Hearing Loss Help  

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A concerned mother asked:

Our audiologist has said our 6- year-old daughter might benefit from using an FM receiver in the classroom since she is almost deaf in one ear. My husband and I are unsure if this is a wise course. If we introduce hearing devices early in her physical development (she is only in Grade 1), are we preventing her brain from learning to compensate for hearing loss in one ear? Will we make her dependent on a device unnecessarily, or are we sparing her from years of frustration and lost learning opportunities? Thank you so very much for your advice.

If your daughter had a bad eye, would you prevent her from wearing glasses so she could learn to live with the good eye compensating for the bad one, or would you have her wear glasses to help her see the best she can, even though she would be dependent on glasses for the rest of her life?

I think you know the answer. The same applies to ears. Let her use any and all devices that help her hear better, and thereby avoid making things unnecessarily hard for her. It is hard enough coping as it is when you only hear in one ear.

In fact, several studies have shown that children with single-sided deafness do poorer academically in the classroom than their hearing peers. Thus you want to get her all the help you can so she can perform at her real “mental” level, rather than at her lower “hearing” level.

She will have plenty of opportunities to learn how to cope with single-sided deafness in her everyday life. For example, if she sleeps with her bad ear up, she won’t hear the alarm clock, or you calling her to wake up. If she learns to sleep on her other side with her bad ear in the pillow, then she will be able to hear anytime in the night with her good ear.

When riding in the car, she should sit with her good ear towards the center of the car—not to the window. This way she will be much better able to hear what people are saying in the car. Similarly, when walking with friends, she should walk to the left of her friends (assuming her left ear is her deaf ear) so her good (right) ear is towards them. Little things like this can make all the difference in her ability to hear and understand in everyday situations.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A concerned daughter wrote:

My mother is hearing a repetitive song and I would like to know what I can do for her. She is 99 years old, very hard of hearing, and because she does not hear people, has withdrawn and spends a lot of time alone. Even though I have told her that it is all in her head, she still keeps referring to the lady next door playing her music.

Being elderly, having a hearing loss, withdrawing, and being alone in a quiet environment are all factors that predispose people to hearing phantom music. The name for this condition is Musical Ear Syndrome (MES).

You can’t do anything about your mother’s age, but you can help her with the other factors. For example, she needs to enrich her environment with real sounds. She can do this by getting and wearing hearing aids, or by using various assistive listening devices that let her hear people talking to her. The more she stimulates her brain with real sound, the less time her brain will have to play the phantom sounds.

Getting her involved with people again—probably only one at a time since it is difficult to understand people in groups when you have a severe hearing loss—will give her something to focus on besides her phantom music.

When a person withdraws, they generally feel depressed and that often means they also focus on things going wrong with their bodies such as the phantom music your mom is hearing. The best way to treat this depression is to become involved in life again.

Incidentally, I have found that it is very hard to get people over the age of 85 or so to understand that the music they are hearing is phantom. They can’t seem to get it through their heads that this music is not real, so that approach may be a losing battle. Also, they may refuse to accept that what they are hearing is phantom because to them, hearing phantom sounds equates with being crazy, and no one wants to admit to that. Thus they continue to blame the music on others (neighbors).

Furthermore, since the phantom music seems to have directionality—coming from the lady next door—it is even more difficult to convince an elderly person that this music is not real, but phantom.

The trick is to get your mother’s mind focused on other things (and thus off her phantom music) by having her become involved in various activities again. When people do this, their phantom music often fades into the background to some degree.

Unfortunately, her phantom music may come back at night when her mind isn’t focused on anything. If her hearing loss isn’t too great, she could listen to real music on a bedside radio to mask the phantom music while she falls asleep, but if her loss is too severe (like mine is), this won’t work as the volume required would wake the whole neighborhood—and they’ll be upset at hearing real music in the wee hours!

If you want to learn more about Musical Ear Syndrome and some of the things you can do to help bring it under control, see the book, “Phantom Voices, Ethereal Music & Other Spooky Sounds“.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Here’s an alarming statistic. “The number of people hospitalized for conditions related to GastroEsophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) doubled between 1998 and 2005.” At the present time, “more than 20 million Americans have GERD”. (1) This has important repercussions for our ears. Let me explain.

“When you eat or drink, food and liquid move from your mouth to the esophagus, where a valve, called the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), relaxes to allow the food and liquid to pass into your stomach. The lower esophageal sphincter then squeezes shut to keep stomach contents from backing up (a process known as reflux) into the esophagus.” (1)

As long as this valve stays tightly shut, you don’t have a problem. However, when it relaxes, the contents of your stomach can be forced into your esophagus and cause GERD problems there.

I just ran across an interesting article (1) that details some of the reasons for the LES relaxing. I think you’ll find it enlightening.

A number of drugs are the culprits. When doctors prescribe drugs to treat conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, depression and anxiety, the drugs they prescribe can cause GERD where none existed before.

According to Dr. Anil Minocha, drugs that can cause the lower esophageal sphincter valve to relax (and thus result in GERD) include calcium channel blockers, beta blockers, some antidepressants and some anti-anxiety drugs.

Here’s a list of several of the calcium channel blockers: Amlodipine, Diltiazem, Felodipine, Nicardipine, Nifedipine, Nisoldipine and Verapamil. The more common ototoxic side effects of these calcium channel blockers include ataxia, dizziness, tinnitus and vertigo.

Some of the beta-blockers include: Acebutolol, Atenolol, Betaxolol, Bisoprolol, Carteolol, Carvedilol, Labetalol, Metoprolol, Nadolol, Oxprenolol, Pindolol, Propranolol and Timolol. The more common ototoxic side effects of these beta-blockers include dizziness, ear pain, hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo.

If you take any of the above drugs, you want to be aware that these (and other) drugs actually reduce lower esophageal sphincter (LES) pressure (that is, they relax this muscle located at the top of your stomach). As a result, the contents of your stomach can then back up into your esophagus, eventually resulting in GERD.

Not only are many of the drugs that help cause GERD ototoxic, but the very drugs that doctors prescribe to control GERD are also ototoxic. Thus your ears can get clobbered both coming and going.

You see, doctors often prescribe acid-reducing prescription drugs such as H2 blockers—Ranitidine (Zantac) and Famotidine (Pepcid), or proton pump inhibitors—Esomeprazole (Nexium) and Omeprazole (Prilosec) to try to control GERD.

Ranitidine is ototoxic and can cause dizziness and vertigo, while Famotidine can cause dizziness, tinnitus and vertigo. Esomeprazole—the little purple pill—can cause ataxia, dizziness, ear pain, tinnitus and vertigo, while Omeprazole can cause dizziness, tinnitus and vertigo.

Thus, when you use even more drugs to “cure” the side effects of other drugs, you can end up increasing the risk of damage to your ears (not to mention the rest of your body). Consequently, you always want to be sure the drugs you are taking aren’t causing other side effects.

Incidentally, in addition to the above drugs, certain foods also relax the LES, and thus are also conducive to causing GERD. Consequently, if you are prone to GERD, watch your intake of things like fatty foods, onions and chocolate.

Furthermore, if you are stressed out, get your stress under control BEFORE you get GERD. You see, stress also causes the LES to relax, again paving the way for GERD.

If you already have GERD, you might want to consider these 4 things:

1. Get off any drugs that relax the LES.
2. Cut out LES-relaxing foods.
3. Get your stress under control.
4. Take probiotics such as Lactobacillus acidophilus. These “friendly” bacteria reduce the harmful effects of acid in your esophagus. (1) You can naturally acquire Lactobacillus when you eat yogurt or kefir containing active (live) cultures, or you can purchase Lactobacillus tablets at your health food store.

You don’t have to let ototoxic drugs inadvertently damage your ears. To learn which drugs are (or can be) ototoxic, see “Ototoxic Drugs Exposed“. This book contains information on the ototoxicity of 763 drugs, 30 herbs and 148 chemicals.

(1) Anil Minocha, MD. “Don’t Let Heartburn Turn Deadly” In: Bottom Line Secrets, June 9, 2010.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Has this ever happened to you? You are outside, perhaps playing golf, or rough-housing with your kids/grandkids when you realize you are not hearing much anymore. One ear seems deaf. You clap your hands to your ears, and to your horror, you discover one of your expensive new hearing aids is missing.

You search for it in vain, but your nearly-invisible hearing aid refuses to be found. Now, not only can you not hear, but you are out big bucks to replace it.

This actually happened to Dennis. He had to pay a $650.00 insurance deductible to replace his lost hearing aid. This got him to thinking—and inventing. The result was a set of hearing aid connectors with the catchy name of “Loopum or Loseum”.

These little gizmos are not only effective and nearly invisible, but they don’t cost and arm and a leg either. Would you believe you can prevent your hearing aids from falling off your ears and getting lost for only $5.95? This has to be one of the best bargains around.

Who loses hearing aids? Think rambunctious kids. Think active adults. Think people with Alzheimer’s. Think people in nursing homes and hospitals where hearing aids regularly get lost. Also, think BTE hearing aids that are so small and light you forget you are even wearing them—such as open-fit aids and receiver in the ear (RITE) aids.

The Loopum connectors have two requirements. First, you must wear behind the ear (BTE) or over the ear (OTE) hearing aids. Second, you must also wear eyeglasses. (The Loopums also work with sunglasses.)

If this describes you, or one of your loved ones, maybe the Loopum connectors are for you.

The Loopums are small flexible plastic rings—imagine tiny clear elastic bands—that slide up the temple pieces of your eyeglasses. Then you pull the tube from the hearing aid body (BTE and open fit aids), or unplug it (RITE aids) and thread the tube through the Loopum ring, then reconnect it to the hearing aid body.

Now if one of your hearing aids falls out of your ear, it is firmly held to the eyeglass temple piece. It just hangs there by the Loopum until you put your aid back in your ear. You no longer have to search for lost aids.

The Loopums have another advantage—they stay with your glasses. Thus when you take your glasses off at night, your hearing aids come off with them—and are right there when you put your glasses on in the morning. You no longer have to wonder which aid goes in which ear either.

The same is true when you step into the shower. No more forgetting you are wearing your hearing aids and drown them. When you take off your glasses, off come your hearing aids too.

The only downside I see is that if you want to take your glasses off for some reason, say to clean them, or to swap your reading or computer glasses for your distance glasses, your hearing aids pop off at the same time. However, if you normally wear the same pair of glasses and your hearing aids all day long, this likely isn’t a problem.

Incidentally, each Loopum or Loseum package contains 3 sets of Loopums in three different sizes. That way you are assured they will fit all your eyeglass frames from glasses with thin wire frames to thick-framed sunglasses.

Click here to learn more about the Loopum connectors. You can order a set for yourself, by clicking on the orders page and placing your order. Dennis will get your Loopums hurrying on their way to you and hopefully losing your hearing aids will become a thing of the past. You’ve been warned—loopum or loseum!

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. with Bob McPherson

A lady explained:

A person asked me about the best hearing aid batteries. She was inquiring about “gold” batteries and I’m not familiar with them. Are these “gold” batteries any better than the regular zinc- air batteries?

The expert on hearing aid batteries, and where to get the best deals, is my friend, Robert McPherson. the owner of the Yahoo on-line group, “bhNews” (I hang out there too. Bob posts lots of good information on the latest in hearing loss developments. To subscribe simply send a blank email to bhNEWS)

Here’s Bob’s reply.

The only “gold” batteries I’m aware of are the Eco Gold line, which has been very heavily advertised. A bit of digging revealed that they are actually imported by the Hearing Help Express company in Illinois from Varta Microbattery in Germany.

The Varta batteries, primarily marketed under the PowerOne brand, are top quality.

The catch is that the Eco Golds are advertised for $0.59 in quantities of 42—not such a good deal when the PowerOne’s are $0.45 in quantities of 60 from Microbattery.com.

For value, the Zenipower brand, also from Microbattery, offers comparable specs to the big names for only $0.29 in quantities of 60.

Bottom line: the Eco Gold is nothing special – just more heavily marketed presently than the rest!

There you have it from the “miserly Scott” as Bob often refers to himself. Point your browser to www.microbattery.com and save yourself some shekels on top quality batteries for less.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A concerned parent wrote:

Our six-year-old daughter was recently diagnosed with LVAS. Our doctor tells us she has already lost all useful hearing in one ear, so we are obviously very protective of her good ear. We are now struggling with the right balance on activity restrictions. She is an enthusiastic swimmer on our community’s summer swim team. The swimmers are taught to enter the water using a racing dive. We understand that diving is not recommended, but we could use some help with the fine points.

It’s clear to us that she should stay off of the high dive, but what are the risks associated with diving from a low diving board? What about a racing dive from the side of the pool (used in competition)? Are the pressure changes in the ear the main concern (which wouldn’t seem like a risk with a racing dive) or is there a significant risk of hitting the water wrong and causing head injury?

Also, any advice you have on whether or not participation in gymnastics (mat activities like tumbling, not a high balance beam) would be reasonably safe would be very helpful. We are erring on the side of caution right now and not allowing it, but our daughter is doing somersaults and cartwheels in the grass anyways. She may well be safer if she is taught to do them properly and practicing on a better padded surface.

It is interesting that so far in her life, the various “trauma” incidents she has already experienced have only caused your daughter to lose her hearing in one ear, but not the other. To me, this indicates that her good ear is more robust, or not as affected by trauma as her bad ear. This is good news. Perhaps her LVAS will not affect the hearing in her good ear in the future either—but there are no guarantees—hence the need to still be cautious.

As far as pressure is concerned, since your daughter has LVAS, she should only shallow dive—in other words, not let her head go more than 5 or 6 feet underwater. This keeps the pressure change to a minimum and should not aggravate her LVAS which could cause more hearing loss.

When she dives, whether on a diving board or a racing dive, if she has her hands over her head, which breaks the force of the water hitting her head, there shouldn’t be any “trauma”. Thus, as far as I can see, this should be ok.

In regards to doing gymnastics, I’m with you. She should learn to do it right and avoid trauma to her head. If she does not hit her head, or flip with such force that internal pressure builds up in her skull, she should be ok as I see it.

As always, there are no guarantees. If any activities result in hearing loss, those (and kindred) activities are out unless she wants to risk further hearing loss in the future. However, if any activities do not produce any hearing loss (or balance issues), then you should let her continue to do them. In other words, don’t unduly restrict her unless/until that activity (or similar activity) is proven harmful to her ears.