baseline they need to monitor changes in your hearing.
• Know your family’s hearing health history. While some forms of hearing loss can be explained by noise and age-related conditions, others like otosclerosis, Usher’s Syndrome and Pendred Syndrome are hereditary. Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), the most common type of hearing loss, isn’t hereditary; however, if other family members have been diagnosed with SNHL it’s best to share this information with your hearing care professional, too. The more your clinician knows about your family’s hearing health, the better prepared they will be if you develop similar symptoms.
• Adopt a healthy lifestyle now. Why wait until the New Year to make these resolutions? Begin now. Not only will you have a head start on next year, your hearing health will benefit. Why? Because the health of your inner ear is directly related to the health of your circulatory system. Anything that interferes with your circulation -- such as heart disease, smoking or obesity -- can damage or kill the sensory hair cells in the cochlea. These hair cells are responsible for translating the noise your outer ear collects into electrical impulses for the brain to interpret as the daily sounds you recognize. 
  

Protecting your hearing health now will most definitely pay you dividends in retirement. And, should you develop hearing loss, resolve to treat it sooner rather than later. Those who wait increase their risks of developing other medical issues such as:

• Injury - Untreated hearing loss puts you at greater risk for accidental injury. Studies have also found that those with untreated hearing loss are three times more likely to experience tripping and falling.
• Increase risk of developing dementia or Alzheimer’s - Untreated hearing loss is one of the nine risk factors associated with developing dementia.
• Poor emotional health - Untreated hearing loss takes a toll on your psychological health, too, and increases your risk of depression.

Hopefully, you have a lot of fun things planned for retirement. Include a few hearing health and savings strategies before it's too late to make sure you’re hearing your best through it all.

(Source: healthyhearing.com)
 (Author: Debbie Clason)

Do my ears get bigger as I age?
By Mitchell Hecht, The Inquirer

It's not your imagination. Ears do get bigger with age. Not only does the cartilage in the ear continue to grow lengthwise (but not with increasing width) throughout our lifetime, but the earlobe elongates and sags due to years of gravity.
A British report in 1995 in the British Medical Journal found that their ears elongated by 0.22 millimeter per year.
Another study determined that the average ear length is 2.04 inches at birth, and 3.07 inches in length in men at age 70 and 2.83 inches in length in women at age 70. In fact, detailed statistics on ear sizes have been used by forensic researchers to determine an unknown person's approximate age.
 
Brains pick out sounds from background noise

Our ears can effortlessly pick out the sounds we need to hear from a noisy environment - hearing our mobile phone ringtone in the middle of the Notting Hill Carnival, for example - but how our brains process this information (the so-called 'cocktail party problem') has been a longstanding research question in hearing science.

In a study in the United Kingdom, groups of volunteers were asked to identify target sounds from within this noisy background in a series of experiments. Professor Tim Griffiths, Professor of Cognitive Neurology at Newcastle University and lead researcher on the study, said: "Many hearing disorders are characterised by the loss of ability to detect speech in noisy environments. Disorders like this that are caused by problems with how the brain interprets sound information, rather than physical damage to the ear and hearing machinery, remain poorly understood.

"These findings inform us about a fundamental brain mechanism for detecting sound patterns and identifies a process that can go wrong in hearing disorders. We now have an opportunity to create better tests for these types of hearing problems."

Out on my ear

Play it by ear To decide how to deal with a situation as it develops rather than by having a plan to follow. ‘I'm not sure how many people are expected. We'll just have to play it by ear.’
Lend me your ear To ask someone politely to listen carefully. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Mark Antony begins his eulogy in honour of the assassinated consul: ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.’
Ears are flapping A person is listening in to somebody else's conversation
Sent away with a flea in their ear To angrily tell someone to go away. ‘He asked for money but I sent him away with a flea in his ear.’
Bend an ear To listen attentively.
Pig's ear I question the integrity of your statement.

Hands up if you know anyone who has hearing aids sitting in their drawer instead of in their ears?
 
Do you ever wonder why that is?
 
Have you ever tried to find out why people with hearing aids don’t wear them?
 
There can be lots of reasons why people don’t feel comfortable wearing their hearing aids or why they think that their hearing aids don’t work.  The most common problem is that some people are not fit well in the first place and they don’t think that things will get any better.
 
When I say not fit well, I mean that the device they received needs adjustment so that the sounds are softer or louder or clearer.  They might have an ear mould that is irritating in their ear or they might not know how to operate the buttons on the device. All these reasons are enough to make someone abandon their hearings aids and think that they are better off without them.
 
The truth of course is that they aren’t better off – they’re still suffering!
 
With a great hearing wellness provider that they can trust – all of those problems can be solved.  Getting a hearing solution that is just right for you can take some time to perfect and it’s important to both persist with wearing your hearing aids and to go back to your provider until you’re 100% satisfied. 
 
“Hearing aid technology and styles has advanced hugely in recent times and with so much more choice around today it’s guaranteed that we can find a solution that will bring you great hearing”, comments Michael Brown-Sarre Audiometrist with the Jervis Bay Hearing Centre.
 
“It’s so important not to give up – let us help you to keep those hearing aids out of the drawer and enjoy great hearing again!”

Have you ever muttered these words? 

Or is someone near you suffering from a hearing loss and considers they're too young to wear a hearing device?  Do you think wearing a hearing device indicates that you're advanced in years?

The irony is that living with an untreated hearing loss is much more of a ‘social concern’ and will impact more on your life, than treating the hearing loss with either communications training or wearing a hearing instrument.

Typically people with an untreated hearing loss often don’t even know much it impacts on those around them.  They may not be aware that people close to them often have to repeat themselves or repair conversations that breakdown when communication isn't heard accurately.  Often when a person has an untreated hearing loss, they can hear many things but not everything and a lot of valuable information is lost in 'translation'.

In this present day and age, hearing loss is very common in people much younger than in other generations and so much so, that it's recommended that people over 50yrs of age should have their hearing checked every two years.  If you haven't had your hearing checked, then the time to start monitoring your hearing wellness is now.

Advanced technology allows for hearing instruments to be so discreet and adaptive to your environment that there's no need to be concerned about the visual impacts of wearing a hearing device.

Alternatively, the Jervis Bay Hearing Centre offers a hearing wellness communications training program that is designed to help people who don't hear well and don't consider a hearing device to be the right solution at this point in time.  The communications training program is extremely effective for helping people to stay connected and avoid becoming misunderstood.

The key to a happy and active life is to stay connected.  Easy and effortless communication is essential to your full participation in life.  Don't let your hearing hold you back!

Call the Jervis Bay Hearing Centre today for a FREE hearing check on 4441 8886