Hearing Loss Help  

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A recent study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, showed that low levels of folate (one of the B vitamins found in spinach, black-eyed peas, beans and other leafy greens) are associated with a higher risk of hearing loss in people over the age of 50. (1)

“Those with the lowest levels of folate were 39% more likely to suffer hearing loss. People with the most homocysteine—an amino acid, also linked to heart disease and dementia, that’s countered by B vitamins—were at 64% greater risk.” (2)

Bamini Gopinath, Ph.D., of the University of Sidney in Australia found that a folate deficiency causes homocysteine levels to increase, which in turn, could restrict blood flow to the cochlea, resulting in hearing loss.

In another study looking at the same participants, Gopinath “found that those who ate two or more servings of fish a week were less likely to develop age-related hearing loss compared to people who had less than a serving a week. Plus, among participants who already had some hearing loss, those who ate more fish saw its progression slow.” (1) Gopinath thinks that the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish help to lower a person’s high blood pressure—which, in turn, could help to protect against hearing loss. (1)

This research makes sense IF your hearing loss is related to vascular issues. (To be sure, large numbers of people fit into this category.) At the same time, there are other reasons why you might lose hearing as you age. A prime example is hearing loss from side effects of all the ototoxic drugs many older people take. Another cause is from a lifetime of exposure to loud noise—and this noise exposure continues the longer you live.

Thus, to my way of thinking, there are three things you need to do in order to protect your hearing as you age: limit your exposure to loud sounds, be careful with ototoxic drugs and eat properly. When you do this, you’ll reduce your chances of getting presbycusis—the fancy word for hearing loss due to aging.

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(1) Mantica, Ana. 2011. Life Line Screening.

(2) Folate and Fish Might Protect Your Hearing. October, 2010. Tufts University Health and Nutrition Newsletter.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

As changes in technology surge forward at a frenetic pace, you are bombarded with the hype that newer is better. But is this really so?

Here are some myths and their corresponding facts concerning hearing aids.

Myth No. 1: The latest hearing aids let you hear well under all listening conditions.

Brad Ingrao, Au.D., one of my favorite audiologists, wrote, “In 20 years of practicing audiology, I have almost never encountered a person whose hearing aids were unable to help them hear well, in a small, quiet room with carpet, drapes or no air-conditioning.” (1)

Notice the conditions: it is quiet, there is little reverberation and the speaker is close to the listener. Under those conditions, yes, hearing aids typically work wonderfully well.

Brad continues, “On the other hand, almost all of my hearing aid patients complain that no matter how much they spent on their hearing aids, they still struggle in noisy and reverberant rooms.” (1)

The myth breaks down here. You see, noise and distance are the two main enemies of hearing aids. As soon as you add distance and noise and all the reverberation and distortions of sounds that come with increasing noise and distance, hearing aids quickly cease to help you like they did before. This is when you need to use assistive devices. That is the reality. As Brad says, “the ideal solution in noise is a remote microphone connected to the hearing aid” via an assistive listening device.

Myth No. 2: Automatic hearing aids let you hear well because the hearing aid automatically changes the settings as the sound environment changes.

Brad explains, “Some people can do very well with a fully automatic hearing aid, assuming they spend most of their time listening to one or two kinds of sound in the same setting”. (1)

Some people do very well under these conditions. However, there is another side of the coin. Brad continues, “The more common reality is that people with hearing loss are out and about listening and living in many complex environments. They need to be able to tell their hearing aids how to behave, rather than the other way around.” (1)

To which I add, “Amen, brother.” You see, if you are like most hard of hearing people, you are better off getting hearing aids that are not fully automatic. Yes, you can have some automatic features as long as you can manually override them whenever you want. For example, I love my automatic volume controls, but I have manual volume control wheels as well and I can (and do) override my hearing aids whenever I want to. You want to be able to switch to different settings when the sound environment changes significantly.

Myth No. 3: The manufacturer’s fitting algorithm, together with the audiologists input, will give you a good fit the first time around.

You would like to think that an experienced Doctor of Audiology would be able to do this, wouldn’t you. But as Thomas Powers, Ph.D., vice-president of audiology at Siemens Hearing Instruments explains, “In general it is unreasonable to expect that even the most carefully designed prescriptive fitting method would be appropriate within plus or minus 3 dB for more than two-thirds of all patients.” (2)

In other words, you need to go back to your audiologist or hearing aid dispenser a few times to have your hearing aids tweaked until they get it right. A good fitting probably won’t happen the first time around. This is because “the prescribed gain and output is only appropriate for the average patient, and it too needs to be individualized.” (2) You are you—not Mr. Average—so you need your hearing aids specifically tweaked to fit your unique hearing needs.

Myth No. 4: The fitting that sounds the best lets you hear the best.

This sounds logical, but it is often not true. You see, what sounds the best is what sounds comfortable to you—but you may not hear (understand) the best at that setting.

Dr. Powers again explains, “In many cases better hearing audibility compromises sound comfort and vice versa. In some cases the prescribed high-frequency gain may improve speech intelligibility [so you understand more of what you hear], but the patients perceive the sound quality as too shrill and unacceptable [and if you have recruitment, certain louder sounds may even hurt]. As a result, they will turn down overall gain, resulting in reduced overall audibility.

The fitting challenge therefore is to find the right balance among desired loudness, good audibility, and sound comfort for every patient.” (2) This can be a definite challenge, especially if you have recruitment issues, or have a more unusual hearing loss (e.g. cookie-bite loss, reverse cookie-bite loss, reverse-slope loss). Thus, you may end up with less than optimal hearing (understanding) in order that what you do hear is not too uncomfortable. That is the reality of wearing hearing aids. You need to make trade-offs to best fit your lifestyle to your hearing aids.

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(1) Brad Ingrao, Au.D., Decibels and Dollars. Hearing Loss Magazine. September/October 2011. p. 32.

(2) Powers, Thomas, Ph.D., Finding Optimum Gain, Compression, and Frequency Shape in Different Listening Situations. Hearing Review Products. Fall 2011. p. 14.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady asked,

What options do those of us have when we have pain but have a significant history of problems with ototoxic drugs?

This is a common question people ask me. For minor aches and pains, we just need to tough it out. That is what I do. For more intense pain, there are a number of alternative treatments including chiropractic, physiotherapy, acupuncture, etc.

Here are a few other solutions that some people use. For example, “Sally” wrote, “When I get a headache, I just use a cold pack, and it actually works pretty well. No Ibuprofen, no Tylenol, no this and that. I’m getting by just fine using no medication for various aches and pains, but it’s not a good feeling to have such limited options.”

“Helen” explained, “There are some great natural anti-inflammatories out there. I’m allergic to pretty much all the over-the-counter pain-killers. I’ve found that Zymactive by Natural Factors has been a life-saver for me. Zymactive are enzymes that digest the proteins causing inflammation. They work very well. They are not quite strong enough for surgery pain, but are great for sprains, and aches and pains. Of course, I’m also a great fan of ice packs and heating pads ”

“Phoebe” found another solution. She wrote, “I have found homeopathic Mag Phos 30c a great pain reliever. When I was first told about it, I was very skeptical to say the least. However, having tried it 10 yrs ago, it has been my first line of defense for pain relief ever since. I give it to my daughter for her monthly pains and it works great. She says the pain just melts away.”

So there are some more things you might want to investigate. See what works for you. Don’t be afraid to look for other natural solutions before turning to drugs (with their harmful side effects). You may be surprised how well other pain “treatments” work.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man wrote,

I noticed an ad in the current issue of Hearing Health magazine for Arches Tinnitus Formula. Has anyone had success with this product? The absence of a company address in the advertisement makes me wary.

It seems any magazine ad I see for a tinnitus remedy offers only a toll free number. When I call the number, my experience is that the price of the product is sky high and any questions about the formula will be brushed off because the formula is proprietary.

I realize some people do experience success using a homeopathic product, yet I’m also aware that the American Tinnitus Association has stated there is no medical cure for tinnitus.

I agree with you. I like to see people stand behind their products with full contact information prominently displayed. However, sometimes ads are cramped for space so they leave this information off. The good news in this case is that if you go to the Arches website you will find their contact information—name, address, phone number and the name of the person behind this product—namely, Barry Keate. (I’m well aware that there are other tinnitus products being hawked that have no such contact information on their websites—and of those I am really leery.)

More good news. The ingredients for Arches Tinnitus Formula are not proprietary. In fact, there are only three common ingredients in the Arches Tinnitus Formula, namely, zinc, garlic and Ginkgo biloba.

The interesting thing about their Ginkgo content is that this is one tinnitus formula that actually contains a therapeutic dose of Ginkgo, in contrast to many other tinnitus formulas out there that only contain a token amount of Ginkgo. (This is one reason that so many studies of Ginkgo as a remedy for tinnitus have not shown positive results—the researchers deliberately or through ignorance used an inadequate dose in their studies.)

For example, a German Commission did a detailed study on Ginkgo and determined that the therapeutic dose was 480 mg a day—and that the Ginkgo had to be standardized to 24% flavone glycosides and 6% terpene lactones.

Guess what? The Ginkgo content in Arches Tinnitus Formula is standardized to exactly that. Furthermore, their recommended dose is 480 mg per day—exactly the amount the German Commission found was needed for an effective therapeutic dose.

Even though the Arches Tinnitus Formula contains a therapeutic dose of Ginkgo, you need to realize that Ginkgo doesn’t work for everyone’s tinnitus. Ginkgo taken at the effective dose of 480 mg per day helps between 26% and 82% of the people taking it, depending on which study you look at. This is not to say that everyone’s tinnitus goes away completely, but taking a therapeutic dose of Ginkgo does help reduce the tinnitus in numbers of people—and any reduction in tinnitus volume/annoyance is a blessing to be sure.

Arches Tinnitus Formula is not a homeopathic product—it is a supplement type of product. In my opinion, it is one of the better herbal tinnitus products available. Sure it will cost you—about a dollar a day—but what drugs are that cheap?

There is no single magic pill that will cure tinnitus. The best approach is to try several things at once or sequentially—and hopefully each will help reduce your tinnitus a certain amount so that you end up with a significant reduction in your tinnitus. I give many of these tinnitus reduction strategies, including using Ginkgo and other herbals and minerals in my tinnitus book, “When Your Ears Ring! Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How“.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady explained,

A horrible, loud explosion woke me up last night and made me scream out a bit. It was really scary! Has this ever happened to anyone else?

Fortunately, what you experienced is quite rare. It goes by the ghastly-sounding name of “Exploding Head” syndrome.

In spite of its grisly name, your head doesn’t really explode—you just hear a loud exploding sound—much like you did. This can occur as you are coming out of a deep sleep. It can certainly scare you and set your heart to pounding.

In my book, “When Your Ears Ring! Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How” I explain:

“Exploding Head” syndrome is a relatively rare event in which you experience a very loud and sudden noise such as a loud bang similar to a bomb exploding, a gun going off, a clash of cymbals, a door slamming, a roaring sound, waves crashing against rocks, loud voices or screams, a ringing noise, a terrific bang on a tin tray, the sound of electrical arcing (buzzing) or any other form of loud, indecipherable noise that seems to originate from inside your head. It most often occurs just before deep sleep (and sometimes upon coming out of deep sleep) and wakes you up.

If you are interested, you can learn more about the strange kinds of tinnitus some people experience in this book. You can get your own copy here.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady declared,

I have the new waterproof cochlear implant, but I am certainly never going to wear it in the pool when I am taking aquasize or swimming. I do not trust the manufacturer’s claims. This cochlear implant is too expensive to take the risk of damaging it from water.

The real question is, “Can you trust the manufacturer’s claims or is it all just advertising hype?” There has been so much hype in advertising that people do well to be wary of the fantastic claims many ads proclaim.

Therefore, in order to know whether it is truth or just hype, and thus whether you can/should trust the manufacturer’s claims that your hearing aid or cochlear implant is waterproof or not, you need to check the basis of their claims. Fortunately, there is an easy way to tell.

All you need to do is check out the ISO (International Standards Organization) rating regarding “waterproofness” of your hearing aids or cochlear implants. If the manufacturer rates your hearing aid or cochlear implant as meeting the ISO IPX7 or IPX8 standard, then yes, you can trust the manufacturers claim that it is waterproof and that you can go swimming with it on knowing that the water will not damage your hearing aid or cochlear implant.

I wrote a bit about this in my May 31, 2011 article: Waterproof Hearing Aids and Cochlear Implants—Here They Come.”  Here is an extract of the above article:

If you are interested in exactly what these standards mean, IP stands for “Ingress Protection”. Ingress Protection is how well your hearing aid (or any other device) keeps foreign “stuff” out. The first number relates to solid particles (e.g. dust). A level 5—like the Aquarius hearing aid and Nucleus 5 cochlear implant—are “protected against dust, limited ingress (no harmful deposit)”, while the highest level for solid particles—6—like the Neptune cochlear implant, is “totally protected against dust”.The second number is the level of protection against water (liquids). Level 7 (Aquarius & Nucleus 5) means “protected against the effect of immersion between 15 cm [6"] and 1 m [3']“, while the highest level—8—(the Neptune) is “protected against long periods of immersion under pressure”.

Note: if the rating only relates to liquid protection then an “X” is substituted for the “dust” rating so you know you are talking about the second number (liquid) and not the first number (dust).

Thus, if you see a device rated as IP6 you know it is a dust rating only. If it is rated as IPX6, you know it is a liquid rating only. If the device is rated for both dust and liquid, it would have numbers in both positions, e.g. IP56 or IP68, etc.

Below I have listed the various ISO IPX (liquid) ratings the manufacturers use, and exactly what these ratings mean.

IPX1 No protection from water.

IPX1 Protected against condensation or dripping water falling vertically.

IPX2 Protected against spraying water when tilted up to 15° vertically.

IPX3 Protected against spraying water when tilted up to 60° vertically.

IPX4 Protected against splashing water from any angle.

IPX5 Protected against low-pressure water stream from any angle.

IPX6 Protected against high-pressure water stream from any angle.

IPX7 Protected against water immersion. Immersion for 30 minutes at a depth of up to 1 meter.

IPX8 Protected against continual water submersion in underwater conditions.

Based on the above, if your hearing aids or cochlear implants have an IPX rating of 6 or less, you do not want to go swimming with them on, but if they have a IPX rating of at least 4, splashing water won’t hurt them. If your hearing aids or cochlear implants have an IPX7 rating, you can freely swim and dive underwater up to 3 feet down and do that for to 30 minutes at a time.

However, if you have truly water proof hearing aids or cochlear implants (IPX8), feel free to go swimming and diving with them on. You can be in the water and swim underwater as long as you want, and there is no restriction on how deep you can dive. Thus you can enjoy a good time in the water and can swim underwater to your heart’s content—and never have to worry about water damaging your expensive hearing aids or cochlear implants.

In case you are interested, here are the IP ratings for solid object (dust) resistance.

IP0 No protection against ingress of objects.

IP1 Protection against ingress of objects greater than 50 mm. (approximately 2 inches).

IP2 Protection against ingress of objects greater than 12.5 mm. (Approximately half an inch).

IP3 protection against ingress of objects greater than 2.5 mm. (Approximately 1/10th of an inch).

IP4 Protection against ingress of objects greater than 1 mm. (Approximately 1/25th of an inch).

IP5 Dust protected. Ingress of dust is not entirely prevented, but it must not enter in sufficient quantity to interfere with the satisfactory operation of the equipment.

IP6 Dust tight. No ingress of dust.

How good are these standards? When Siemens tested their Aquarius hearing aid under rigorous field conditions in extreme conditions of humidity over several months, there were no failures. In fact, their field tests in Queensland, Australia from December 2010 to February 2011, in the heat of the summer included some of the strongest floods and cyclones in Australia’s history. Field study participants also continued to wear the Aquarius during showering and swimming with no failures reported. (1)

Therefore, if your hearing aid or cochlear implant is rated with an IPX8 rating for water resistance and an IP6 rating for dust resistance (in other words, it is rated as IP68), feel free to wear it any time under any conditions. You do not have to worry about dust, water or moisture causing your hearing aid or cochlear implant to fail. That is how good those ratings are.

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(1) Chalupper, Josef. 2011. Beneath the Surface: Understanding the Terms “Water Resistant” and “Waterproof”. The Hearing Review. Vol 18. No 11. October 2011. p. 60.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Smoking is bad for your health. Numerous studies have proven this. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that breathing secondhand smoke is also bad for your health. Again, studies have proven this.

Now, a recent study by Dr. Anil Lalwani has shown that in addition to causing health problems and ear infections, breathing secondhand smoke can also cause sensorineural hearing loss in those that breathe secondhand smoke.

Dr. Lalwani of the New York University Langone Medical Center studied 1,533 12 to 19-year-old youths that did not smoke. He collected information on whether or not smokers lived in their homes. Each of these teens were given extensive hearing tests. They were also given a blood test to measure the level of cotinine (a substance related to nicotine) that can objectively tell how much secondhand smoke a person has been exposed to.

The results were striking. The higher the teens’ level of cotinine, the higher their chances for having resulting sensorineural hearing loss. In fact, the cotinine acted as a remarkably accurate barometer of hearing damage according to Dr. Lalwani. (1)

Sensorineural hearing loss was defined as an average pure tone level greater than 15 dB. Secondhand smoke exposure, as assessed by cotinine levels, was associated with elevated pure tone hearing thresholds at 2, 3 and 4 kHz (critical frequencies required for clearly, understanding speech) and an 183% increase in risk of unilateral low-frequency sensorineural hearing loss. (2)

Interestingly enough, 82% of the teens did not realize that they had a hearing loss. (2)

Why does breathing secondhand smoke cause increased hearing loss? According to Dr. Lalwani, “We know smoking leads to reduced oxygen in the blood, so that may be an issue. We also know that smoking causes vascular issues, so a variety of factors could be contributing.” (1)

Now comes the important question. What can you do about it? If you are a parent that smokes, the obvious answer is “Stop smoking!” Not only will stopping smoking improve your own health, but you will also improve the health of your children, and help preserve their precious hearing. That alone should make it worth the effort.

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(1) Teen Hearing Problems—It’s Not Just About the Loud Music! October 20, 2011. In: Bottom Line’s Daily Health News.

(2) Lalwani, Anil. 2011. Secondhand Smoke and Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Adolescents. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2011 Jul; 137(7): 655-62.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Properly-installed loop systems can help hard of hearing people hear and understand speech dramatically better in meetings, churches and other public venues. Here in the United States, audiologist Juliette Sterkens has been working hard to increase the awareness of people with hearing loss to the benefits of loop systems.

She has just released a short “You Tube” video showing the enormous increase in understanding speech you can experience when you use your hearing aids in t-coil mode in a looped church as compared to not using the loop system. To watch/listen to this video, click here.

You can learn much more about loop systems and how they can help you hear better—whether at church or at home watching your TV—by clicking on “Looping Information“.

As a public service to help you find and experience the benefits of loop systems in public venues, the Center for Hearing Loss Help is now maintaining a listing of churches and public buildings by state. To find a looped venue near you, simply click on “Looped Public Buildings by State in the USA“.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Back in 2004 when I coined the name “Musical Ear Syndrome” for the strange musical hallucinations many hard of hearing people secretly experience, I never dreamed that someone would actually make a movie about it. But that is what has just happened. In fact, this short movie was one of 12 films nominated for inclusion in the prestigious 2011 Virgin Media Shorts film competition, the UK’s biggest short-film competition.

Ian Gamester, a Liverpool filmmaker, made the short list with a touching documentary starring his grandmother, Cath Gamester, who, after being prescribed anti-depressants by her doctor, now suffers from Musical Ear Syndrome (MES). As Ian explained, “She kept hearing the same songs again and again and thought that someone was playing a record loudly.”

Unfortunately, Ian did not win any of the three top spots at the gala judging competition on November 10, 2011, but just being nominated for this prestigious competition has helped more people become aware of Musical Ear Syndrome.

You can watch this 2 minute and 20 second black and white film here.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A recent MarkeTrak study revealed some interesting things about tinnitus and its effects on our lives—what we can do to help ameliorate the effects of our tinnitus and where hearing aids fit into the equation. (1)

But first, some background on tinnitus. Tinnitus—ringing in the ears—affects a LOT of people— somewhere between 30 and 50 million people in the USA alone.

The older we get, the more likely we are to experience tinnitus. (1) For example:

Notice that by the time people reach 55, at least one person in five has tinnitus. This rises to one person in four for seniors. That’s a lot of people living their lives listening to the phantom racket we call tinnitus.

Tinnitus affects the quality of life for many people. A study of 3,431 people with tinnitus (1) revealed:

(Note: these figures add up to more than 100% because tinnitus often affects several aspects of a person’s life at the same time.)

The good news is that almost half of the people with tinnitus report it does not affect their lives at all. Basically, they just ignore their tinnitus and live happy and fulfilled lives in spite of the racket in their ears. I’m one of these. Sure, sometimes I wish my tinnitus wasn’t there, but I choose to ignore the constant tinnitus I experience and live my life as though it didn’t exist.

That’s a bit of background on tinnitus. Now, let’s look at how we can help bring our tinnitus under control. One of the treatments that few people apparently consider to help bring their tinnitus under control is simply getting and wearing properly-fitted hearing aids.

In a study of 1,314 people with tinnitus, 52.4% found that wearing hearing aids didn’t make any difference to their tinnitus. That’s the bad news. However, looking at it the other way, the good news is that if you have tinnitus you have approximately a 50-50 chance that wearing hearing aids will help reduce the impact of your tinnitus. Any treatment that has a 50% chance of helping you is definitely worthwhile trying!

Here’s a note of caution: If you have tinnitus, you still have to be careful when wearing hearing aids because the above study further revealed that 4.2% of the people with tinnitus found that wearing hearing aids actually made their tinnitus worse. If you are one of these unfortunate people, you need to keep the volume on your hearing aids set to a level that doesn’t provoke your tinnitus. If that won’t work, you probably should not wear hearing aids.

However, the good news is that 43.5% of the people found that wearing hearing aids helped mitigate the effects of their tinnitus. Here’s the break-down of the results: 15.7% of these people reported a mild reduction in their tinnitus; 14.1% reported a moderate reduction in their tinnitus; and the really good news was that 13.7% reported a significant reduction in their tinnitus. (1)

How often did this reduction of tinnitus occur when wearing hearing aids? Of the 553 people that reported an improvement in their tinnitus when wearing their hearing aids, here’s the break down:

Notice that almost 2 out of 3 people reported that wearing their hearing aids gave them reduced tinnitus most or all of the time! That’s impressive for any tinnitus treatment.

Now here’s the best news of all. 3.4% reported that the improvement in their tinnitus continued even when they took their hearing aids off! (1)

With results like these, if you are bothered by your tinnitus and you have some degree of hearing loss, you owe it to yourself to try hearing aids and see whether they will help your tinnitus too.

This study also looked at the various things people tried in order to reduce their tinnitus. Of the 3,473 people in this study—all of whom had tinnitus—notice that only a miniscule 6.1% tried wearing hearing aids in an attempt to reduce their tinnitus. This shows how foreign it is to people’s thinking that hearing aids are an effective way to help control tinnitus. Now that you know the truth, don’t make the same mistake.

Here’s the break-down of the various ways people tried to reduce their tinnitus.

Notice the low percentages of people with tinnitus that tried each of these various treatments—the highest was only 6.8%. The total only adds up to 33.9%. Assuming each person only tried one treatment (and this is not likely), this study reveals that only one person in three even tried to help themselves deal with their tinnitus.

Why is that? Could it be that because many doctors tell people suffering from tinnitus that there is no cure for tinnitus, and that they have to live with it—thus leaving them without any hope—that these patients buy into this dismal mindset and thus don’t believe there is anything they can do to help reduce their tinnitus, and so they give up and do not try anything?

If you have tinnitus, don’t believe this. Yes, it is true that at the present time there isn’t a cure for everyone’s tinnitus. Yes, it is true that you have to deal with your own tinnitus. However, it is not true that there is nothing you can do that will help reduce your tinnitus. Do not give up hope. There are many different things you can do to help yourself deal with your tinnitus. Wearing hearing aids is just one of them. You can read about many more in my book, “When Your Ears Ring! Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How“.

Now, back to this study. What were the results of the various things people tried? I have broken them down into three classes no improvement (0%), modest improvement (1-39%) and significant improvement (greater than or equal to 40%). I think these results will encourage you.

Notice that roughly somewhere between one-third and three-quarters of the people found no help with any of the above treatments. That does not mean that these treatments don’t work—just that they don’t work for numbers of people. The good news is that between one-quarter and two-thirds of the people that tried these various treatments did receive help. So these treatments DO help many people. The trick is to find which treatment or treatments work for you.

Now let’s look at the results again, but this time just zeroing in on the results of the highest level in the significant improvement category—namely 80%+.

If you could reduce your tinnitus volume and the impact it has on your life by 80% or more, that would be a real blessing, right? How many people were so “lucky”? Here are the results.

Notice that wearing hearing aids tops the list with 27% of the people that tried wearing hearing aids had a greater than 80% reduction in their tinnitus! That’s impressive. (Remember, that only 6.1% of the people in this study tried hearing aids.)

If these results hold true for all the people with tinnitus, then 13.5 million people in the USA alone would find that wearing hearing aids would reduce their tinnitus by 80+%. Millions more would find that wearing hearing aids would reduce their tinnitus by a lesser amount. Thus, if you have a hearing loss—even a mild one—wearing hearing aids should rank high on the list of things you try to reduce your tinnitus.

As I have said many times in the past, tinnitus arises from a number of different causes and affects people differently, thus a treatment that works for one person won’t necessarily work for another. The results in the various (above) tables prove this.

Since there is no single treatment for tinnitus that works for everybody all the time, and since there are many different treatments that do work in reducing tinnitus for some people, you need to try a number of them and see what works for you. If something doesn’t work for you, try something else. Unless you try, you’ll never know which treatment might reduce your tinnitus by 80% or more.

What have you got to lose? There IS something that will help you. You need to find out what it is and do that. A good plan of attack is to try several different tinnitus reduction treatments at the same time. Together they may make a significant reduction in your tinnitus. Some of that reduction may come from wearing hearing aids. Additional reduction may come from using relaxation techniques, and further reduction may come from taking herbals, or receiving counseling or wearing sound generators or listening to background music, or…the list goes on and on.

Based on the above study, if you are bothered by your tinnitus and have a hearing loss, you may find considerable relief from your tinnitus through the simple expedient of wearing hearing aids.

Note that the degree of your hearing loss and the severity of your tinnitus “are significantly related to the level of tinnitus reduction via hearing aid use. In general, people with milder degrees of tinnitus are more likely to experience mitigation of their tinnitus with hearing aids.” (1)

One final word of advice—you need to be properly fitted with hearing aids. One of the results of this study indicated that “people receiving a more comprehensive hearing aid fitting protocol are nearly twice as likely to experience tinnitus relief from their hearing aids than if they received a minimalist hearing aid fitting protocol.” (1) Don’t skim over the above sentence too fast. You need to insist on a complete and comprehensive audiological evaluation AND careful hearing aid fitting backed by real-ear measurements in order to get the best tinnitus-reduction results. When you do that, you’ve just doubled your chances that wearing your hearing aids will bring you significant tinnitus relief.

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(1) Kochkin, Sergei, et. al. MarkeTrak VIII: The Prevalence of Tinnitus in the United States and the Self-reported Efficacy of Various Treatments. The Hearing Review. Vol. 18, No. 12. November, 2011. pp. 10-26.