October is National Protect Your Hearing Month 

October is National Protect Your Hearing month and we have enlisted a few local hearing health experts to share some of their knowledge and hearing loss solutions with us. Did you know that:

• About 20 percent of Americans, 48 million, report some degree of hearing loss.
• At age 65, one out of three people has a hearing loss.
• 60 percent of the people with hearing loss are either in the work force or in educational settings.
• While people in the workplace with the mildest hearing losses show little or no drop in income compared to their normal hearing peers, as the hearing loss increases, so does the reduction in compensation.
• About 2-3 of every 1,000 children in the United States are born with a detectable hearing loss in one or both ears.
• Almost 15% of school-age children (ages 6-19) have some degree of hearing loss.
• Statistics sources: Johns Hopkins Medicine

Madison Levine, with Levine Hearing, states that hearing loss can result from the cumulative effects of genetics, loud noise exposure, medications, trauma, and yes, aging. One-third of people over the age of 65 have a treatable hearing loss, while that number jumps to two-thirds of people over the age of 70! It is often hard to pinpoint exactly what caused a hearing loss, but there are many proactive ways that you can protect your hearing as much as possible.

The most common and preventable cause of hearing loss is loud noise exposure. It comes as no surprise to most that concerts and loud music played through earbuds can cause hearing damage, but there are many sounds that get overlooked. Any time that a tool such as an electric saw, drill, or hammer is being used, earplugs or earmuffs should absolutely be worn. The same goes for operation of lawnmowers, heavy duty equipment and certainly any firearms.

If a hearing loss has already been discovered, the next best way to protect your hearing is to consider treatment with hearing aids. While they cannot, technically, keep you from losing more hearing, they keep the nerves inside your ears stimulated by sending signals to your brain. The earlier a hearing loss is treated with hearing aids, the better the long-term results in making speech clear and crisp will be. As well, they help to keep background noise where it belongs– in the background.

Levine Hearing is an independent hearing aid clinic and Madison is a second- generation Board Certified Hearing Instrument Specialist. They are proud members of the Better Business Bureau with more than 30 positive experience reviews that tell the story of their passion for helping people hear better and reconnect with loved ones. 

Happy Hearing!

Cindy & Kandy