Hearing Loss Travel Tips

Gael Hannan, editor from The Better Hearing Consumer , wrote an excellent article about hearing loss travel tips. The article above has been adapted from her original at Hearing Health Matters.

Does your hearing loss prevent you from traveling, worrying about potential problems on the trip? Get over it – communication problems can happen anywhere – including at home.

Everywhere you go, you take your hearing loss with you. Probably it’s your most faithful, although not favorite, travel companion, with barriers popping up at every turn – when calling a taxi, checking in to a hotel, ordering food in noisy restaurants, or talking with people whose foreign-accented lips make speechreading just a tad challenging. 

Here are a few basic travel communication strategies to kick down a lot of those barriers:

Self-identify! This is a no-brainer rule of the road that travelers ignore at their peril. If you don’t let people know you have hearing loss, you won’t get what you need, and therefore you have no right to get upset at poor or inaccessible service. Contrary to popular belief, most hearing people and tourism/hospitality people are not mind readers.

Clearly communicate your needs. (I know, I hear ya, ‘oh-duh-please-tell-me-something-I-don’t-already-know’ . But hey, this is worth repeating.) If you say, “I’m hard of hearing” and leave it at that, the hotel clerk might just think, “Well, that’s nice, thanks for sharing.” Be specific about what you need – amplification, captioning, etc. Providers sometimes call these ‘special needs’, which makes me crazy. Good communication skills, amplification and print interpretation are not ‘special’; they are fundamental needs of a huge chunk of today’s population.

Let Them Know You’re Coming! When making online bookings for hotel, air or rail, you should check off the Hard of Hearing (or Hearing Loss) box under ‘Special Needs’ (sigh). This may or may not result in better service. Sometimes “DEAF” or “HARD OF HEARING” is marked on the boarding pass, sometimes not. When it is marked, or if you verbally self-identify to the customer service person, he or she may look up you, all startled-like: “OMG, how am I supposed to talk to this deaf person?” Just smile and wait to see what they offer.

Sometimes it’s early boarding along with the babies and the infirm. I’ve heard of people receiving seat upgrades, although I’m not sure how this helps people with hearing loss, unless flight attendants speak more clearly in first class. Or they may tell you to have a seat in the lounge, and they will visually alert you when it’s your turn to board. In this case, if I have nothing else to do, or am feeling feisty, I sit close by and don’t take my eyes off them, unblinking, unrelenting, willing them to give me ‘the wave’. This might creep them out enough to get you an early boarding. Brilliant idea: airports could reduce traveler anxiety and employee stress by using signage to announce which rows are being boarded!

However you do it, your bottom line is that you have to be on that plane when it takes off. I almost missed a flight once because I’d lost track of time, wandering the airport, and didn’t hear the PA calling my name. Now I arrive at the gate well in advance.

The final word: Anticipating communication needs makes for a much smoother trip. I couldn’t prepare for being in the eye of a tropical cyclone, but emergency preparedness has come a long way since then – especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Minor glitches like these aside, traveling is one of life’s joys, so pack your bag amd kick down some barriers.

Hearing Aid - My American Girl

Thank you Mattel (who owns American Girl) for recognizing hearing loss as a condition affecting millions of children, by developing Hearing Aids to personalize My American Girl. 

3 in 1000 babies are born each year with permanent hearing loss, according to the American Speech Language Hearing Association, making it one of the most common birth defects in America. 

It is very important to create a greater awareness of hearing loss and helping others to have more comfort and acceptance. Helping a child with hearing loss to wear hearing devices can begin with them feeling confident. 

What a wonderful initiative!

It's all gone Pete Tong - how to be a DJ with a hearing disorder

"Its All Gone Pete Tong" is a comedy based on a true story and Winner of Best Feature Film at Toronto Film Festival and Gen Art Film Festival. Paul Kaye stars as Frankie Wilde, the legendary British DJ and musical mastermind of the underground club scene whose career is cut down at its pinnacle by unthinkable tragedy - the loss of his hearing. 

The story takes us through Frankie's battle with his hearing disorder: he is rapidly going deaf with only one functioning ear to complete the new Ibiza season. Frankie dives into a low period, struggling with deafness in utter depression. After a year of locking himself away he emerges on the other side with a fresh attitude towards his affliction. He accepts his deafness and learns to function without sound. Will Frankie make it back to the DJ booth? Will his new single be any good? Will he get back his opulent old life or does he even want it back? When you can't hear, things look very different.

Info from Amazon and IMDb

O que é o zumbido?

Ruídos de apito, panela de pressão e insetos, como a abelha, o gafanhoto e o mosquito, estão entre os barulhos descritos por pessoas que sofrem com zumbido no ouvido. No silêncio, o ruído, originado dentro do corpo e percebido na cabeça ou nos ouvidos, fica ainda mais ‘alto’. "Na realidade, mesmo quando não existe modulação de volume do zumbido, o que muda é a percepção do paciente. Ou seja, quanto mais ele dá atenção ao ruído, principalmente em situações de stress e ambientes silenciosos, maior é a sua percepção", explica a otorrinolaringologista Rita de Cássia Cassou Guimarães.

O sintoma é causado por mais de 200 fatores e afeta pelo menos 278 milhões de pessoas em todo o mundo, segundo a Organização Mundial de Saúdes. 

Os idosos são os mais afetados pelo problema. "A perda de audição é a principal causa de zumbido. A deficiência auditiva, nos seus mais variados níveis, é provocada especialmente pela exposição a ruídos intensos e pelo envelhecimento. Por isso, é a terceira idade é a fase em que o zumbido mais se manifesta", destaca.

O ‘tinnitus’, como é chamado em inglês, persiste durante o dia e a noite e afeta de maneiras diferentes a qualidade de vida dos pacientes. Cerca de 15% das pessoas com zumbido sentem algum incómodo por causa do sintoma e 5% têm a sua vida profissional e social comprometida. 

"Qualquer tipo de zumbido pode ser tratado. O paciente deve procurar um otorrinolaringologista para dar início à investigação que irá determinar as causas do sintoma. Em muitos casos é necessária a intervenção de outros profissionais, o que chamamos de equipe interdisciplinar", afirma a médica, especialista em otoneurologia.

Informação acedida aqui 

Deaf gerbils 'hear again' after stem cell cure

UK researchers have taken a huge step forward in treating deafness after stem cells were used to restore hearing in animals for the first time. Hearing partially improved when nerves in the ear, which pass sounds into the brain, were rebuilt in gerbils - reports a UK study in the journal Nature .

Getting the same improvement in people would be a shift from being unable to hear traffic to hearing a conversation. However, treating humans is still a distant prospect.

If you want to listen to the radio or have a chat with a friend your ear has to convert sound waves in the air into electrical signals which the brain will understand.

This happens deep inside the inner ear where vibrations move tiny hairs and this movement creates an electrical signal. However, in about one in 10 people with profound hearing loss, nerve cells which should pick up the signal are damaged. It is like dropping the baton after the first leg of a relay race.

The aim of researchers at the University of Sheffield was to replace those baton-dropping nerve cells, called spiral ganglion neurons, with new ones. They used stem cells from a human embryo, which are capable of becoming any other type of cell in the human body from nerve to skin, muscle to kidney.

A chemical soup was added to the stem cells that converted them into cells similar to the spiral ganglion neurons. These were then delicately injected into the inner ears of 18 deaf gerbils. Over 10 weeks the gerbils' hearing improved. On average 45% of their hearing range was restored by the end of the study.

Dr Marcelo Rivolta said: "It would mean going from being so deaf that you wouldn't be able to hear a lorry or truck in the street to the point where you would be able to hear a conversation. "It is not a complete cure, they will not be able to hear a whisper, but they would certainly be able to maintain a conversation in a room."

About a third of the gerbils responded really well to treatment with some regaining up to 90% of their hearing, while just under a third barely responded at all. Gerbils were used as they are able to hear a similar range of sounds to people, unlike mice which hear higher-pitched sounds.

The researchers detected the improvement in hearing by measuring brainwaves. The gerbils were also tested for only 10 weeks. If this became a treatment in humans then the effect would need to be shown over a much longer term. There are also questions around the safety and ethics of stem cell treatments which would need to be addressed.

Prof Dave Moore, the director of the Medical Research Council's Institute of Hearing Research in Nottingham, told the BBC: "It is a big moment, it really is a major development."  However, he cautioned that there will still be difficulties repeating the feat in people. "The biggest issue is actually getting into the part of the inner ear where they'll do some good. It's extremely tiny and very difficult to get to and that will be a really formidable undertaking," he said.

Dr Ralph Holme, head of biomedical research for the charity Action on Hearing Loss, said: "The research is tremendously encouraging and gives us real hope that it will be possible to fix the actual cause of some types of hearing loss in the future. "For the millions of people for whom hearing loss is eroding their quality of life, this can't come soon enough."

Article from BBC news

Tinnitus (Ringing in the Ear)

One well-known effect of overexposure to noise is hearing loss, or the inability to hear certain sounds. But another risk is a phenomenon that is just the opposite: perceiving sounds when there are none. This perception of sound when no external sound is present is called tinnitus, or "ringing in the ear." 

What Does Tinnitus Sound Like? 

People with tinnitus hear noises in their ears. Each person with tinnitus experiences it differently. "Tinnitus" is from the Latin word for "ringing," and to some people the noise does indeed sound like ringing. Others describe their ear noise as roaring, rushing, hissing, chirping, beeping, buzzing, whistling, or clicking. The sound might be high-pitched, low-pitched, or multi-toned, or it might sound like static. It might seem to be in one ear, both ears, or inside the head. The sound might be constant, or it might come and go. It might be just barely noticeable, or it might seem screamingly loud. 

Nearly everyone experiences ear noise; in total silence, most people will report hearing faint buzzing, pulsing, or whirring sounds, the normal compensatory activity of the nerves in the hearing pathway. It's when these sounds are intrusive that it becomes tinnitus. 

What Causes Tinnitus? 

Tinnitus may be caused by various drugs, ear disorders, infections, injuries, or psychiatric disorders, but the most common cause by far is loud noise, such as from explosions, gunfire, amplified music, farm machinery, or emergency sirens. Many rock musicians develop tinnitus, and it is common among combat veterans. Ninety percent of people with tinnitus also have some degree of hearing loss. 

Like hearing loss, tinnitus can occur temporarily, brought on by an episode of too much noise, or it may happen after years of overexposure to noise. It can appear suddenly or gradually. 

What Is It Like to Have Tinnitus? 

Tinnitus is a subjective experience. Similar to the experience of pain, the annoyance of tinnitus cannot be measured objectively. Some people hardly notice the noise unless they consciously turn their attention to it. For others it may disrupt sleep and concentration, and can cause depression and emotional shifts. According to the American Tinnitus Association, about 25% of those with tinnitus find it disturbing enough that they seek medical attention for it, and for about 4% of sufferers, it is so debilitating that it seriously interferes with normal daily functioning. For a few people the experience is so agonizing that they are driven to consider suicide. 

How Is Tinnitus Treated? 

Tinnitus is a symptom, not a disease, and there is no cure. Even in some cases where the auditory nerves have been severed (during the removal of a tumor from the inner ear, for example), so that the patient loses all physical hearing, tinnitus can persist. 

There are a range of treatment options for chronic tinnitus; no one treatment works for everyone. Many treatments focus on helping the person learn to coexist with it, using a variety of stress management and relaxation techniques, counseling, and sometimes antidepressants or other drugs. Some people find it helpful to mask the ringing in the ear by using white noise, and there are in-ear white noise devices made for this purpose. 

Two treatments, tinnitus retraining therapy and Neuromonics, combine directive counseling with white noise or music that is individually engineered for the patient's audiological profile, to teach the brain circuitry to filter out the tinnitus signals. These treatments take six months to two years and cost several thousand dollars. 

Temporary Ringing in the Ear? 

If you experience temporary ringing of the ears from an exposure to loud noise, consider it a warning sign. First, immediately leave the loud environment, or put in ear plugs if that is not possible. Next, rest your ears for 24 hours, meaning no loud sounds at all, to give your ears a chance to recover. And lastly, next time you are in a similar environment in the future, be sure to wear hearing protection. There are plenty of tinnitus sufferers who will tell you that you don't want their nightmare. 

From NoiseHelp

Noisy environments make young songbirds shuffle their tunes

A baby songbird prefers to learn the clearest versions of songs he hears and uses them to build his personal playlist for life. As a result, noise, from nature and humans, influences which songs a bird learns to sing and can create lasting changes to his species' top tunes, the study's results suggest. 

"There's been an enormous amount of interest in how anthropogenic factors affect the channels animals use for communication and in particular how human noise affects birdsong," said Duke University biologist and study co-author Steve Nowicki. "As far as we know, this is the first study that can link noise to cultural evolution of bird song." 

The team designed the study to test a 30-year-old hypothesis suggesting that young birds memorize and later sing the clearest songs they hear during their critical learning period. In the experiment, Nowicki and his collaborators collected nine male, swamp-sparrow nestlings and hand-raised them in a soundproof room. Twice a day for 12 weeks, the birds heard recordings of 16 song types sung by adult males of their species. Eight song types were degraded, or noisy, by being broadcast across a typical sparrow territory of 25 meters and then re-recorded. The other eight were clean copies of similar-sounding, but different songs. When the birds later matured and began to sing, they only repeated the clear songs. 

"It wasn't too surprising that the sparrows preferred them," said Duke behavioral ecologist Susan Peters, lead author of the study. "What is exciting is how clear-cut the results are. All of the birds learned clear songs and none learned any of the degraded songs," she said. The results appeared online June 20 in the journal Biology Letters. This "simple" but "elegant" experiment "says a great deal about how birds put to use their extraordinary ability to hear small-time differences," said Eugene Morton, a biologist at York University in Canada who was not involved in the study. The birds use this ability to learn songs that transmit through their habitat with the least amount of degradation. "In this way, the birds themselves reject songs less well suited to their environment," an example of cultural selection, Morton said. 

Scientists consider the song shifts to be selected culturally, rather than naturally, because the songs are learned, not innate. "This is important because cultural selection can happen more rapidly than natural selection," Peters said. "It helps to explain why birdsong is so diverse," and shows evidence that song variation depends on the bird's habitat. She added that noise from cities and humans would have the same effect on song selection. "We already knew that some birds can adjust some features of their song when confronted with anthropogenic noise, and now we know that this may have an impact on cultural transmission of their song," she said. If naturally noisy songs are less desirable to learn, then songs shaped by human noise are probably less likely to be passed down and learned generation after generation. "Who would have thought that a swamp sparrow song might be affected by human activity?" Peters said. 

Source: Phys.Org

Noise-absorbing windows

The noise of aircraft taking off, road traffic or a booming discotheque often drive inhabitants of the neighborhood to a nervous frenzy. The first-ever windows with active sound insulation offer much-needed relief to local residents in their homes and offices.

When an aircraft takes off over your roof every five minutes, the noise makes it impossible to hold a conversation. Windows can’t provide adequate protection against this type of noise pollution.

A double or triple layer of glass will absorb the high frequencies, but can do nothing against low-frequency noise such as that produced by aircrafts or thrumming bass tones of disco music. This would normally call for panes of glass so thick and heavy that their use would be almost prohibitive in lightweight constructions or extensive curtain-wall facades.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF and Darmstadt University of Technology have found a solution, namely a new type of soundproof window. “Tests have shown that our windows are capable of lowering noise levels by an average of six decibels at frequencies between 50 and 1000 hertz. The perceived noise indoors is only half as loud,” says Dr. Thilo Bein, who manages the institute’s department of energy, environment and health. “We have even been able to reduce the volume of certain test signals by up to 15 decibels.” The experts have predicted a reduction of up to 10 dB for the engine noise of passenger aircraft in the frequency range below 1000 Hz.

When noise waves meet the walls of a building, they can be propagated to the interior by various routes. One is by causing the windows to vibrate, thus carrying the noise into the building. The other is by transmitting sound waves to the interior via the bridges in the structure where the curtain-wall elements are attached to the frame of the building. In both cases, the researchers have found a way to prevent the propagation of sound energy. Acceleration sensors attached to the window panes measure the vibrations generated by the noise.

A thin chip of piezoelectric material also attached to the window counteracts the vibration by generating an oscillation at the same pitch but in the opposite sense to that measured by the sensor – causing the pane to move in the opposing direction. “We have devised a similar solution for the points where the outer cladding is attached to the frame of the building. In this case, a stack of piezoelectric chips, rather than a single piezoelectric strip, counteracts the impinging force,” says Bein.

Source: Phys.Org 

How to fall asleep when there is loud noise outside

If you are sensitive to slightest of noise then it is possible that you remain sleep deprived for several days in the wake of surrounding noises. Benefits of having a good night’s sleep are quite well known and it is established that a good sleep helps in developing healthy body and mind. There are many events that could disturb your sleep and most probably you won’t get it afterwards. It could be loud noise of television set, bad weather, loud music or gregarious snoring. Even if you feel it is impossible to sleep with so many noises, there are some ways by which you could achieve it.

• The first obvious option to shut down the outside sound is to close the windows. If your window is not properly caulked then it may fail to seal the outside noise hence in this case, seal the window gaps with paper cutouts. If the climate is hot and unbearable then just switch on your air conditioning system. This will also help in eliminating the outside noise as most of the air conditioning units create some or other kind of noise which would distract your attention from the outside noise.

• Hot water is best for getting good night’s sleep and if you are not in favor of bathing at night then just wash your legs and palms with hot water, you are surely going to get sound sleep. Even drinking warm milk at bedtime helps to obtain good sleep despite of outside music.

• Another way of getting sleep in heavy sound is to block the sound with other sound. This works best and if you have iPod or music player just put the soft music over the system and try to ignore the outside voice. It works effectively if you put the music over headphones while keeping the volume on lower side to help the brain relaxation.

• Lie down on the bed and by imagining each portion of your body, call out to relax. Start with your toe nails and work upwards but remember to engage every part separately. For example start as ‘my first finger of left toe is relaxing then second’ and so on up till head and hair strands. This movement engages your mind in different direction and slowly you will notice that you are getting sleepy.

• There is another way to get sound sleep in heavy noise and that is to construct and imagine happy event. This may seem foolish but it works for many people. What you have to do is to imagine a person with whom you want to spend quality time, and then imagine a dream destination putting elements that you fantasize. Next is to indulge yourself in possible conversations with the person and also imagine his/her replies. You can make it in the form of dream date, happy meeting or anything you like.

• If the sound is too loud then best way to get sleep in this condition is to count numbers starting from last to first. Imagine a number that should be of three digits and from that start counting backwards. This helps a lot to get sleep, as your brain is involved in counting activity, you will forget everything about the outside voice. If possible, count numbers in your mother tongue as it makes the procedure simple and effective.

• Record and listen a sound that sooths your mind, most people record relaxing sound of waves, air, gushing water or similar and listen with the help of recorder in night. This should be listened with the help of headphones to get maximum effect. The choice of sound is totally yours and if you are spiritual then you can record poems, chanting of OM and similar god related texts.

• The next tip may sound weird but helps many to get rid of the annoying sound. If you have ceiling fan at home then stare at the fan and its circular movements as this sometimes make the brain dizzy which could be concluded in sound sleep. If you don’t have ceiling fan then stare at any object present in your room that is moving which could be your wall clock.

• If nothing helps in getting sleep then you may consider purchasing earplugs that seal the outside sound and provide healthy sleep. Having earplugs for sealing sound could be effective but it produces risk of sleeping until late because you won’t even hear the alarm clock. It is better that you try all the above mentioned tips as they would surely give you sound sleep in heavy outside noise.

Via How to go sleep 

Kill Noise Earplugs: now you can easily talk while filtering ambient noises

Noise cancellation earphones eliminate ambient noises so that you can listen to music clearly or sleep peacefully in the drone. 

But how about the time that you want to filter background noises and, at the same time, hold a conversation? 

The Kill Noise earplug suits this purpose and realizes noise reduction by electronic filtering, which can make people communicate easily in the noisy environments. The bright-orange polyester buds have an adjustment knob to set the filters and a built-in battery that lasts long.

Info at Yanko Design

72% of Teenagers Experienced Reduced Hearing Ability After Attending Concert

M. Jennifer Derebery, MD, House Clinic physician, along with the House Research Institute tested teens’ hearing before and after a concert.

The hearing loss that may be experienced after a pop rock concert is not generally believed to be permanent. It is called a temporary threshold shift and usually disappears within 16-48 hours, after which a person’s hearing returns to previous levels. “Teenagers need to understand a single exposure to loud noise either from a concert or personal listening device can lead to hearing loss,” said M. Jennifer Derebery, MD, lead author and physician at the House Clinic. “With multiple exposures to noise over 85 decibels, the tiny hair cells may stop functioning and the hearing loss may be permanent.”

In the study, twenty-nine teenagers were given free tickets to a rock concert. To ensure a similar level of noise exposure for the teens, there were two blocks of seats within close range of each other. The seats were located in front of the stage at the far end of the venue approximately 15-18 rows up from the floor. The importance of using hearing protection was explained to the teenagers. Researchers then offered hearing protection to the subjects and encouraged them to use the foam ear plugs. However, only three teenagers chose to do so. Three adult researchers sat with the teenagers. Using a calibrated sound pressure meter, 1,645 measurements of sound decibel (dBA) levels were recorded during the 26 songs played during the three hour concert. The sound levels ranged from 82-110 dBA, with an average of 98.5 dBA. The mean level was greater than 100 dBA for 10 of the 26 songs.

Following the concert, the majority of the study participants also were found to have a significant reduction in the Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) test. This test checks the function of the tiny outer hair cells in the inner ear that are believed to be the most vulnerable to damage from prolonged noise exposure, and are crucial to normal hearing, the ability to hear soft (or low level sounds), and the ability to understand speech, especially in noisy environments. With exposure to loud noise, the outer hair cells show a reduction in their ability to function, which may later recover. However, it is known that with repeated exposure to loud noise, the tiny hair cells may become permanently damaged. Recent animal research suggests that a single exposure to loud noise may result in permanent damage to the hearing nerve connections themselves that are necessary to hear sound.

Following the concert, 53.6 percent of the teens said they did not think they were hearing as well after the concert. Twenty-five percent reported they were experiencing tinnitus or ringing in their ears, which they did not have before the concert.

In the most recent government survey on health in the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005-2006, 20% of adolescents were found to have at least slight hearing loss, a 31% increase from a similar survey done from 1988-1994.

“It also means we definitely need to be doing more to ensure the sound levels at concerts are not so loud as to cause hearing loss and neurological damage in teenagers, as well as adults,” said Derebery. “Only 3 of our 29 teens chose to use ear protection, even when it was given to them and they were encouraged to do so. We have to assume this is typical behavior for most teen listeners, so we have the responsibility to get the sound levels down to safer levels.”

Researchers recommend teenagers and young adults take an active role in protecting their hearing by utilizing a variety of sound meter ‘apps’ available for smart phones. The sound meters will give a rough estimate of the noise level allowing someone to take the necessary steps to protect their hearing such as wearing ear plugs at a concert. In addition, Derebery and the study co-authors would like to see concert promoters and the musicians themselves take steps to lower sound levels as well as encourage young concert goers to use hearing protection.

Info accessed at Science Daily

MARVEL designed a superhero to help a 4-year-old with hearing loss

A 4-year-old boy in Salem who decided he did not want to wear his blue hearing aid to school anymore received some new inspiration after Marvel Comics designed a superhero after him.

Christina D’Allesandro said her son Anthony Smith cannot hear out of his right ear and has hearing loss in his left ear. She said Anthony woke up one day and decided that he did not want to wear his blue hearing aid.

“Basically, one day he woke up and I said, ‘OK, time to put in your hearing aid,’ and said, ‘Let’s put in blue ear.’ We’ve always called it that. And he said, ‘No, superheroes don’t wear blue ears,’” D’Allesandro said.

D’Allesandro assured her son that superheroes did wear hearing aids. She said she wanted to make sure, so she emailed the experts at Marvel Comics in New York City. Marvel sent back a comic book cover featuring Hawkeye, a superhero who lost his hearing. D’Allesandro said her son was captivated by the image. Marvel then sent a drawing of a new superhero inspired by Anthony: Blue Ear. Another sketch arrived portraying Hawkeye and Blue Ear together.

Anthony’s grandfather, N.H. Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, said he was happy to hear of Marvel’s help.

“This is a feel-good moment. This is a feel-good story, and we’ve got to get the world to recognize that,” he said.

Christina D’Allesandro said Anthony, like Blue Ear, is proud to wear his hearing aid and share his good news with others at his school for children with hearing loss. The school had a superhero week, and a costume has been ordered for Anthony. D’Allesandro said she hopes to finally meet and thank the heroes at Marvel Comics someday.

Info accessed at Hearing Aid Center

New Stem Cell Therapies Being Developed for Hearing Loss

Vitro Diagnostics Inc has announced that it is developing stem cell products that could one day lead to therapies to prevent, reverse, and restore hearing, according to the company, in animals and humans. Vitro's therapeutic products include molecular compositions to promote, maintain, and restore inner ear hair cells and related structures together with adult stem cell transplantation to restore hearing loss. 

Vitro's intellectual property has application to hearing restoration and prevention of hearing loss through a series of products envisioned to provide various treatment options for hearing loss. These discoveries may lead to new pharmaceutical agents that stimulate activation of native adult stem cells to regenerate inner ear hair cells, together with other cells derived from adult stem cells, without the necessity of stem cell transplantation. 

Recombinant cytokines, including erythropoietin and granulocyte colony stimulating factor, are now widely used for therapeutic activation of the hematopoietic stem cell system for treatment of adverse effects of chemotherapy and represent major products of the biotechnology industry.

Vitro has developed other proprietary technology related to stem cell products and technology that has a broad application to various areas in medical research and therapy. Modern stem cell technology is rapidly evolving and holds promise to revolutionize medicine by allowing replacement of any type of cell within the human body. Diseases characterized by cellular degeneration, such as hearing loss, may soon be treatable through development and further commercialization.

While the research and use of human embryonic stem cells is politically and ethically controversial, Vitro's stem cell technology is based on adult human stem cells that are derived without sacrifice of the embryos needed to generate embryonic stem cells. Transplantation of adult stem cells, derived from various tissues, such as bone marrow, has been used for the past 50 years to treat leukemia, lymphoma, and other blood disorders. The same techniques can now be applied for hearing loss therapies.

The company says that is now seeking partnerships to commercialize its stem cell products related to treatment of hearing loss.

Info accessed at Hearing Review

April 25 - International Noise Awareness Day

The International Noise Awareness Day initiative was launched in the USA by the Center for Hearing and Communication, a non-profit organization. The aim of this global campaign is to raise awareness among the general public of the issue of noise and the risks it poses. 
This year the “International Noise Awareness Day” will take place for the 17th time on April 25. People all over the world are being urged to take part through a variety of activities, including open days held by hearing care professionals, talks at health authorities, universities and schools, expert round table discussions, noise level measurement campaigns and readings. A worldwide “Quiet Diet” – a minute of silence – is also planned for 2.15 pm to 2.16 pm. 

In Germany, the "Tag gegen Lärm" was introduced in 1997 by Prof. Brigitte Schulte-Fortkamp, a professor at the Technische Universität Berlin, and is due to take place this year, for the 15th time, on April 25 – on the same day as the “International Noise Awareness Day” in the USA. 
The theme of this year’s event in Germany is Emission: Impossible! In addition to general noise-related issues, the initiative is focusing on two key topics in particular: the impact of aircraft noise and the sound environment experienced by children.

Let's spread the word about the danger of noise!

Info acceed at Hear the World

Dangerous new teen trend on hearing loss VS technology

Is a fact that loud music causes permanent, irreversible sensorineural hearing loss. But there’s a very important — and dangerous — new trend we’re seeing with today’s youth: in the video below (produced by high schoolers) you can see that the boy at 1:00 and the girl at 1:18 have the attitude that “technology will fix the problem”. The prevalence of teen hearing loss increased from 14.9% in 1994 to 19.5% in 2006.

Info acceed at The Hearing Blog

Noise is one of the great underappreciated health hazards of our time

Noise is no minor nuisance. It is one of the great underappreciated health hazards of our time—the secondhand smoke of our ears.

Noise pollution doesn't get the attention of A-list diseases, but there are a few crusaders raising their voices against the onslaught. One of them is Arline Bronzaft, a professor emeritus at the City University of New York.

What's the problem with this high-decibel world? "The most obvious one is hearing loss," Dr. Bronzaft says. Some 26 million adults are walking around with noise-induced hearing loss, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Noise also has a surprisingly potent effect on our stress level, cardiovascular system and concentration. In Paleo times, a loud noise signaled a threat, so noise triggers the release of the stress hormone cortisol, which raises blood pressure.

A University of British Columbia review of 6,300 people who work in noisy jobs found that they suffer two to three times more heart problems than those who work in quiet settings. A former World Health Organization official estimates (with a bit of alarmism) that noise-induced strain may cause 45,000 deadly heart attacks a year.

Noise also wreaks havoc on the brain. Dr. Bronzaft conducted a landmark study at a public school in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood, published in the journal Environment and Behavior in 1975. Some of the classrooms directly faced an elevated subway track. Every five minutes the students heard a train rattle by. Other classrooms were tucked on the opposite side of the building, away from the noise. The difference? By the sixth grade, the kids on the noisy side were nearly a year behind. Since then, her conclusions about the effects of noise on concentration have been backed up by a pile of other studies, on both students and adults.

Adapted from (and more info at) The Wall Street Journal

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Ruído dos navios causa “stress crónico” nas baleias

O ruído causado pelo tráfego marítimo causa “stress crónico” nas baleias, revela um estudo de investigadores norte-americanos. Os investigadores aperceberam-se da ligação direta entre o ruído e os níveis hormonais nas baleias relacionados com o stress durante a paragem brusca do tráfego marítimo causada pelos atentados do 11 de Setembro de 2001, nos Estados Unidos.

O essencial desta poluição sonora tem origem nas hélices e motores dos navios comerciais e situa-se “em frequências baixas, entre os 20 e os 200 Hertz”. O problema é que estas frequências também são utilizadas pelas baleias para comunicarem entre si, segundo o estudo publicado na revista Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

“Mostrámos que as baleias que vivem em oceanos com elevados níveis de ruído causado por navios têm stress crónico, como resposta”, disse Rosalind Rolland, principal autora do estudo e investigadora do Aquário de Nova Inglaterra, em Boston, citada pelo jornal The Guardian.

Os especialistas já tinham demonstrado que o ruído obrigava as baleias-francas a aumentarem a amplitude e frequência dos seus sinais de comunicação, a modificarem o seu comportamento e, por vezes, a mudar de habitat. No entanto, ainda não se sabia se o ruído tinha, ou não, um impacto biológico significativo e duradouro junto destes cetáceos.

Redução significativa do ruído

Algumas semanas antes dos atentados do 11 de Setembro, os cientistas realizaram uma campanha de estudo das baleias-francas do Atlântico Norte (Eubalaena glacialis) que, todos os anos, se juntam na Baía de Fundy, no Canadá, para alimentar as suas crias.

Nos dias seguintes aos atentados, as autoridades marítimas locais confirmaram uma queda acentuada do tráfego de navios comerciais. Segundo os investigadores, a intensidade do ruído de fundo nas águas da baía de Fundy baixou 6 decibéis, com uma redução significativa do ruído abaixo dos 150 Hertz. Ao mesmo tempo, análises aos excrementos das baleias revelaram uma queda forte de glucocorticóides, hormonas segregadas pelos vertebrados em resposta a situações de stress. Análises semelhantes foram realizadas até 2005, sem que se tivesse voltado a registar uma tal diminuição de glucocorticóides.

“Na nossa opinião, não existe nenhum outro fator que afeta a população [de baleias] que possa explicar esta diferença entre a redução do tráfego marítimo e a poluição sonora submarina depois do 11 de Setembro”, concluem os autores da investigação.

Os efeitos biológicos do stress crónico nas baleias estão ainda pouco estudados mas sabe-se que a produção continuada de glucocorticóides nos vertebrados tem efeitos negativos na saúde (problemas de crescimento, no sistema imunitário e no sistema reprodutivo).

Nos últimos 50 anos, a prospecção petrolífera, os sonares militares e o aumento do tráfego marítimo têm feito aumentar a poluição sonora submarina. “A boa notícia nisto tudo é que este é um problema com solução”, disse Rolland, lembrando que o ruído dos navios se deve, muitas vezes, a defeitos nos motores das embarcações. Actualmente, a União Europeia e a Organização Marítima Internacional estão a estudar formas de reduzir o ruído nos oceanos.

Informação acedida em: Público

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Descoberta de um bioquímico português na Universidade de Yale abre caminho para travar surdez

Uma equipa de cientistas da Universidade de Yale liderada pelo jovem bioquímico português Nuno Raimundo desvendou o processo da perda de audição, através da manipulação genética de cobaias, abrindo caminho a um tratamento para a surdez.

A descoberta do mecanismo molecular que leva à surdez é narrada na última edição da "Cell", uma das três principais revistas científicas internacionais a par da "Nature" e "Science", e vem demonstrar que "ao contrário do que se pensava até agora, a perda de audição não é irreversível", afirmou à Lusa o cientista de 35 anos. As células responsáveis pela audição "estão lá, só não estão a funcionar bem, não estão mortas" e podem ser reativadas "manipulando duas proteínas fundamentais farmacologicamente", dentro do ADN."

Se [a perda de audição] não é tratada, à medida que passam anos - este é um problema muito comum, sobretudo nos seniores - pode tornar-se irreversível. [A descoberta] abre algumas janelas de possibilidade terapêutica. Pode vir a reduzir a incidência ou travar", adiantou à Lusa o cientista, pós-doutorando em Yale.

O estudo demonstra que a remoção de uma molécula conhecida como "superóxido" evita a morte de células críticas para a audição e identifica várias outras moléculas que podem servir de alvos terapêuticos.

Raimundo afirma que vai continuar nesta linha de investigação no próximo ano, nomeadamente "para perceber exatamente quando algumas células [responsáveis pela audição] morrem, como morrem". Já existem medicamentos no mercado que atuam sobre algumas das proteínas em causa, mas têm sido utilizadas para tratar outras doenças, pelo que Raimundo estima que um tratamento específico para este problema levará "nunca menos de 10 anos". "Do momento em que se identifica uma proteína ligada a uma doença até se conseguir acertar com o medicamento certo, as quantidades, tudo exige tempo. Uma coisa é tratar ratinhos, outra pessoas", adiantou o cientista à Lusa. Mas a perda de audição "afeta milhões e milhões de cidadãos" e Raimundo acredita que não faltarão farmacêuticas interessadas em desenvolver um medicamento.

Licenciado em bioquímica em Lisboa, onde chegou a dar aulas, Raimundo rumou à Finlândia para trabalhar em investigação genética e daí veio para a prestigiada Universidade de Yale em 2008, especificamente para o projeto de estudo da surdez. O seu objetivo mais vasto é estudar a relação entre a célula e um órgão essencial destas, os mitocôndrios, as "baterias onde se gera a energia química que mantém as células a funcionar" e cuja "avaria" está ligada a problemas de coração, fígado ou músculos.

Notícia acedida em RTP

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Ruído provocado pelo homem fragmenta populações de aves

Pesquisadores da área de zoologia da Universidade de Salamanca analisaram durante os últimos oito anos o canto das diversas aves passeriformes na Espanha e no Brasil. Em algumas espécies, o canto é fundamental para a defesa de território e para atrair um companheiro. No entanto, o ruído provocado pelo homem tem vindo a alterar o seu modo de comunicação. Desta forma, as aves necessitam de se adaptar às circunstâncias, contudo, tem-se verificado situações em que indivíduos de uma mesma espécie, mas de diferentes regiões, encontram dificuldades para comunicar entre si. Ou seja, o homem tem vindo a promover a fragmentação dentro destas populações.

“A nossa premissa é de que, se existe um grande ruído ambiental, as aves modificam o seu canto com uma amplitude de frequências distinta, tons mais altos ou mais baixos, para que outros congéneres as possam escutar”, explica Salvador Peris, professor catedrático de Biologia Animal da Universidade de Salamanca.

Os trabalhos focaram-se em espécies de melro (Turdus) e corruíra (Troglodytes) no estado brasileiro do Pará, região do Amazonas, bem como na província de Salamanca. “Existem populações dentro de uma mesma espécie tão separadas pelo canto que podem chegar a nunca se encontrar.” Afirma que estamos diante de uma fragmentação das populações devido ao ruído produzido pela mão humana. Neste sentido, é possível que um melro de uma cidade da Espanha possa ser incapaz de comunicar-se com um do campo. “A isto chamamos mutação cultural, que é mais rápida que a mutação genética”, indica Peris, “e resulta na fragmentação das populações”.

A equipa da Universidade de Salamanca analisou questões concretas como a flutuação de populações de aves na província de Salamanca em estradas com distintos níveis de tráfego, comprovando que os lugares ruidosos afetam a presença destes animais. Dentre as espécies cuja população descendeu estão as aves migrantes transaarianas, que “têm repertórios de canto mais complexos e, portanto, o ruído ambiental afeta-as mais”, indica o especialista. Outras espécies, como pardais, tentilhões e serines “suportam melhor o ruído ambiental”, especialmente as denominadas aves urbanas, como os estorninhos, que são capazes de “modificar rapidamente seu canto, de um ano para outro”.

Adaptado de DiCyT

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Seis em cada dez portugueses vivem com níveis de ruído acima do recomendado

Segundo a Direcção Geral do Ambiente, mais de 60 por cento da população portuguesa vive com níveis de ruído acima do recomendado pela Organização Mundial de Saúde (mais de 55 decibéis), sendo que 19 por cento está mesmo exposta a barulho incomodativo (mais de 65 decides). A situação é mais crítica é nos grandes pólos urbanos, já que o tráfego rodoviário expõe diariamente cinco milhões de portugueses a tons excessivos e nocivos para a saúde.

A principal causa de perda auditiva nos jovens e adultos é o ruído. Esta situação é definitiva e, como tal, irreversível. O cenário não é animador, uma vez que, contrariamente a outros países da União Europeia, Portugal tem registado, nos últimos anos, um aumento dos níveis de ruído, especialmente nas grandes cidades, fazendo com que, no seu dia-a-dia, cinco milhões de portugueses se encontrem expostos a elevados níveis de ruído, quer devido à sua profissão, quer devido ao tráfego rodoviário. Para além de perda auditiva irreversível, a exposição prolongada ao ruído pode originar outros problemas de saúde, como psicológicos ou doenças cardiovasculares.

“A perda auditiva induzida por um trauma acústico é uma realidade que não deve ser ignorada. É a principal causa de perda auditiva irreversível. Todos nós estamos expostos diariamente a ruído excessivo, com consequências directas”, segundo refere em comunicado Pedro Paiva, audiologista.

A perda da audição pode ser causada por um problema mecânico no canal auditivo ou no ouvido médio que obstrói a condução do som (perda condutiva de audição) ou por uma lesão no ouvido interno, no nervo auditivo ou nas vias do nervo auditivo no cérebro (perda neuro-sensorial da audição). Os dois tipos de perda da audição podem ser diferenciados comparando como uma pessoa ouve os sons conduzidos pelo ar e como os ouve conduzidos pelo ossos.

A perda neuro-sensorial denomina-se sensorial quando afecta o ouvido interno, e neural quando afecta o nervo auditivo ou as vias do nervo auditivo localizadas no cérebro. A perda auditiva sensorial pode ser hereditária, ser provocada por ruídos muito intensos (trauma acústico), por uma infecção viral do ouvido interno, por certos fármacos ou pela doença de Ménière.

Evitar exposição a ruído intenso, não se automedicar, não introduzir objectos no ouvido, evitando também a tentativa de limpar o conduto auditivo são atitudes que podem evitar uma deficiência auditiva, tanto na infância e adolescência como na fase adulta.

Notícia acedida em Ciência Hoje

Persistent Workplace Noise More Than Doubles Risk of Heart Disease

A persistently noisy workplace more than doubles an employee's risk of serious heart disease, suggests research published online in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Young male smokers seem to be particularly at risk,according to the study's findings.

The researchers base their findings on a nationally representative sample of more than 6,000 U.S. employees, aged 20 and up, who had been part of the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2004.

This study included detailed household interviews, addressing lifestyle and occupational health, medical examinations, and blood tests.

Participants were grouped into those who endured persistent loud noise at work, to the extent that it was difficult to talk at normal volume for at least three months, and those working in more comfortable surroundings.

One in five (21-percent) workers said they put up with a noisy workplace for an average of almost nine consecutive months. This group, whose average age is 40, also tended to smoke and weigh more than their peers working in quieter work environments, adding to the group's risk factors for heart disease.

Workers in persistently noisy workplaces were between two to three times as likely to have serious heart problems as their peers in quiet workplaces.

The association to heart disease was particularly strong among workers under 50, who made up more than 4,500 of the total sample. They were between three and four times as likely to have angina or coronary artery disease or to have had a heart attack.Blood tests of these workers did not indicate particularly high levels of cholesterol or inflammatory proteins, both of which are associated with heart disease. But diastolic blood pressure, which measures the pressure of the artery walls when the heart relaxes between heartbeats, was higher than normal, a condition known as isolated diastolic hypertension, or IDH. This is an independent predictor of serious heart problems.

The findings suggest that those employees regularly exposed to loud noise at work were twice as likely to have IDH.The authors speculate that loud noise day after day may be as strong an external stressor as sudden strong emotion or physical exertion, the effect of which is to prompt various chemical messengers to constrict blood flow through the coronary arteries.

Researchers conclude: "This study suggests that excess noise exposure in the workplace is an important occupational health issue and deserves special attention."

Info at AcoustiBlok

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Hearing loss in musicians - Is there a problem?

There are several unique reasons to be concerned about sound exposure and its effect on musicians’ hearing. First of all, musicians’ working hours are usually quite varied as compared to most employees, especially during performance weeks. Also, musicians spend a varied amount of time practicing, playing solo and as a member of different groups, and enjoying the music of others. One review article suggested that classical musicians play an average of 25 hours per week (Palin 1994), but this could vary widely from week to week, and from person to person.

Most people are aware that loud noises are bad for your ears, and might lead to hearing problems down the road. Since listening to music is a positive, pleasant, and desirable activity for many people, it may come as a surprise that music can have a negative effect on hearing too.

Work-related hearing loss is quite a different problem for those in the music industry than it is for industrial workers. Musicians and DJs regard themselves as having superior hearing, specially trained to detect nuance or tone, and consider that their hearing is their livelihood (Axelsson and Lindgren 1981; Early and Horstman 1996). A slight hearing loss that may not bother an industrial worker may cause difficulties for a musician. In addition, controlling musicians’ exposures poses a different challenge than it does for other types of employees.

Even though sound levels can be exceedingly high at music venues, very few investigations on the hearing of musicians had actually taken place as of the early 1980’s (Axelsson and Lindgren 1981). An early study on the hearing of orchestral musicians at an opera house found that 42% of participants had hearing loss that was greater than expected for their age (Axelsson and Lindgren 1981). Many other studies, including both classical and pop musicians, have found similar results: musicians have worse hearing than would be expected based on their age (Lebo and Oliphant 1968; Westmore and Eversden 1981; Jansson and Karlsson 1983; Hart, Geltman et al. 1987; Ostri, Eller et al. 1989; Royster, Royster et al. 1991; Fearn 1993; Jaroszewski and Rakowski 1994; Jaroszewski, Fidecki et al. 1998; Eaton and Gillis 2002; Kahari, Zachau et al. 2003).

Other researchers report no difference between musicians and other workers (Arnold and Miskolczy-Fodor 1960; Karlsson, Lundquist et al. 1983; Johnson, Sherman et al. 1985; McBride 1992; Kahari 2001); this difference in finding may be due to varying definitions of what constitutes hearing loss, difficulties in quantifying leisure noise exposure, or poor study quality (Sataloff 1991).

The general consensus in the literature suggests that hearing loss is a problem for musicians, and this varies across type of music played (i.e. – rock or jazz or classical),and type of instrument played (Palin 1994; Mikl 1995). It has been suggested that since sound pressure levels (SPL) produced by music can be (and often are) well above the recommended 85 dB, we have good reason to be concerned about musicians’ hearing.

Another complaint from some musicians (but more typically of industrial workers) is a disease called “tinnitus”, which is a permanent ringing in the ears caused by chronic exposure to loud noises (Axelsson and Ringdahl 1989; Axelsson and Prasher 2000; Lockwood, Salvi et al. 2001). More research needs to be done on the musician’s experience with this often highly debilitating disease.

Info accessed at ActSafe

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