Hearing Loss

Vietnam veteran John Otte did his best to forget the war. He got married, raised two sons and made a career working at credit unions. But as Otte neared retirement, memories of combat flooded back. Starting in 2005, he filed a series of claims with Veterans Affairs for disability compensation, contending that many of his health problems stemmed from the war. The VA agreed, and now the 65-year-old with two Purple Hearts receives $1,900 a month for post-traumatic stress disorder and diabetes - and for having shrapnel scars on his arms.

Hearing loss among older adults appears to be associated with faster cognitive decline than people without hearing loss, researchers found. The study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine on Monday suggests that, on average, individuals with hearing loss would require 7.7 years to decline by the five points on a commonly accepted cognitive impairment scale, compared with 10.9 years for people with normal hearing. The prevalence of dementia worldwide is expected to double in 20 years, so the efforts to understand what leads to cognitive decline are important, said the authors led by Dr. Frank Lin of the Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health.

Perhaps it wasn't those years of listening to rock 'n' roll that damaged my hearing after all; regular use of aspirin, acetaminophen and other analgesics appears to substantially increase the risk of hearing loss, especially in men younger than 50. Researchers reported recently in the American Journal of Medicine that use of acetaminophen more than twice a week by such men doubles the risk of hearing loss, use of ibuprofen and related non-steroidal...

Anyone who's gone to too many rock concerts or worked with loud machinery for too long  (or listened to too many kazillion-decibel advertisements at a movie theater) may eventually pay the price: hearing loss caused by damage to tiny, sound-transmitting cells in the inner ear. Researchers now report they can regenerate some of these crucial  “hair cells” in the inner ears of mice and restore noise-induced damage to some extent. It's something that hearing scientists have been hoping for ages (though we will avoid using the term “holy grail”)

Secondhand smoke is a menace to everyone exposed to it. Besides respiratory infections and lung cancer, it may lead to hearing loss in adolescents. A study published Monday examined data from 1,533 kids ages 12 to 19 who underwent hearing tests as well as blood tests to check their levels of cotinine, an indication of tobacco smoke exposure. The study participants were not smokers. The scientists, from New York University Langone Medical Center, found that kids who were exposed to secondhand smoke had higher rates of both low-frequency and high-frequency hearing loss.

One in five Americans has hearing loss. Yes, you heard that right. A study published Monday in Archives of Internal Medicine found that 20% of Americans over the age of 12 experience hearing loss in at least one ear. That figure surprised study leader Dr. Frank R. Lin, an assistant professor of otolaryngology and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. Lin and his colleagues also found that nearly 13% of Americans suffered hearing loss in both ears.

Newborn hearing screening has been considered a valuable addition to newborn care over the last decade. The earlier children with hearing loss can be identified, experts say, the sooner they can begin therapies to learn sign language or be evaluated for cochlear implants. However, a new study shows that many children pass the screening test only to be diagnosed as hearing-impaired later on. The study, published Monday in the Archives of Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery , found that one-third of children who later received cochlear implants initially passed the newborn screening test.

"Teenagers are going to ruin their hearing with all that loud music. " We've all heard that admonishment, or something close to it. Now we get further proof that it's true, especially among teen girls. Researchers analyzed data on more than 4,000 adolescents, parsing it for trends in hearing loss. They found a particular type of hearing loss brought on by exposure to loud noise. Many numbers ensued. Here's the abstract published online Monday in Pediatrics if you want a taste.

As we have grown older, my husband and I have developed hearing problems: For me, hearing requires more effort, while he cannot hear sometimes in spite of any effort. We both complain that young people today talk too fast or swallow their words or don't look at us when they speak. And we have difficulty in large groups where there are multiple conversations and different voices and background sounds. I manage through paying close attention, even straining, when people speak, or relying on context to help me understand words I do not hear clearly.

If you're older, chances are you're at a higher risk for hearing loss -- in a recent study about 63% of adults over 70 had it. But the same study found that being black may have a protective effect. While about 64% of whites in the study showed some hearing loss, only 43% of blacks did. The study, published online recently in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences , analyzed data from a two-year cycle of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an ongoing national health research program.

Thanks for assisting your readers now negotiating the array of issues surrounding Lipitor (atorvastatin) and the expiration of its patent ["The New Deal With Lipitor," Jan. 16]. When a drug has generated $81 billion, the manufacturer will do all it can to preserve a portion of that income stream. They cite the drug's fine track record and play on the status of the brand. Patients should consider that neither track records nor status can lower cholesterol. It will take at least six months for this drug to be fully available with generic pricing.

One in five Americans has hearing loss. Yes, you heard that right. A study published Monday in Archives of Internal Medicine found that 20% of Americans over the age of 12 experience hearing loss in at least one ear. That figure surprised study leader Dr. Frank R. Lin, an assistant professor of otolaryngology and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. Lin and his colleagues also found that nearly 13% of Americans suffered hearing loss in both ears.

Secondhand smoke is a menace to everyone exposed to it. Besides respiratory infections and lung cancer, it may lead to hearing loss in adolescents. A study published Monday examined data from 1,533 kids ages 12 to 19 who underwent hearing tests as well as blood tests to check their levels of cotinine, an indication of tobacco smoke exposure. The study participants were not smokers. The scientists, from New York University Langone Medical Center, found that kids who were exposed to secondhand smoke had higher rates of both low-frequency and high-frequency hearing loss.

Newborn hearing screening has been considered a valuable addition to newborn care over the last decade. The earlier children with hearing loss can be identified, experts say, the sooner they can begin therapies to learn sign language or be evaluated for cochlear implants. However, a new study shows that many children pass the screening test only to be diagnosed as hearing-impaired later on. The study, published Monday in the Archives of Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery , found that one-third of children who later received cochlear implants initially passed the newborn screening test.

Everyone likes having techie gadgets -- and college student Adam Amick is no exception. He carries an iPad instead of heavy textbooks and uses a Bluetooth-enabled microphone to offset his hearing loss.  A Newport News Daily Press story explains how these gadgets help the 19-year-old sophomore, who has cerebral palsy. "It levels the playing field," he told the paper. "It allows people with disabilities to adapt to their environment and be treated like everybody else. " While they may be known as iPads to most of us, professionals who help disabled students deem these tools "assistive technology.

If you're older, chances are you're at a higher risk for hearing loss -- in a recent study about 63% of adults over 70 had it. But the same study found that being black may have a protective effect. While about 64% of whites in the study showed some hearing loss, only 43% of blacks did. The study, published online recently in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences , analyzed data from a two-year cycle of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an ongoing national health research program.

The Labor Department has ordered employers to begin reporting less severe occurrences of workplace hearing loss. The rule change will expand by 100,000 the number of employees counted as injured by the government. Employers must report 10-decibel changes in hearing loss if an employee's overall hearing loss constitutes 25 decibels or more.

I'm pretty much deaf now. The male ear can withstand only so many gripes, accusations, hissy fits and requests for cash before the eardrum itself -- like a tiny silk pizza -- just implodes on itself. My left eardrum went the other day. First, there was a giant sucking sound -- well, actually, that was me eating lunch. Then immediately after that, the eardrum disappeared in a gust of pleas for homework help. "Hey, Dad." "Hey what?" "What's another word for thesaurus?"

"Teenagers are going to ruin their hearing with all that loud music. " We've all heard that admonishment, or something close to it. Now we get further proof that it's true, especially among teen girls. Researchers analyzed data on more than 4,000 adolescents, parsing it for trends in hearing loss. They found a particular type of hearing loss brought on by exposure to loud noise. Many numbers ensued. Here's the abstract published online Monday in Pediatrics if you want a taste.

Can you hear me now? Not so much, according to yet another study documenting the loss of hearing among teenagers. Researchers in New York examined the ears of 8,710 teenage girls who lived in a foster care facility between 1985 and 2008. These young women were from homes and neighborhoods “stressed by poverty, substance abuse, and violence,” according to a study published online Tuesday in the Journal of Adolescent Health . At the beginning of the study, 10.1% of the girls were diagnosed with high-frequency hearing loss . Twenty-four years later, that figure had nearly doubled to 19.2%, the researchers found.