Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff Lauren Boglebaum. Here. There was a time
Speaker 1: when hearing aids may have seemed too many people like clunky,
Speaker 1: uncomfortable gadgets that were awkward to wear. But today these
Speaker 1: devices are often so small and thin that they're mostly
Speaker 1: hidden behind the ear lobes, and you can adjust these
Speaker 1: hearing aids with a few taps on a smartphone app
Speaker 1: to make it easier to hear in whatever environment you
Speaker 1: find yourself in. They're so sleek that marketers of the
Speaker 1: latest products described them with the kind of language you'd
Speaker 1: expect from car commercials, and they come with all kinds
Speaker 1: of modern features. For example, one product called the Horizon
Speaker 1: uses an algorithm to improve speech clarity and can interact
Speaker 1: with smartphones and other devices to handle phone calls, stream
Speaker 1: podcasts and audio books, and even audio from television. And
Speaker 1: another product, the Olivio AI hearing aid, uses artificial intelligence
Speaker 1: and integrated sensors to not only make it easier to
Speaker 1: hear what people are saying, but also can work with
Speaker 1: a smartphone to track physical and brain activity, and has
Speaker 1: a feature that can translate foreign languages for wearers. Hearing
Speaker 1: aids are making technological leaps at a time when hearing
Speaker 1: loss seems to be on the rise, both in the
Speaker 1: US and elsewhere in the world. Some hearing loss is
Speaker 1: the result of aging, heredity, or illnesses such as meningitis
Speaker 1: that can damage the ears, but exposure to loud sounds,
Speaker 1: which was once mostly a problem for industrial workers, is
Speaker 1: a growing problem in our increasingly noisy world. Study by
Speaker 1: University of Michigan researchers found that about nine out of
Speaker 1: ten New York City residents were chronically exposed two levels
Speaker 1: of noise that were high enough to harm their hearing.
Speaker 1: Some of the risk comes from traffic and other environmental sounds,
Speaker 1: but we inflict a lot of punishment on our ears
Speaker 1: simply by attending sports events and concerts. If you go
Speaker 1: to these events where earplugs, listening to music through earbuds
Speaker 1: and cranking up the volume to drown out the ambient
Speaker 1: noise that the buds let in also does damage. As
Speaker 1: a result, more and more of us are having problems
Speaker 1: with our hearing at younger ages. One survey of two thousand,
Speaker 1: four hundred and thirty nine US adults by the American
Speaker 1: Speech Language Hearing Association found that fewer than half of
Speaker 1: forty nine percent described their hearing is excellent, while thirty
Speaker 1: eight percent so that they're hearing wasn't as good as
Speaker 1: it could be, and thirteen percent so that they were
Speaker 1: having difficulty hearing. But despite this, only about twenty percent
Speaker 1: of the people in the poll had had their hearing
Speaker 1: tested in the past five years, compared to sixty one
Speaker 1: percent who had had vision tests, who had had their
Speaker 1: blood pressure checked, and forty one percent who had had
Speaker 1: their cholesterol levels tested or undergone mammograms. Hearing tests were
Speaker 1: even less popular than procedures such as prostrate exams and
Speaker 1: kolonoscopy's twenty three percent, and only six percent of people
Speaker 1: in the survey said that they had gotten treatment for
Speaker 1: hearing loss. For the article that this episode is based on,
Speaker 1: How Stuff Work, spoke by email with Atlanta resident Kristin Palladino,
Speaker 1: the editorial director and co founder of Equally Wed, an
Speaker 1: lgbt Q plus wedding publication, who happens to have been
Speaker 1: born with severe hearing loss in both of her ears.
Speaker 1: She doesn't even remember when she was first fitted for
Speaker 1: hearing aids. She said, I know that I put them
Speaker 1: in my desk drawer in third grade and refused to
Speaker 1: wear them. I was so embarrassed of them. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to blend in, and I felt like I stood out. Palladino,
Speaker 1: who is now forty three, says it wasn't until she
Speaker 1: was failing her college courses because she was missing key
Speaker 1: information that she finally went to an audiologist and got
Speaker 1: hearing aids again. How Stuff Works also spoke with Dr
Speaker 1: Hope Lantern, the lead audiologist for here dot com, which
Speaker 1: is an online source for hearing aids from various manufacturers
Speaker 1: and also offers access to a nationwide net work of
Speaker 1: audiologists who can provide in person testing and guidance. She
Speaker 1: explains that waiting to get help can be a problem
Speaker 1: because the longer someone allows hearing loss to continue, the
Speaker 1: worst the problem will become, and the more difficult it
Speaker 1: will be to remedy. Though the ears pick up sound,
Speaker 1: it's really the brain that analyzes and makes sense of
Speaker 1: all that noise, and over time, auditory deprivation will lead
Speaker 1: to reduced activity in the parts of the brain that
Speaker 1: process sound. However, the brain is always changing, and you
Speaker 1: can get at least some of that activity back. Once
Speaker 1: a person with hearing loss starts using hearing aids, there's
Speaker 1: a period of adjustment. Initially, the rush of unfamiliar sound
Speaker 1: may be disconcerting or overwhelming. Gradually, though, as a hearing
Speaker 1: aid user adjusts and gets to the right settings with
Speaker 1: the help of an audiologist, the regular exposure to sound
Speaker 1: can help the brain essentially rewire itself. Lanter says that
Speaker 1: brain imaging study show audio crossing areas gaining and areas
Speaker 1: to provide visual processing, reducing the load that they've been carrying.
Speaker 1: Palladino said, with my hearing aids, I can hear my children,
Speaker 1: my wife, the rain, strangers in stores trying to get
Speaker 1: my attention, an ambulance blasting its siren behind me in
Speaker 1: the road. I'm able to function in society without them.
Speaker 1: I'm isolated and vulnerable, and technologically advanced hearing aids can
Speaker 1: actually help make that transition easier. The aforementioned horizon has
Speaker 1: a feature called relaxed mode, which allows a wearer to
Speaker 1: block out the noise of the world for a while
Speaker 1: and distress with calming sounds. That ability to take breaks
Speaker 1: and still keep the device in the ear has another
Speaker 1: plus by making it less likely that the wearer will
Speaker 1: remove the hearing aids temporarily and then forget to put
Speaker 1: them back in. Of course, hearing aids aren't the be all,
Speaker 1: end all to improving the lives of deaf and heart
Speaker 1: of hearing individuals. If you or someone you know is
Speaker 1: experiencing hearing loss and you're not sure what to do,
Speaker 1: or if you just want to learn more, check out
Speaker 1: the work of organizations like the National Association of the Death.
Speaker 1: There is so much work and advocacy being done, from
Speaker 1: personal education to better healthcare, to more accessible technologies to
Speaker 1: governmental policy. Today's episode is based on the article modern
Speaker 1: hearing aids do way more than help you here on
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com, written by Patrick Jake Hyder.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership
Speaker 1: with how stuff works dot Com and is produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Playing. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.