Valley Audiology

Who Needs a 50-Pound Hearing Aid?

Dr. Kjeldsen — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:51:08 +0000

Maybe you do if you have severe to profound hearing loss. Organizations like Dogs for the Deaf rescue dogs from shelters for training and other organizations like Canine Companions for Independence breed dogs and train them to be hearing dogs. Hearing dogs alert their owners to sounds they may not be able to hear even with their hearing aids – telephones, doorbells, smoke detectors, oven timers, alarm clocks and more. They make physical contact with their owners and lead them to the noise source. Hearing dogs are service dogs and may be taken into public allowing their owners to have a greater awareness of their environment. It always makes our day when our patients bring their hearing dogs into appointments in our office.

Hazards of Headphone Use

Dr. Kjeldsen — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:06:06 +0000

Millions of people walk around with ear buds or headphones listening to music or other recordings or talking on the phone. There are two areas of concern for people who walk around plugged in. The first concern is hearing loss due to excessive noise exposure and the second is injuries from cars or trains.

A previous post of mine discussed safe listening levels. When you are wearing your headphones, you should be able to hold a conversation with someone standing an arm’s length away. If you cannot hear them, you need to turn down the volume.

Pedestrian injuries are an even more hazardous result of headphone use. Since 2004 pedestrian accidents have more than tripled according to a University of Maryland study. Not only do people not hear the warning sounds of cars or trains, they aren’t paying as much attention to their surroundings because their brains are focused elsewhere.

Two things you can do to be safer: lower the volume and lessen the amount of time you are plugged in.

Risk of Falls Associated with Hearing Loss

Dr. Kjeldsen — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:13:38 +0000

A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine has shown that there is an increased risk of falling in older adults with hearing loss. The study reported on 2,017 subjects ages 40 to 69. The researchers gave hearing tests to the subjects and asked about their history of falls. 14% of the subjects had hearing loss and 5% of those subjects reported falls in the past 12 months. For every 10 decibels of increased hearing loss, the incidence of falls increased by 40%. The researchers guess that the lack of auditory cues affect people’s environmental awareness and may lead to imbalance. Also because the inner ear contains the sense organ for hearing and for balance, a defect in one function may affect the other function. Minimizing falls in older adults is essential for maintaining quality of life.

Diet and Hearing Health

Dr. Kjeldsen — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:30:54 +0000

Authors of a recent article in the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology contend that a diet rich in antioxidants can help preserve hearing. 2000 adults ages 49 to 99 were studied and dietary health is shown to correlate with better hearing. This information has been proven in animal models previously but this is the first study showing that humans’ hearing also benefits from eating more fruits and vegetables. Just one more reason to have your 5+ servings a day!

Cochlear Implants

Dr. Kjeldsen — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:41:55 +0000

Cochlear implants can be no less than miraculous for people with severe to profound hearing loss. I have patients whose hearing has decreased over the years to the point where the most current high end technology in hearing aids isn’t adequate in day to day conversations. They’ve gotten one or both ears implanted and after several months of rehabilitation they are able to converse with much more ease.

The cochlear implant consists of a strip of electrodes implanted into the cochlea and a removable exterior unit that looks like a large behind the ear hearing aid. Some of the exterior units are water resistant and some have rechargeable batteries. You can get more information at FDA.gov in their Medical Devices section.

Implants are are not for everyone with severe to profound hearing loss and they aren’t without risk. However, if you are struggling to hear your loved ones even in a quiet room, it would be worth the time to have an evaluation at one of the local implant centers.

Get healthy in the New Year

Dr. Kjeldsen — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:08:32 +0000

We get so busy in our lives that we can forget to take care of ourselves. If you’ve been worried about hearing loss and putting off getting a test, here are three great reasons to wait no longer:
1. Hearing loss adds to the fatigue, tension and stress that people experience already. My patients tell me that after they start wearing hearing aids, they are much more relaxed.
2. On average people with untreated hearing loss make less money that do people with hearing loss who are wearing hearing aids.
3. Hearing loss separates us from the people we love by making casual conversation that much more difficult. The consequences are social isolation, loneliness and depression.

And the good news…some people I test don’t have hearing loss and are thrilled to get a clean bill of hearing health. One less thing to worry about!

Battery Sale!

Dr. Kjeldsen — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:50:16 +0000

Our annual battery sale is happening this week! The offer is buy one, get one free. This year we’ve increased the maximum you can purchase – up to 20 packages. Drop by our Concord office Monday through Friday during business hours. We’ll be available in the Walnut Creek office on Tuesday from 11:00 – 1:00, Wednesday from 9:00 – 12:00 and Thursday 12:00 – 2:00 for battery sales. Call our office if you have questions. Happy Holidays!

A few quick tips on hearing in a crowd

Dr. Kjeldsen — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:41:14 +0000

Holidays are fun times to be with friends and family, but they are also frustrating times for people with hearing loss. Understanding speech when there is background noise is the most difficult of all tasks that the hearing impaired face. Here are a few tips to help at the beginning of this holiday season:
1. Speak face to face with people and look at the speaker’s face when he/she is talking.
2. If possible, move away from background noise or turn down the background music in order to hear better.
3. Tell people what you need! Most people without hearing loss don’t know what changes to make to allow you to hear better. Slowing down speech, speaking face to face and rephrasing if you don’t understand are all excellent tips.
4. Don’t stress about it. No one hears everything at a noisy party or family gathering. If you have to ask for repeats occasionally, other people probably are, too.
5. If you notice your hearing aids don’t seem to be working as well as they used to over Thanksgiving, make an appointment before the busy Christmas season to have a check up.
Happy Thanksgiving!

We have a new Audiologist

Dr. Kjeldsen — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:34:32 +0000

We welcome Robert Green Au.D. to our practice. Dr. Green was most recently the head audiologist at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley. He is now working part time in our Concord office and part time for the Contra Costa County health system. He is active in Audiology at the state level by volunteering his time to sit on the Speech Language Pathology, Audiology and Hearing Aid Dispensing Board. He has impressed us with his thoroughly professional and very caring nature. Please join us in giving him a very warm welcome.

Hearing Science One More Time

Dr. Kjeldsen — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:03:21 +0000

We have students of Audiology at our conference who volunteer their time to help the days run smoothly. We also get several presentations from students on their research and the subject matter gets more impressive every year.

The talk this year that applied most directly to you, my patients, was about speech understanding in a two talker and four talker scenario. The researcher wanted to see what factors would influence how much speech the hearing impaired listener could understand. She looked at cognitive ability, auditory factors and age. For the two-talker situation, she found that people with adequate high frequency amplification (there’s a plug to wear your hearing aids!) were able to distinguish one voice from another best when the voices were different in pitch. She also found that those with faster processing ability did better which shows that we really hear with our brains and not our ears. However, in the four-talker scenario the only factor that was statistically significant was age – younger people understood speech better that older people.

I hope my hearing science posts have been interesting to you. I’ll be onto a new topic for my next post.