Now Hear This

In a noisy restaurant, request a corner table.  Sit in the corner facing out if you do not wear hearing aids.  Sit opposite the corner if your hearing aids have dual microphones.

Preterm, low-birth-weight babies more likely for women with hearing loss

Pregnant women with hearing loss may be more likely to give birth prematurely or have low-birth-weight babies. This is the conclusion of new research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Lead investigator Dr. Monika Mitra, Ph.D., of the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, and colleagues note that many individuals with hearing loss have other health issues, largely because hearing problems reduce beneficial exposure to media, healthcare messages, health communication, and learning opportunities.

What is more, Dr. Mitra and team say healthcare providers rarely receive training on the best way to communicate with patients who have hearing loss, which can make it hard for clinicians to provide optimal care.

Written by Honor Whiteman

Published: Monday 26 September 2016

Headphones causing hidden hearing loss 'epidemic'

The Courier - September 24, 2016.  Listening to loud music on personal devices could be leading to an epidemic of deafness among young people, a study shows. Noisy sporting events, concerts and nightclubs is also expose them to increasing risk of ‘hidden hearing loss’ - which isn’t picked up by standard tests. Known medically as cochlear synaptopathy if affects the ability to pick out sounds in a noisy environment.

Read more at: http://www.warwickcourier.co.uk/news/headphones-causing-hidden-hearing-loss-epidemic-

The Zika virus and hearing loss

Contributed by Lisa Packer, staff writer, Healthy Hearing | Thursday, August 25th, 2016

If you think the Zika virus has been dominating the news lately, you are correct. In February of 2016, the World Health Organization declared the Zika virus outbreak to be a public emergency. But there is another aspect of Zika that is just beginning to be discussed and explored: its effect on hearing.

The Zika virus is a mosquito-transmitted infection similar to the West Nile virus and dengue fever, but with more serious implications for infected pregnant women and their unborn babies. People of all ages can be affected, but those with weaker immune systems such as the very young and the very old are especially susceptible. For its adult victims, 4 out of 5 are asymptomatic. Those who do exhibit symptoms, which can include fever, rash, headaches, joint pain, conjunctivitis and sensitivity to light, usually recover in a week. The bad news is that 1 out of 5 adults will have lingering effects, and many babies exposed to Zika in utero will have brain damage and birth defects includingsensorineural hearing loss.

The connection to hearing loss

Research on the virus is becoming a top priority in areas where it is more commonly transmitted. A researcher in Brazil, for example, is studying a group of adult patients who have tested positive for the Zika virus and have a different set of symptoms that are causing concern: tinnitus, vertigo and hearing loss. Dr. Viviane Boaventura, an ear, nose and throat physician (ENT) at the epicenter of the outbreak in Brazil, noticed that some of her patients who had contracted Zika were still exhibiting the hearing-related symptoms several months after the other symptoms had abated. Although the majority of her patients seem to have now recovered fully, it remains to be seen what the long term effects will be. We are just starting,” Boaventura said. “And we don’t have a lot of patients to tell you if [the damage] will be reversible or it will be permanent.”

And the American Academy of Audiology is focusing on the younger Zika virus victims: newborns whose mothers exhibited symptoms of the virus early in pregnancy. Hearing loss is a risk for these youngest victims of the Zika virus, as the infants born to infected mothers have a high risk of developing microcephaly, which is characterized by an abnormally small cranium. 

Smaller head size itself isn’t the issue, however; it is the reason for the small head size that is causing concern among health officials. As a fetus grows, its skull gets larger to accommodate the growth of the brain. Thus, “If the brain doesn’t grow, the skull doesn’t grow,” said Dr. Sumit Parikh, a pediatric neurologist at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital.

And therein lies the problem. Though not all microcephaly is accompanied by brain damage, the Zika virus can cause a very severe form of microcephaly, in which the brain not only stops growing, it becomes smooth instead of developing the normal ridges and folds. The absence of those ridges and folds means there is less surface area for neurons. Most severe are the cases in which the mother exhibited symptoms between the second and fourth month of a pregnancy, when most neurons are formed. “This is the critical period for neurogenesis. You cannot ‘catch up’ if not enough neurons are made during this period,” said Dr. Ganeshwaran Mochida, a pediatric neurologist at Boston Children’s Hospital.

With the first cases of Zika in the Western hemisphere not being reported until 2013, research is still in the beginning stages and scientists can only theorize as to the cause of hearing loss in infants. Some evidence points to calcifications on the brains of the infants, while other evidence points to insufficient neurons or to cochlear nerve damage. No matter the reason, the American Academy of Audiology warns that infants who contract the virus through infected mothers might have “absent or poorly functioning” hearing at birth, or that hearing loss could occur later. That means that for at-risk infants, newborn hearing screenings are essential and should be followed up with preschool and elementary hearing screenings in subsequent years.

Tinnitus: What is that ringing in my ear? Can it be made better?

Tinnitus is the sensation of hearing noise, most often ringing, that does not come from any external source. Some may complain of buzzing, roaring or a hissing sound. These sounds are heard by the affected individual, but not by others. It is regarded as a symptom rather than a disorder and is quite common. As many as 50 million Americans report tinnitus. The sound varies from individual to individual in terms of its loudness, tonal quality and how often it is present. Tinnitus reportedly occurs in 27% of people between 65 and 84 years of age.

It is generally associated with hearing loss and occurs often in people exposed to loud noise. Certain medications and a variety hearing disorders are associated with the presence of tinnitus. We are not completely sure what the underlying anatomic base is. Most believe the problem is related to deterioration of microscopic hair cells in the inner ear and an interaction between the auditory part of the brain and the inner ear.

There is no known cure but there are approaches that have been effective in managing the annoyance. A large number of hearing aid wearers report significant improvement while wearing their hearing aids. Some use a tinnitus masker, which may be part of a hearing aid. This special circuitry can make the tinnitus imperceptible or nearly so. Other approaches may use techniques like counseling and habituation therapy.