Harvard Health Study Finds 20 Percent Of U.S. Adolescents Have Significant Hearing Loss–But Will We Do Anything About It?

Researchers at Harvard University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston have concluded that nearly one in five American adolescents suffers from the same degree of hearing loss comparable to the age-related loss normally found in adults in their ’50s and ’60s. And people immediately are pointing the finger of blame at all the usual suspects: rock concerts, cell phones, and the ubiquitous Apple iPod and other portable music players. That’s all well and good, but it begs the question of all the other environmental noise people are subjected to from birth. The sad fact is we’re living in a much noisier world than 20 or 30 years ago, and no matter how many times we tell people to turn down the iPod, there is no substitute for a far more organized response to the epidemic of environmental noise-related hearing loss than we have seen to date. Read more

Phonak Aims Its Colorful New Audeo Hearing Aids At Aging Hipsters

There’s a marketing bug going around the hearing-aid industry. First Oticon caught it with its Delta hearing aids, whose array of pop colors would have made Andy Warhol proud. Now Phonak has caught the bug with its Audeo hearing aids, which come in 15 hues ranging from “Crème Brule” (brown) to “Pinot Noir” (crimson) to “Pure Passion” (red) to “Green with Envy” (light green). Read more

Hatis Assistive Listening Devices Make Hearing Aids Phone- and iPod-Friendly

To listen to an iPod or communicate successfully on the phone, even on my most powerful amplified phone, I need to hear with both ears. I’ve found the best way to accomplish that trick is with a line of products from Hatis that plug into my iPod and my phones. Read more

Apple Should Do More To Help Prevent Hearing Loss Among iPod Users

Ever since Apple was sued by a Louisiana man claiming his iPod caused irreparable hearing loss, I’ve been scratching my head about vendors’ responsibility to prevent hearing loss versus individuals’ responsibility to take care of their own health. Read more

“Musical Ear” Auditory Hallucinations Finally Get A Medical Diagnosis In The New York Times

I’ve written several times about the weird phenomenon of hearing noises and music in my head ever since my sudden hearing loss, and when I cited Dr. Neil Bauman’s fascinating, in-depth book on auditory hallucinations, Phantom Voices, I made a rather strong statement about the lack of research that’s been done on the subject by the traditional medical and scientific community. Read more

Turn Down The Volume On Your IPOD

So now it’s Apple Computer’s IPOD. The London Evening Standard this week published a warning issued by the Royal National Institute of the Deaf (RNID) in the U.K. that London commuters are permanently deafening themselves by turning up the volumes on their IPODs to drown out the noise in the city’s underground subway system. Read more