|
|
 Acne (1,500)
Addictions (1,500)
Advice (1,500)
Allergies (1,092)
Alternative Medicine (1,500)
Anti Aging (1,500)
Breakup (1,500)
Cancer (1,499)
Dental Care (1,500)
Disabilities (1,500)
Divorce (1,500)
Elderly Care (1,498)
Goal Setting (1,500)
Hair Loss (1,500)
Health and Safety (1,497)
Hearing (1,500)
Law of Attraction (1,499)
Marriage (1,500)
Medicine (1,497)
Meditation (1,499)
Men's Health (1,500)
Mental Health (1,500)
Motivational (1,500)
Nutrition (1,495)
Personal Injury (1,499)
Plastic Surgeries (1,500)
Pregnancy (1,496)
Psychology (1,500)
Public Speaking (1,500)
Quit Smoking (1,500)
Religion (1,499)
Self Help (1,500)
Skin Care (1,500)
Sleep (1,500)
Stress Management (1,500)
Teenagers (1,492)
Time Management (1,500)
Weddings (1,500)
Wellness (1,500)
Women's Health (1,500)
Women's Issues (1,500)
|
As Babyboomers become Senior Citizens, the US is definitely getting older. And as age-related hearing loss takes its toll, the nation is getting deafer as well.
According to the US Census Bureau, the younger half of the 75.8 million Americans who were born during the period between 1946 and 1964 are turning 50 at the rate one every 8 seconds, and thousands of those born in the early and middle years of the baby boom are turning 60 each day. Baby boomers make up 28% of the US population today, and by 2014 a whopping 45% of the US population will be over age 50.
Since some degree of hearing loss is among the most common of all age-related health problems (approximately a third of all people over 50 have some degree of hearing impairment), the nation is getting deafer by the day. According to the National Institutes of Health, hearing loss is now the third most common health problem in the US, behind only arthritis and heart disease.
What causes age-related hearing loss?
Gradual age-related loss of hearing capability, technically known as presbycusis, is generally difficult to attribute to any single cause. Physicians believe that heredity may play a significant role, but environmental factors such as frequent exposure to loud noises and even the build-up of wax in the ear canals can be causal as well.
Experts say that in most cases, age-related hearing loss is the result of many factors that work together to create degerative changes in the inner ear. There is no cure for age-related hearing loss, and it's a permanent condition that may continue to get worse as we get older. Approximately half of all people over 75 have some degree of hearing loss.
Symptoms of age-related hearing loss
Age-related hearing loss is almost never a sudden-onset type of problem; in fact, it's a process so gradual that many people are unaware of it. This can have far-reaching negative effects on social engagement, relationships, and job performance, and can be downright dangerous as well, particularly when driving or operating machinery is involved.
The most common symptoms of age-related hearing loss include
- Difficulty in hearing other voices; since high frequency hearing is generally effected first, women's voices may be more difficult to hear than men's
- The need to turn up the volume on the TV, radio, etc.
- Experiencing sounds as muffled, distant, or indistinct
- Difficulty understanding spoken words; needing to ask others to speak louder and more slowly
Diagnosis and treatment
A simple hearing test or audiogram can diagnose hearing loss and may help determine what, if any, treatment is most appropriate. Since there is currently no way to reverse or ameliorate age-related hearing loss, treatment focuses almost entirely on improving function. Hearing aids are the mainstay of treatment, but many also find that addressing specific situation in which hearing is a problem is a workable solution.
Devices such as phone line amplifiers, amplified telephones, and extra-loud ringers can dramatically improve phone communications for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. Special alarm clocks, doorbells, and alerting devices such as smoke alarms are available, as are a wide array of assisted listening devices.
|
|
|
