Monday, March 12, 2012

Hearing Aids Reduce "Ringing" In The Ears

A new study recently conducted by the Better Hearing Institute (BHI) has found that nearly thirty million Americans – or ten percent of our population – suffer from chronic tinnitus, or "ringing in the ears."

In fact, tinnitus was recently indicated to be the number one service-connected disability of military personnel returning from service in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Sufferers of tinnitus generally describe the noise as a ringing, a humming, or a buzzing. The sound can be constant or intermittent, and in one or in both ears.

"Persistent, chronic tinnitus is a highly intrusive, increasingly common condition that can interfere with a person's cognition, ability to interact with family and friends, and basic life functions," stated Jennifer Born, study co-author and the Director of Public Affairs at the American Tinnitus Association.

The leading cause of tinnitus is extreme exposure to noise. Those suffering from the condition almost always have hearing loss in conjunction with tinnitus. Yet, the researchers involved the study were surprised by the number of respondents who initially reported that they had tinnitus, but no hearing loss. After testing them, however, the study authors discovered that the majority of the respondents did, indeed, have hearing loss.

"It's very likely that these individuals were aware of their tinnitus but not their hearing loss – which would indicate that the population with hearing loss is much larger than previously believed," noted study co-author Dr. Sergei Kochkin.

"People suffering with tinnitus should seek the counsel of an audiologist so that appropriate remedies are explored," said Dr. Mary Bohr, Director of Audiology at McGuire's Hearing Aids and Audiological Services. "It's quite possible that a patient's tinnitus can be helped by hearing devices."

Hearing loss may be an early sign of dementia

This story appeared originally on CNN.com on this web page.

Gradual hearing loss is a common symptom of aging, but in some people it may also be an early sign of Alzheimer's disease or other types of de
mentia, a new study suggests.

The risk of dementia appears to rise as hearing declines. Older people with mild hearing impairment -- those who have difficulty following a conversation in a crowded restaurant, say -- were nearly twice as likely as those with normal hearing to develop dementia, the study found. Severe hearing loss nearly quintupled the risk of dementia.

It's unclear why the loss of hearing and mental function might go hand in hand. Brain abnormalities may contribute independently to both conditions, but it's also possible that hearing problems can help bring on dementia, the researchers say. Hearing loss may lead to social isolation (which itself has been linked to dementia), for instance, or it may interfere with the brain's division of labor.

"The brain might have to reallocate resources to help with hearing at the expense of cognition," says the lead researcher, Frank R. Lin, M.D., an ear surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. That may explain in part why straining to hear conversations over background noise in a loud restaurant can be mentally exhausting for anyone, hard of hearing or not, he adds.

The findings suggest that poor hearing is a "harbinger of impending dementia," says George Gates, M.D., a hearing expert at the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not involved in the new study but whose own research has demonstrated a link between the two conditions.

"We listen with our ears but hear with our brains," Gates says. "It is simply not possible to separate audition and cognition."

In the study, which appears in the Archives of Neurology, Lin and his colleagues followed more than 600 dementia-free adults between the ages of 36 and 90 for an average of 12 years. A little less than 30 percent of the study participants had some hearing loss at the start of the study.

Overall, 9 percent of the participants went on to develop Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia. Mild, moderate, and severe hearing loss were associated with a two-fold, three-fold, and five-fold higher risk of later dementia, respectively, in comparison to normal hearing.

People with moderate hearing loss generally struggle to communicate even in quiet settings, and those with severe hearing loss are near deaf.

Lin says that hearing loss has an enormous impact on the lives of his patients and their family members. "Yet because it is such a slow and insidious process, it is often left ignored and untreated."

Whether hearing aids or other treatments (such as cochlear implants) can help stave off dementia is the "50 billion dollar question," Lin adds. Thirty million Americans currently have impaired hearing and 1 in 30 are predicted to suffer from dementia by 2050, so if those treatments prove to be helpful, their impact would be felt widely.

There is no cure for dementia, and there are no surefire ways of preventing it. Gates isn't optimistic that restoring hearing can affect the course of dementia. However, if treatments and prevention strategies for dementia do become available in the future, he says, hearing loss could play an important role in early detection.

Lin and his colleagues have begun researching the effect of hearing aids on the risk of dementia. "Whether or not it can help dementia, we don't know yet," he says. "But in the meantime, there's no reason not to take your hearing loss seriously and pursue some type of treatment."