Hearing Loss Help  

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man wrote:

I read your article ‘Hair cell regeneration—looking beyond the hype’ which was very encouraging. Currently, my hearing has been severe to profound since age 13. I’m 48 now, but I’ve worn a hearing aid since I was three.

I am now in the process of undergoing a cochlear implant. In the meantime, I’m still researching other options to improve my hearing. I’ve heard or read a lot of negative things regarding cochlear implants such as equipment failure, increased tinnitus, loss of residual hearing, expensive, etc.

My doctor is confident I will benefit from the cochlear implant and that it should improve my hearing much better than currently. This is very encouraging. However, something is drawing me to hold off. I’m wondering if there is something better out there. It seems that stem cell therapy sounds more promising. I fear that I will regret having the cochlear implant when I should have been more patient and waited for the stem cell therapy.

I’ve read that other countries are performing clinical trials but none here in the USA—but I’m not sure if these reports are just hype or are real.

Would you care to give me your opinion on stem cell therapy. Perhaps I’m wasting my time thinking about the stem cell therapy?

I have written a couple of articles regarding hair cell regeneration. You mentioned my article “Hair Cell Regeneration”“Looking Beyond the Hype“ (November, 2004). In addition I have written, “Hair Cell Regeneration”“Overcoming the Challenges“ (November, 2004). As you have read, yes, research on hair cell regeneration by using stem cells is progressing, but no, it is not there yet.

There have been a few recent reports floating around the Internet of a college girl, Chloe Sohl, that had stem cell therapy with supposedly spectacular results. Here is one such report, “Stem cell therapy raises hope for autoimmune hearing loss“.

Another of these “reports” paints stem cell therapy as wonderful, and that it is the stodgy FDA that prevents it from happening in the USA right now. This report is entitled “Stem cells for deafness begins human trials? Great news!“.

These articles make it seem like stem cell therapy is already here and is working great. This is just not true. Yes, they are experimenting on people in countries where they don’t have strict medical standards, but the results are not all what they are glowingly painted to be. There are still serious side effects that need to be overcome. Before you get sucked in by all the hype, read the article “Dose of Reality: Beware of Clinics Touting Stem Cell Panaceas“.

So far, I’ve only heard of this one “success” story using stem cells to improve hearing—and the funny thing is that there is no corroborating evidence from any other stem cell researchers supporting this. Thus, I have to think there are numerous issues that are not being told. If it was a true medical breakthrough, I’d have expected lots of attention about this case by the media and other stem cell researchers—but that is singularly lacking. Thus you need to be very cautious at this point.

Personally, I think you’d be wise to not even consider stem cell therapy until it is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) here in the USA. When that happens, you can be more confident that it will be a good option for you.

As I have pointed out, using stem cell therapy safely to restore hearing is still likely 20 years (more or less) away. It is not imminent at this point.

For a more realistic view of where stem cell research is at, read my recent article, “Hair Cell Research—Some Unexpected Results” (December, 2009).

Furthermore, from everything I’ve read so far, stem cell therapy isn’t the cure for hearing loss that it is made out to be. Yes, hearing gets somewhat better—but nowhere near back to normal. So far they are talking about a 10 to 20 dB improvement (which is definitely a step in the right direction), but you’d still be very hard of hearing. Hopefully, they will find ways to improve on that in the future.

Thus, at present, for example, if you have a profound hearing loss at say 100 dB—you could expect your hearing to improve to maybe 80 dB with stem cell therapy, which would bump you up to the severe hearing loss class. That’s better, but not good.

In contrast, with today’s cochlear implant (CI) technology, you could expect your hearing to improve all the way up to 20 to 30 dB. That’s in the normal range, and that’s really good!

Thus the CI is still the only real option you have today. True, you will find a few people have problems with their CIs, but the vast majority say that in spite of any problems, if they had it to do over again, they would do it again in a heartbeat. That’s how satisfied they are with their cochlear implants. Something like 98% or more report “success” with their CIs—which is a pretty good success rate.

Based on my knowledge of the results of hundreds and hundreds of people I know that have received CIs, I agree with your doctor. You do have a good chance of getting more/better hearing than you have now. It is probably well worth the risk.

Although stem cell therapy sounds promising, this technology is not ready for the big time. There are still far too many unknowns, whereas the CI technology is proven to work.

Since you are worried that stem cell therapy may help you in the future, here’s one solution for you to consider. Why not have a CI in your worse ear now, and wear your hearing aid in your better ear. Then, if and when stem cell therapy has been proven, and approved by the FDA, you could have it done in your better ear and still wear the CI in your worse ear.

That way you could get the best of both worlds—be able to hear better now, and possibly hear much better later.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady explained:

I have severe hearing loss and am looking for an assistive device that might help me in meetings and conferences, especially when I am the presenter. I’ve really cut back on doing these things because I can’t hear the speaker, or when I’m presenting—those in the audience who want to ask me a question.

I’ve seen your directional microphone and wonder about its effectiveness in these situations. Also, how does it transmit sound? I have hearing aids which have t-coils. Is the mic wireless? Do I need to use a neck loop and my PockeTalker? Thanks for any information you can give me.

I understand your situation well. I’m in the same boat—I have a severe hearing loss, can’t hear in meetings, nor hear the questions from the audience when I am the speaker.

The good news is that there are many things you can do to help yourself hear better in these situations.

1. You Are in the Audience

When you are in the audience and there is one main speaker, I’d use an FM system. Give the FM microphone/transmitter to the speaker. I usually ask him ahead of time and actually clip the lapel mic where I want it on him and tell him to put the transmitter on his belt or in a pocket. Then you will hear the speaker wonderfully well.

Alternately, you could tape the FM transmitter’s lapel mic to the lectern microphone (not to the lectern itself) and let the transmitter hang down in front of the lectern. Don’t put microphones and transmitters on the lectern itself. If you do this, you are being inconsiderate of the speaker’s needs. The speaker needs space for his papers and props, and lectern space is typically at a premium.

If you are sitting in the front row or two, and the speaker isn’t on a big platform (and thus quite a ways from you), use your PockeTalker and the super directional microphone. You have to be careful to aim this microphone at the speaker’s face. Because it is so directional, if you get sloppy in your aim, the sound quality and volume will rapidly drop off.

To use the directional microphone with your PockeTalker, you just plug it into the PockeTalker’s microphone jack, plug your neckloop in the earphone jack and turn on your t-coils if you are wearing your hearing aids. If you are not wearing hearing aids, or don’t have t-coils in your hearing aids, plug in a set of earbuds instead of the neckloop.

2. You Are the Speaker

When you are the speaker and you want to hear questions/comments from your audience, if the person is not too far from you, you can use your PockeTalker with the directional microphone plugged in and aim it at whomever is asking a question. I’ve found I really have to crank up the volume on the PockeTalker if the person is at any distance from me. The directional microphone works well for people within 20 feet or so of you.

Note: The PockeTalker’s microphone sensitivity is related to the volume setting. Thus, if you have the volume turned down, the microphone sensitivity is also down. As a result the microphone won’t pick up from as far away as it will when the volume is turned up.

In addition to amplification, there are many other techniques you can (and should) use when you are the speaker and can’t hear a person asking you a question. Here are some of the strategies I employ, depending on the situation.

• If there is real-time captioning, I just turn around and read the question off the screen. (If I am really lucky, the organizers will have placed a monitor on the lectern so I can read the questions directly from it.)

• I might walk down the aisle to get closer to the person. (This works well in smaller audiences and when you are not standing on a platform.)

• I might ask people to write their questions down and pass them up so I can read them. (This way I don’t have to strain to hear—I just have to strain to read people’s writing!)

• I might ask someone in the front row, whom I already know I can hear, to repeat any questions I can’t hear for me, or maybe just the key words I am missing.

• I might ask the person to come up to the lectern and talk face to face with me where I can hear and/or speechread him better.

• I might have a hearing person stand beside me during question period to repeat the questions so I can hear them.

• And of course, I am always speechreading people so often I can “get” the question even when I don’t hear much of it.

Notice I didn’t mention having a roving microphone and someone handing it to the person asking the question. The reason I don’t do this is because I find that I still can’t hear. (I seldom can even tell if the PA system is on or not, let alone hear and understand what a person is saying.) The rest of the audience may hear the question better with a roving microphone, but typically not me—unless there is a room loop system installed and the roving microphone is connected to it in some way. Then I can flip my t-coils on and hear quite well.

Another thing I could do, but haven’t done so to this point, is to use my FM microphone/transmitter as the roving microphone for people to speak into. That way, using the FM receiver and neckloop, I’d have their voices piped directly into my hearing aids. I should try this sometime when the conditions warrant it.

As you can see, there are ever so many things you can do in order to help yourself hear/understand the questions. If one thing doesn’t work for you, there are lots more things to try. You just need to be comfortable with your hearing loss so you are not embarrassed by it and thus are willing to do what you need to do in order to hear.

Here are links to the devices mentioned above. You can see the PockeTalker here, and the super directional microphone I use further down the same page and my favorite neckloop two pictures above the microphone.

The FM system I use is the older version of the Motiva FM System. Note: If you get this particular Motiva FM System, the receiver then doubles as a PockeTalker so you don’t need to purchase a separate PockeTalker.

P.S. This FM System and PockeTalker seem to last forever. Mine are about 10 years old and still going strong.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man wrote:

I have tinnitus. Tonight I was surfing the web and found a site that played pure tones at various frequencies when you clicked on the corresponding buttons. To my surprise, most of my high-pitched tinnitus went away for a while after listening to the higher-frequency sounds! Does this make sense to you? Might this sort of thing be a treatment for people?

Cool, huh? What you have discovered for yourself is a phenomenon called “residual inhibition”. Residual inhibition occurs when you mask your tinnitus with a frequency of sound that closely matches the pitch of your tinnitus and then turn the sound off. At that point, for numbers of people such as yourself, your tinnitus either disappears, or is greatly reduced in volume. This effect typically only lasts a few seconds, but in some people it can last for several minutes, hours, days or rarely, even permanently eliminate their tinnitus. (Such blessed relief!)

The closer you match the pitch of the sound to your tinnitus, typically the more your tinnitus is reduced, and the longer the residual inhibition lasts. Obviously, this works best for people whose tinnitus consists of a single, constant frequency of sound.

Thus, if your tinnitus is a constant tone, and you listen to a pure tone sound of the same frequency for 30 seconds or a minute, often you will find that your tinnitus disappears (or is greatly reduced) for several seconds (typically 30 to 60) immediately after you turn the tone off.

There have been several commercial attempts to use residual inhibition to help people that suffer from their tinnitus. One product that showed early initial promise was the Quiescence tinnitus management software, but unfortunately, it seems to have fallen by the wayside. Even so, researchers are still studying residual inhibition, trying to understand more of how it works. Perhaps, in the future, they will discover a way to make the effect last long enough that it becomes a useful treatment for tinnitus.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man asked:

I take Glyburide and Glucophage for Diabetes Type II. Is there any evidence that prolonged use of Glyburide or Glucophage XL is ototoxic?

I have no information indicating that Glucophage is ototoxic, so you shouldn’t have to worry about that drug.

Glyburide can be mildly ototoxic. It has been reported to cause tinnitus and dizziness in some people. However, if it is not making you dizzy, or making your tinnitus worse, then you likely don’t have to worry about this drug either.

At the same time, don’t let your guard down. Glyburide belongs to the class of drugs called Sulfonylureas, and other drugs in this class have reported ototoxic side effects such as hearing loss, tinnitus, ataxia, dizziness and vertigo. Since drugs in the same class tend to have the same side effects, it is still in the realm of possibility that Glyburide might also cause these side effects in some people.

If you notice any of these ototoxic side effects developing, talk to your doctor. You may want to consider switching medications if this happens.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man explained:

I am interested in finding information about face-to-face support groups for those of us who are hard of hearing. Do you have any insight on finding such a group? I have searched briefly on the web and called the local self-help center but have not found anything.

If there is not a group locally, I am thinking about starting one. I am thinking the purposes would include providing emotional support and providing education and resources for dealing with hearing loss. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Many hard of hearing people feel isolated and don’t know other people in the same boat as themselves. That is when they need a support group to help them. You are right on when you say they need emotional support, education and awareness of resources to help them.

It really makes things ever so much easier when dealing with your hearing loss if you can find help and support from other hard of hearing people who have been down the road before you.

Support can be of two kinds, either on-line (cyber) support or local (face to face) support.

On-line groups are available to you 24 hours a day via email, boards and chat rooms. Face-to-face support groups typically meet once a month for a couple of hours. Both kinds of support are important. Therefore, I encourage you to link up with both kinds of groups.

The best cyber support group of which I know is the SayWhatClub. I’ve been a long time member of the SayWhatClub. They excel in giving emotional support to help you deal with your hearing loss.

In addition to the “cyber people” that help you on-line, you also need to meet with local “skin people”, that is, people you can meet with face to face and touch. By far the largest face-to-face group in the USA is a local chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) (formerly Self Help for Hard of Hearing People or SHHH). To find the closest chapter to you, click on your state. There you will find a listing of the chapters in your state, complete with contact information. You will be welcome at any of their meetings.

If there is no chapter near you, why not start one? That is what I did a number of years ago. HLAA will be delighted to help you get started. Contact Toni Barrient, the Director of Member Services and Chapter Development, and she will point you in the right direction.

In addition to local chapter meetings, HLAA also has an excellent annual convention with many workshops on various topics of interest to hard of hearing people. There you will meet hundreds and hundreds of other hard of hearing people just like yourself.

If you live in Canada, the organization you want to contact is the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association (CHHA). They have local chapters (called “branches”) scattered across Canada, and an annual convention (much like HLAA has).

To find the closest branch to you, select the province or territory in which you live, and you’ll see a list of the branches there.

If there is no branch near you, consider starting one. The people at the provincial chapter will be delighted to help you. Their contact information is listed first in the appropriate provincial listing.

I’m a member of both HLAA and CHHA and have spoken at numerous chapters/branches/conventions of both these organizations. You will feel right at home in them. I know I do.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A question I get asked is:

Where can I get financial help for purchasing hearing aids? They are so expensive, and I can’t afford them, but need them. Can you help me?

There are a number of sources of help, but ferreting them out is quite a chore. The good news is that the Better Hearing Institute has just done all that work for you.

You can find 69 sources of financial help for purchasing new hearing aids in their new publication “Your Guide to Financial Assistance for Hearing Aids”. This is the first comprehensive guide of this kind of information. It contains information on charitable foundations, private organizations, insurance plans, corporate benefits and government programs that can help you get the hearing aids you need.

Be aware that your eligibility for financial assistance may depend on where you live (various organizations/states/counties may require you to live in their “area” to be eligible. In addition, you will be subject to a means test in order to prove that you really can’t afford new hearing aids. Often, you will find there is a sliding scale of funding depending on your means. In some cases, if your income is below a certain threshold you may be eligible for 100% (or close to 100%) funding.

You can download a free copy of this valuable 48-page guide from the Better Hearing Institute website.

Note: While you are on this web page, you may want to download some/all of their other great guides in this series. These include:

• Your Guide to Better Hearing
• Your Guide to Your Child’s Hearing
• Your Guide to Hearing Aids

In addition, the Northern Virginia Resource Center has published a 6-page fact sheet entitled, “Financial Assistance for Hearing Aids” which you can download.

(Currently it’s the fifth link listed on the page.) This Fact Sheet naturally emphasizes local (northern Virginia) sources of help as well as some national sources. And while you are on the NVRC website, there are 15 other good facts sheets you may want to look at or download.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. with Linda Grasmick

Getting a job is typically more difficult when you have a hearing loss. Linda, herself hard of hearing, has some important words of wisdom for people with hearing loss when applying for a new job. She explains:

You don’t want to approach your prospective employer with an attitude of “this is what I need because I have a hearing loss. Are you willing to give me these things/accommodations if I take this job?”

[Yes the American's With Disabilities (ADA) law requires employers of a given size to accommodate your needs, but shoving that down their throats at the beginning of an interview is NOT the way to make a good impression that results in them offering you a job!]

Rather, approach your prospective employer from the opposite perspective with an attitude of, “This is why I will be a great employee for you. These are the special skills and knowledge that I will bring to your company. This is what I can do for your business.” Then, somewhere near the end of the interview you say something like, “This is why granting my hearing loss accommodation requests will be so worthwhile for you.”

Always consider the situation from the employer’s point of view. Answer the question, “Why should they grant you your requests?” Answer it for them. If you don’t answer it, they might not see it for themselves. Practice explaining those reasons prior to the interview.

With so many qualified people out of work right now and competing for every available job, anybody wanting a job needs to be flexible, and be able to meet the employer’s needs. Anyone who wants special treatment needs to be able to show why they are worth that special treatment. Your best chance lies in identifying your strengths as a employee and “selling” the idea that your experience, knowledge and character are valuable assets that they don’t want to lose.

It’s hard to know what to say at job interviews. Put the odds in your favor right at the beginning. Put a smile on your face, hold out your hand, and say something like, “Hi. I’m Jim. I’m very excited about this job possibility. It’s the type of work I want to do, and I think I have the skills to do it very well. I’d like the chance to show you what a good employee I can be for you.”

If you’re not doing that sort of thing when you interview for a job, then you are unlikely to be taken seriously. When you apply for a job, you are asking the employer to give you some of their money. You need to “sell” yourself by giving them reasons to spend their hard-earned money on you.

You do not need to beat around the bush and/or play games. Just tell them in a straightforward way what your skills are, and why you would be a better employee for them to hire than most other people. Be prepared to answer questions about your skills and about your performance on previous jobs.

It’s also great if you can show them some evidence of your skills—such as past performance reviews that have been positive, letters of recommendation, certificates of accomplishments, etc. You can’t expect a stranger to automatically know why they should hire you. You have to both tell them and show them.

Save all this “evidence” of your accomplishments in a special folder. Include things like performance reviews, letters to your personnel file that are positive, certificates of educational programs attended, examples of your best work, etc. Save those things throughout your career, then you will have them handy when you want to show evidence of your good work. Sometimes, you can organize those materials neatly in a folder. That’s called a “portfolio”.

I always keep my resume current and have a box where I keep all of my career-related materials and examples of my important projects. I keep that collection of materials up-to-date even though I have had the same employer for 12 years. I never know when I might need it.

Prepare for the interview by identifying your strengths. Next, practice how you would talk about those strengths with others. Identify what evidence you would talk about or show that would illustrate those strengths to a potential employer. If you discover that you don’t have evidence, or that your skills need a little work, then work on developing those skills and evidence to show.

Avoid emphasizing your weaknesses in an interview. You want to focus on all your positive qualities and skills—not on your problems and weak areas. At the same time, you need to be prepared to talk about your weaknesses if the interviewer asks. A common question would be something like, “What would you say is your greatest weakness on the job?” The trick is to discuss your weaknesses (learning needs) in ways that still make you look attractive to an employer.

When discussing your weaknesses, be honest, but present your weak areas as challenges that do not hurt your ability to do the job well. Yes, like everyone else you have learning needs (weak areas) and challenges in your life. Just remember, the employer is looking to hire people who can be successful. You want the employer to respect you and consider you an attractive employee who will contribute to the company’s financial health. Therefore, present any weaknesses as areas that you are in the process of mastering so they should pose no problems for your performance on the job.

When you follow the principles that Linda has laid out here, you are well on your way to a successful interview, and hopefully you will walk out with a job offer that will make all the time and effort you put into the interview worthwhile.

Thanks for you insight Linda. You’ve helped a lot of hard of hearing job seekers today.