September is World Alzheimer’s Month. Launched in 2012, this global campaign raises awareness about dementia – a group of medical conditions that progressively deteriorates cognitive functions. 50 million people worldwide live with dementia, a number projected to rapidly increase. Alzheimer’s is the most common type, impacting up to 90% of people who experience dementia. Treating hearing loss can be an …
Hearing aids are a wonderful intervention for hearing loss with a proven success rate. A vast majority of hearing aid wearers report improved relationships in their lives once they’ve acquired hearing aids and most people would recommend them to a friend as a treatment for hearing loss. And yet, they can also require a period of adjustment to get used …
Perhaps you have started to notice that your hearing isn’t what it used to be. You might have had a conversation with someone who is a soft speaker or a child who was more difficult to hear than you would expect. The difficulty might come from a certain context, such as a place with background noise. You might even find …
What contributes to a good quality of life? Each individual has a different answer to this question, but we can trace some common threads that tend to contribute to a good quality of life. One of the most common reports among those with a good quality of life is having an active lifestyle. The ability to get out and about, …
Painkillers certainly have their place. Whether for a person recovering from surgery or for someone who has immediate and severe pain, these drugs can provide essential relief. Some painkillers, such as the opioids fentanyl and oxycodone, are highly addictive and should only be taken under a doctor’s guidance for a very short period of time. Despite knowing about these dangerous …
Hearing aids can make a world of difference in the quality of life your loved one experiences in a nursing home. Not only do they make it possible to socialize and connect with other residents, they can be crucial in the delivery of services and care. When a nursing home staff member asks about your loved one’s needs or administers …
More than 30 million Americans report some type of hearing loss. It’s a condition that can contribute to feelings of loneliness and isolation, especially within our highly verbal world. Associated with more than a few negative health outcomes, undiagnosed and untreated hearing loss can affect people mentally, physically and emotionally. Despite a widespread acknowledgement that healthy hearing is an important …
When we think of hearing loss, we most often default to hearing loss present from birth, or that acquired over time due to sound or aging. But in some cases, it is a sudden and traumatic event, like an accident, that produces hearing loss in a life. While these dramatic episodes are less common, we are finding out more about …
It can be difficult to live with hearing loss in a world that seems to cater almost solely to the hearing population. Much of the communication between people, in your town city hall or at the bank and other commercial establishments tend to be very verbal. Perhaps you have even spent much of your life communicating verbally, but now have …
Noise is a permanent feature in our lives these days. But for kids and teens, this noise could damage their hearing health. Children and teens have a lower threshold for hearing loss, and they are more susceptible to hearing loss than adults. Not only that, but they are often in noisy environments like crowded school hallways, loud band practice, or …
