Tips & Tricks Archives - Salus Hearing And Tinnitus Centre

In the Time of COVID-19: Hearing Loss and Restaurants

If you are hard of hearing, you have most likely experienced some degree of difficulty when going out to eat at a restaurant. Ambient conversations from other diners, noisy kitchens and background music can create a challenging auditory environment where it is hard to hear and understand your communication partner(s).

Additionally, during the COVID-19 pandemic restaurants have been utilizing their patios for service in order to ensure the safety of their patrons and follow social distancing guidelines. And as the majority of the province prepares to enter Stage 3 of reopening, more and more patios are open for business. The introduction of further background noise from outdoor sources makes it even more difficult for people with hearing loss. So here are some tips and tricks to ease communication in these dining situations!

- Put your back to the noise

If you wear hearing aids, their directional microphones are designed to focus on sounds in front of you while reducing sounds behind you. Sit with your back to the majority of the noise so the hearing aid microphones can perform the most effective noise reduction. It is also better if your communication partner has their back to a wall, so they are one of the only sources of sound positioned in front of you.

- Avoid peak dining (and traffic) hours

More people (and if you’re on a patio, more traffic) means more background noise. If possible, choose a less busy time of day to go out for your meal.

- Booths are Better

If you are dining inside the restaurant, request a booth. They typically have higher backs that can block some of the background sound in the room. Also, the seats usually have padding that can help dampen noise.

- Ask for what you need

For example, if the music is too loud, you can tell a staff member that you are hard of hearing and ask if they wouldn’t mind turning the music down while you dine.

- Plan your next venue carefully

With some online research, you can discover which restaurants have a better atmosphere for easy conversation. And if you have a smartphone, you can download the SoundPrint app, which is available on iPhone and Android: SoundPrint utilizes a decibel meter to measure the level of sound at the venue, and then submits it into the database for all users to see. (Note: Android does not have the decibel meter function, however you can subjectively rate the volume of the restaurant for the database). SoundPrint has almost 100,000 different entries across Canada and the United States, so there are plenty of places to research and find a quiet spot for your next meal.

These beneficial strategies should help ease your communication while dining out! Enjoy!

In the Time of COVID-19: Hearing Loss and Masks

in Hearing, Tips & Tricks

These days, masks are essential for our safety when it comes to social distancing and preventing and/or reducing our exposure to COVID. However, for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, masks can make communication more difficult.

People with hearing loss tend to utilize Speech-reading or lip-reading, where a person focuses on another’s face – especially their lips – to gather visual cues from their facial expressions and mouth movements to help reduce the lack of speech clarity that can occur as a result of hearing loss. When a person wears a mask, it covers the lower half of their face so you can no longer see their mouth, and it’s harder to see full facial expressions.

Here are some beneficial strategies that we can all use to help improve communication:

Make sure not to speak too quickly.
Speak clearly and enunciate – do not shout! Shouting can distort the sound of your voice, affecting the clarity of your speech and making it harder to understand.
Rephrase what you said rather than repeat it exactly.
Try to converse in a quieter environment, minimizing the background noise.
Be sure to look at your speaking partner. Even though you’re wearing a mask, your speech will travel directly toward your companion instead of away, and they will be able to see a portion of your face to gather other communication cues.

Additionally, masks can sometimes be tricky for hearing aid wearers with a behind-the-ear (BTE) style aid, as the wires or tubes can get caught in the mask loops and become tangled up, increasing the risk of them falling off and getting lost when the mask is removed.

Tips for keeping your hearing aids safe and secure:

If possible, try to wear a mask designed to fit around your head instead of your ears.
With a typical mask design, you can connect the mask loops to a piece of fabric with buttons so it can sit at the back of your head instead of behind your ear. Buttons attached to a headband is another attachment option.
If the hearing aid does fall off, there might be a way to track its location! Some models of hearing aid are able to be located by their phone’s GPS system through their app.

We hope these recommendations help!

Until next time,

Your friendly neighbourhood audiologists.

Back to School: Hearing Loss and Online Learning

in Hearing Loss In Children, Tips & Tricks

Due to the on-going pandemic, “Back to School” is going to be considerably different this year for both students and their families. Many students will be participating in online learning, and for those who are hard of hearing, online learning comes with an additional set of challenges.

Audio can become distorted as it passes from the speaker through the computer and out to the listener, making it harder to understand. As well, if the speaker is far away from the video camera, or not facing the camera directly, the student will not be able to see their face to speech-read. And if there is any background noise from other students through their microphones, it will greatly affect the clarity of the person speaking.

Students, and especially all of our hard-working school teachers are going to be exceptionally busy this year attending to their education through multiple modes of learning. Here are some tips and tricks for both students and teachers to utilize online to help create a better learning experience!

- - Recording Classes

Recording each class would be very helpful. If a student misses a word or sentence during the class, they can go back and review the lesson afterward, allowing them to catch what they might have missed.

- - Wearing a Microphone

The teacher can utilize a high-quality headset to capture audio while they teach their lesson. It would help amplify speech and improve clarity to reduce the listening strain for the student.

- - Visual materials

Having visual materials to refer to are very important. Having a hard copy or print out of the lesson to refer to during and after the class would be beneficial, especially for hard of hearing students.

- - Take turns

This is an obvious one, but making sure only one person is talking at a time during the lesson is essential. If multiple people are speaking, it is almost impossible to understand what anyone is saying during video conferencing. Additionally, making sure everyone’s microphones are off when it is not their turn to speak is very important in order to reduce distracting background noise.

- - Using assistive listening devices

For those students wearing hearing aids, there are assistive listening devices that work in conjunction to help with direct streaming of audio from the computer directly to the hearing aids. Using FM technology or bluetooth streaming will allow the student to hear the audio straight from the computer, limiting potential distortion from the computer speaker as well as reducing the effects of distance from the speaker and having to filter the sound through potential background noise in their environment.

Lastly, this has been stated before on this blog, but it is important for students to remember: do not be afraid to ask for what you need. If you are having difficulty hearing your teacher or are missing parts of the lesson, make sure to let them know. Inform them which communication strategies work best for you, and ask for any additional teaching materials you might require.

We at Salus Hearing Centre wish everyone heading back to school a safe, educational and enjoyable school year.

Does Your Heart Health Affect Your Hearing Health?

in Comorbidity, Disorders, Hearing Health, Tips & Tricks

Easy Ways to Boost Heart Health

The human body is complex. So complex, in fact, that some things you read about it might seem downright far-fetched. For example, your heart health affects your hearing health.

The Heart–Hearing Link

That might sound a little squirrelly, but it’s supported by more than six decades of research. How are they connected?

Your inner ear is where sound waves get translated into a language — electrical impulses — that your brain understands. Structures critical to this translation process depend on nourishment from tiny blood vessels. When your heart doesn’t work well, those structures don’t get enough blood and, therefore, don’t work like they should, leading to hearing loss.

The connection is so strong that, in the event of a heart attack, it’s recommended that you get a hearing test to catch hearing loss early. It’s also been suggested that every hearing care patient’s history include detailed information about heart health, such as history of heart disease, hypertension, heart attacks, or heart surgery due to coronary blockage.

Keep Your Heart Healthy

There are plenty of easy ways to improve your heart health. Instead of a list of don’ts, we’ll keep it positive. Here are three easy things you can do to head toward heart health.

Stand up

The scientific community is starting to recognize just how unhealthy sitting for a big portion of the day really is. Simply put, sitting for long periods is linked to heart disease. Stand up from time to time. It helps more than you realize. It’s not a matter of making sure you’re exercising enough — per Dr. Erin Michos, associate director of preventive cardiology at Johns Hopkins, “Even if you’re doing 30 minutes per day of physical activity, it matters what you do the other 23 hours of the day.” Dr. Michos finds reasons to get up and move every hour, such as going down the hall to a colleague’s office to ask a question instead of asking via email.
Make every meal a rainbow

To reduce risk of heart disease, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada recommends 7 to 10 servings of vegetables and fruit every day. Practically all of them are low in calories, fat, and sodium, and many are rich in vitamin C or beta-carotene, both of which reduce plaque buildup in your arteries. To understand what the foundation means by “serving,” here’s Health Canada’s current serving-size guide.
Keep the fats — but only the healthy kind

It’s never a good idea to cut out all fat. Your body needs certain fats. According to the American Heart Association, the heart-healthy approach is to focus on unsaturated fats (poly or mono), heavily limit saturated fats, and cut out artificial trans fats, hydrogenated oils, and tropical oils entirely.

What does that mean, exactly? Easy ways to load up on the good stuff are adding fish and avocado to your diet, eating nuts in moderation, and steering toward oils that are low in saturated fat, such as avocado, grapeseed, olive, and sesame oils.

Food + Better Hearing = National Nutrition Month!

A Feast for the Ears: Supporting Your Hearing Health Through Food

in Hearing, Hearing Health, Nutrition, Tips & Tricks

March is National Nutrition Month, and that makes this an especially great time to talk about hearing wellness and nutrition. Never thought about food in relation to your ears? You’re not alone. But considering food is a critical source of elements crucial to healthy skin, muscles, organs, and more, it’s no wonder that nutrition and hearing are connected.

Take children and hearing loss, for instance. Did you know that a lack of adequate nutrition early in life could mean problems with hearing later on? A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in February 2018, for example, found that young adults who experienced poor nutrition in their preschool years had double the risk of hearing loss versus their better-nourished counterparts.

Though the research focused on a population with ongoing malnutrition issues and limited health care access, the study adds to the body of research linking nourishment — broccoli, anyone? — and hearing health.

Speaking of broccoli: Selected vitamins and minerals in your food can contribute to protecting your hearing wellness, according to HealthyHearing.com, so feast your eyes — and ears — on these examples to jump-start your healthy-hearing nutrition:

Clams, Cod, and Rockfish

These delights from the sea not only please a discerning palate but can provide potassium, an important mineral for regulating blood and tissue fluid levels — including in the inner ear, which plays an important role in hearing and balance.

Okra, Asparagus, and Spinach

Choices abound when it comes to sources of folate, which studies have linked to healthy outcomes such as decreased risk of hearing impairment among older men. Whether you’re into dark green veggies, broccoli, avocado, escarole, or edamame, you can find folate-rich foods to match your tastes.

Leafy Greens, Whole Grains, and — Hey — Dark Chocolate!

Yep, dark chocolate’s on our list of foods containing magnesium, which — combined with vitamins A, C, and E — can help thwart noise-induced hearing loss. Other magnesium sources include pumpkin seeds, kidney beans, chicken breast, and more.

Lentils, Split Peas, and Navy Beans

Serve them mashed, whole, in a soup, or in a salad bowl — whatever your delight! Lentils — along with other legumes and foods such as beef, oysters, and dark-meat chicken — offer zinc, which supports the immune system and may help fight tinnitus or ringing in the ears.

Healthy eating is important year-round, so keep these helpful tips in mind for National Nutrition Month and beyond. Want to learn more about hearing wellness and nutrition? Contact us! We’re happy to answer your questions.

May Is Better Hearing Month – Spring Into It With Less Noise, More Joy!

in Hearing, Hearing Health, Hearing loss, Hearing Protection, Tips & Tricks

May Is Better Hearing Month: Spring Into It With Less Noise, More Joy

Ahhh, spring! As power tools whir, ball games bloom, and concerts sprout, are your ears protected from the louder sounds of the season?

Some noises pack a bigger punch than your ears should take, so for Better Hearing Month this May, we’re sharing three quick tips to keep harmful volumes at bay.

TURN DOWN THE SOUND

Planning a hearty run in the fresh air with favorite tunes in your ears? It’s tempting to crank up the beats, but MP3 players can reach an ear-splitting 105 decibels. Better bet: Enjoy the sounds but turn them down to 50 percent maximum volume or lower.

GUARD YOUR EARS

Cutting that spring grass can feel so satisfying, but the noise of a gas mower can blow past the danger threshold of 85 decibels. Hearing protection such as earplugs or earmuffs help soften loud sounds and can be customized to your ears, so keep them on hand when using power equipment.

LIMIT YOUR EXPOSURE

Spring concerts, sports, and festivals abound, so help keep your hearing sound by wearing hearing protection and taking breaks from the festivities. Permanent hearing loss can result even from a single exposure to loud noise, making it important to give your ears a helpful rest from excess volumes.

Did you know?

An estimated one-third of hearing loss among children and adults worldwide is connected to noise exposure.
Excess noise can destroy the inner ear’s tiny, irreplaceable hair cells, which are crucial to healthy hearing.
Loud sounds can lead to tinnitus, a common and potentially debilitating problem of buzzing, humming, or ringing in the ears.
Quality hearing protection can curb noise intensity while letting music and other audio sound just as good.

As the season showers you with sound, make this the month to start protecting your hearing. Contact our caring team today to learn more about custom hearing protection for the whole family.

Are Portable Music Players Putting Your Ears at Risk?

in Hearing, Hearing Health, Hearing loss, Tips & Tricks

Turn the Music Up, Dude — But Not Past 85 Decibels

You probably use your tablet or smartphone often to stream music, TV shows, or movies. In fact, many websites these days auto-play videos regardless of whether you want them to.

Smartphones, tablets, and other types of portable music players (PMPs) are now commonplace, as are earbuds and headphones. But if your PMP is turned up too loud while wearing earbuds or headphones, you can damage your hearing quickly. Let’s look at why.

NIHL

This isn’t some new sports league — NIHL stands for noise-induced hearing loss, and it’s the second-largest cause of hearing loss worldwide.

You’re able to hear because of hair cells in your inner ear. These cells convert sound signals to electrical signals and send them to your brain, where they’re interpreted as sounds. But loud sounds can actually damage or destroy your hair cells.

Every time a hair cell gets damaged, you lose a little bit of your ability to hear, and that damage can’t be repaired. The result is NIHL.

How Headphones Hurt Your Hearing

Navigating noise is all about the decibels (a measure of sound pressure). You’re safe if the sound in question stays below 85 decibels (dB); above that, you’re in the action zone — protect your ears or risk hearing damage.

For comparison:

A clothes dryer = 60 dB
No need for hearing protection
A gas lawn mower = 91 dB
Exposure can damage hearing in 2 hours
A tractor =100 dB
Exposure can damage hearing in 15 minutes
A chain saw = 112 dB
Exposure can damage hearing in less than 1 minute

Some PMPs can generate 112 dB — in other words, if you like to listen to your PMP at full volume, you’re likely pumping a chain saw’s worth of noise at your ears from centimeters away.

Why Protecting Your Hearing Matters

Hearing loss is connected to overall health in surprising ways. It’s been linked to depression, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, dementia, and other health concerns.

But it’s not just a concern for later in life: One study found that any degree of hearing loss early in life increases a child’s risk for language and learning problems.

Considering that one study of PMP use in 9-to 11-year-olds reported that 9 in 10 children and teens use some form of audio-streaming device for education or recreation, PMPs pose a considerable hearing health risk at all ages.

Indeed, that same study found that 14 percent of the children had measurable hearing loss. In addition, if a child listened to their PMP only once or twice a week, it doubled their chances of hearing loss compared to children who didn’t use a PMP.

What You Can Do

Enforce the 60/60 rule. Don’t turn the volume of your PMPs up past 60 percent of full volume, and turn the device off completely after listening for 60 minutes so your ears can have a break.
Use headphones instead of earbuds. With earbuds, you pick up background noise, which often leads to turning up the volume on the PMP to hear the audio better. Headphones that surround the ear keep the background noise to a minimum, allowing you to leave the volume at or below 60 percent. Even better, invest in noise-canceling headphones.
If you must use earbuds, make them in-ear earbuds. With these earbuds, the earpiece sits inside the ear canal, rather than just outside it. The sleeve around the speaker blocks out background noise and keeps your audio from escaping the ear canal.
Use the sound limiter built into the PMP. Many devices allow you to limit how loud the volume goes, or the device has a built-in alert telling you you’re risking hearing damage by pushing the volume higher.
For kids, get volume-limiting headphones. Though there are many child-friendly options for headphones that will keep the volume from going over 85, it’s best to read up on whichever pair you choose to buy. Research by Wirecutter found that, of more than 30 brands tested, almost half were not effective at keeping the volume below 85 dB.

Invigorating exercise + happy ears = win-win.

Get That Gym Workout — Without Hurting Your Ears | Protecting Your Hearing

in Hearing loss, Hearing Protection, Tips & Tricks

Making Moves — and Protecting Your Hearing, Too

Planning to bust some moves at the gym as part of your 2019 goals? You’re not alone. As a tried-and-true strategy for losing weight, feeling more fit, or simply stepping up physical activity for overall wellness, working out is a perennially popular New Year’s resolution, and exercise classes can be a fun way to fit the bill.

The catch? Whether it’s cycling, kickboxing, step aerobics, dance, or another high-energy track, these classes often crank up the music to harmful levels — well above the danger threshold of 85 decibels — giving your ears a workout you didn’t bargain for. It can lead to instant or gradual hearing loss that could be permanent.

To protect your hearing while getting into the exercise groove, here are four things you can do:

Speak Up

Turning down the volume in the first place goes a long way toward reducing the risk of noise-induced hearing loss. If the music seems too loud, consider asking the instructor before class begins or during a cool-down break to lower the volume. Better yet, explore different gyms and fitness studios and their approach to noise management before choosing the facility for your needs.

Wear Earplugs

Keeping earplugs in your car or gym bag helps ensure you’ll have a pair on hand. They’re small enough to fit in your ear but effective enough to help soften the loudest sounds while still allowing you to hear. Inexpensive varieties are available at most pharmacies. Consider a customized set from your local audiologist to help ensure a secure fit during high-intensity exercise.

Keep Your Distance

The closer you are to the sound source, the bigger the burden on your ears, so try to pick a spot as far away from the speakers as possible. That can be harder to do in a smaller room — especially if speakers are along the wall and the ceiling, too — but every bit of space between you and the epicenter of the noise can make a difference.

Take a Break

Keeping your noise exposure to 15 minutes or less amid 100-plus decibel levels and no more than a minute amid 110-plus decibel levels — per public-health recommendations — might seem a tall order during your favorite aerobics session. Frequent or prolonged noise exposure, however, increases the chance of lifelong hearing damage, so consider leaving class for a water break or an alternate activity during the loudest moments.

We’re here to support you in your wellness goals. For custom hearing protection or more tips on keeping your hearing safe while working out, contact our caring team today!

Tips & Tricks

In the Time of COVID-19: Hearing Loss and Restaurants

In the Time of COVID-19: Hearing Loss and Masks

Here are some beneficial strategies that we can all use to help improve communication:

Tips for keeping your hearing aids safe and secure:

Back to School: Hearing Loss and Online Learning