Hello.

I'm Jennifer Bloomquist and welcome to HealthLine this Tuesday evening.

I'm so glad you could join us.

You're in for a real treat.

We or one of our regulars back tonight a hearing instrument specialist, wonderful person, not just a nice guy but also extremely well informed and has a wealth of information he can share with you anything about hearing instruments or hearing problems.

>> Ted is your go to guy so he's here only for the next 30 minutes.

So that's why I want you to make sure you call.

That's why we keep the number to the station at the bottom the screen because the phone lines are open now and they will be until just a little before eight o'clock and I would encourage you to call sooner rather than later because sometimes the phone lines get a little clogged up toward the end of the show and I'd hate for you to miss out on this opportunity.

So the number is (969) to seven to zero.

It is still completely free if you're outside of Fort Wayne you just have to punch in an 866- in front of the number.

We'll keep that number up for you throughout the show so that you can refer to it and you have two options when you call him you can ask call and they don't just throw you on the air.

You will talk to a call screener first and you have the option of asking your question.

Leive which I always recommend even if you kind of a shy person are a little worried or nervous, it's a great way you can interact with Ted and he can ask you more questions to fully give you the information you need.

But I understand some people don't like to do that.

So you are more than welcome to tell the call screener what you want to ask and she will relay that information to me and then I can ask Ted for you.

>> So lots of lots of choices for you tonight.

Let's go ahead and introduce you if you're a regular watcher, I don't really need to introduce him.

But here's the man Ted Blanford hearing instrument specialist.

>> Great to have you back.

Thanks for having me.

I love being here.

Well, he always comes with great I have pages and pages of information so that we're hoping to cover tonight.

>> But again if we're talking about something a little bit differently than what you wanted to ask, that's fine as long as it's hearing related hearing instrument related, we certainly welcome your call.

>> One thing Ted I did not know this but May is better hearing and speech.

>> Yes.

Better hearing a speech with with the American speech language Hearing Association.

It's to bring awareness to those folks that are out there that are suffering from hearing loss that are not quite aware of what they can do to find what's going on with their hearing.

We just want to bring awareness to hearing health and brain health and the month of May allows us to get out there and have that discussion, have that conversation with folks especially if if someone has mentioned to you that maybe you're not quite catching everything or maybe you've noticed yourself or you have a loved one, that's important because hearing doesn't just affect the person with a hearing loss.

Hearing loss affects the people around them as well.

So if you have a loved one that you really care about that is not quite following conversation or may have a little bit of an issue with their hearing have that discussion and that's what May is all about.

Let's bring awareness to it and make everybody happy.

>> You don't think about how much you rely on your hearing or those around you rely on you to be able to hear absolutely until you're having issues and we're having an issue in our family right now.

It's not related probably to the typical patient that you would see Ted.

But my husband had some health issues that have resulted in him not being able here now is a temporary situation.

>> But it's you know I mean the timing is everything because this past week, you know, you and I have always said you can't or you've always said you can't yalda somebody I love you and have it mean the same you know you can't you can't yell you can't yell at someone say I love you and look like you mean right it's very difficult hearing loss does take away that intimacy of expression well and we rely so much on it even though everything's electronic today you know there are so many things that happen over the phone or maybe like you know on some kind of a video chat or whatnot for business.

So yeah, it's just again it's next month is May.

It's better hearing and speech month and if you want to we're going to talk about that tonight.

But I'm sure there are a lot of other resources if you wanted to go to education or things online, do some searching on your own great opportunity to do that.

>> It's a it's a touchy situation though because some people even a loved one might be offended if you're saying because they associate that with old age there is a stigma and we're trying we're trying very hard and that's what be better hearing and speech month is all about in the community.

It's a conversation we want to take the stigma of hearing loss and take it away hearing this doesn't just affect those that are elderly or those that that are what we would consider a hearing loss to a person would be it does it is not a respecter of age.

It can be a child.

It can be someone who's elderly but it has to have that conversation.

We wear our glasses on a daily basis one out of one out of four people over the age of 65 have a debilitating hearing loss and we are we we are continuously not serving them properly and only 20 percent of them actually get help.

So there's a lot of folks out there that have that stigma attached to the to the hearing loss and it's good to have the conversation and I'd say it's not just may start today.

>> Right, right.

Because it's important to know that we have someone out there that cares enough to check on our hearing.

>> I think I'm glad you said that because I think if somebody does become defensive and I understand it's a personal and a private matter but yeah, I think if you emphasize like hey, I'm doing it because I care about you, I didn't care I wouldn't go to this.

So we have lots more to talk about but we do have someone we want to ask you a question.

So thank you so much for calling in.

>> Patricia, you are up next with your question.

Well, thank you for allowing me to consult an expert because now that I've passed the milestone of 70, I'm really concerned about what to look for as far as hearing loss.

And also I wanted to ask the doctor if if people actually ever make it to 80 with their hearing intact, that's a good that's a great question.

>> Yes.

No one let's look at this.

Let's think of the signs is a TV loud is a is is the person that you care about are they asking for you to repeat them so yourself more often?

Are they answering questions a little bit off or are not quite getting every single word?

That's correct and a lot of times when I look at you as if they're trying to think about what it is you're saying, they're filling in the blanks of what the conversation is.

They're trying to listen with context instead of content.

Those are the signs of hearing loss or someone who is continuously making sure that you have eye contact with them when you're speaking to them so they don't miss what it is so they can use their eyes to help them hear those are the symptoms and about the folks who get the eighty within ten minutes.

>> I want to hear this.

There's a lot there really is there's we have we've seen patients out there that have very, very normal within normal limits.

>> What they're hearing will beyond 80 years old.

>> But there are some actual exceptions.

There's not a lot of them but they are out there and the best way to find out is where is your baseline?

And that's what better hearing and speech month is all about in May is to be able to have your hearing tested early enough so you know where you are today.

So five years down the road if there is an issue and you start noticing that you have to look at people's faces to understand them more or if you're asking people to repeat themselves more or if you need to have the TV up a little bit louder and people are starting to notice that they have to repeat themselves more at least you know what your reference was so today's test could help you five six, seven years down the road and if you're in your 70s and we we you reach that golden age of 80 and your hearing is still in the same place it was ten years prior, then you'll know where you started and you can have a reference.

>> So getting on top of the hearing testing will give you a much, much more peace of mind when it comes to your hearing you're hearing health but those are the signs and yes, you can make it data with good hearing if you have those genetics.

>> Yeah, that's not that would be wonderful.

That's a great question.

No one's ever asked before that.

That's why I was interested to hear your answer.

>> We see a few I didn't know Patricia.

I don't know if you're still on the line but before you hang up did you want to ask Ted anything else?

No, but I'm I'm thrilled to get that answer because I the one thing I don't want to do is annoy everyone around me.

I would rather catch it myself first.

>> That is great advice, Patricia.

That is probably the most caring thing I've heard in a long, long time when it comes to a hearing health being aware that you that you're hearing does affect those people that you love the most is so self aware and yes, you are right on track to keeping good hearing health .

Go ahead.

Find a practitioner that can give you a baseline hearing test and find out where you're at today so you can keep on top of that as well.

>> That's a great that's a great question a great attitude to have think you know, she sounds like an incredibly thank you are incredibly kind of wonderful.

>> Yes.

Take care.

Thanks for calling Patricia.

I really good question that I was going to say you've been on the show quite a few times.

We've never had anyone ask that and I've never thought about that as I didn't realize it was related to genetics because that was one of the things we had to talk about was not crankin the things you can do to protect your hearing maybe that's a maybe a better speech in every month would be a good time to think about that.

Not going crazy with the volume because everyone I don't know what your thoughts are on these earbuds and things people put in with the portable device.

>> One of the one of the statistics that I've that I saw was very disturbing someone who is well number one fifty percent of folks age twelve to thirty five are wearing hearing audio devices like earbuds or or headphones with the volume that is higher and higher risk of hearing hearing loss.

>> But someone who wears those devices at one hundred decibels for fifteen minutes is like like hearing in an industrial environment for eight hours my gosh at eighty five decibels.

So there's a lot of damage being done now remember the the the average person is born with about sixteen thousand nerve centers nerve cells or hair cells inside them inner ear and they over time get damaged and that's what causes hearing loss and hearing impairment.

But what happens is when it takes about 30 to 50 percent of those hair cells to be damaged for us to start noticing a testable hearing loss so there's being being careful with how you treat your hearing early will affect how you are able to to keep your hearing later and those are important things to understand.

>> Yeah.

You know, I see people at the grocery store I mean nobody I feel like nobody is just walking through the grocery store anywhere without some I mean I don't wear because I can't stand having stuff like that my ears but everybody's got it whether it's connected to their phone and you know, now they've got these wireless ones that's really popular but even the clothing to now they make clothing like if you are wearing the ones that are have the cord you know they they make a good special little pouch to put them in.

>> I mean it's it's probably not going to go away.

>> It's a part of our culture.

A good rule of thumb is to make sure that you bring the volume down to about 60 percent.

>> Having it clear not loud loudness is never really our friend, especially when we have something that is isolated into your ear just to make sure that you're you're taking you're hearing a serious stuff where you want to preserve it for a long term.

So one of the rules of thumb is to bring it down to about 60 percent of the volume so you can have it clear loud enough, enjoy your music, enjoy your podcast, enjoy everything that goes along with that.

But just be very wise in how you how you manage your your your volume.

>> It's very important.

Yeah.

I think people and people don't think about it all the time like you said you know they probably don't give it much thought but pay attention to the level so and I want to remind everybody that we've got that phone number at the bottom of the screen (969) to seven to zero again outside of Fort Wayne still a free call if you put an 866- in front of there.

We are focusing on better hearing and speech month that is we're getting into it for the month of May.

So good time to think about your hearing and you're hearing health call Ted.

We had Patricia called a little while ago.

She has some wonderful questions.

Again, you can ask the question live during the show which is what Patricia did and it was really nice because she could interact.

We had some you know, back and forth and he could get more information from her or if you want just call and talk to the call screener and they'll relay your questions to me and she said that I thought was really insightful.

>> Yeah.

She wants to make sure that she's not going to be annoying to others which I said goes right back to when we're talking about the better hearing and speech month awareness is making sure we identify our issues early enough.

>> So that means going and finding someone to test your hearing early enough for those that you care about and finding those that you care about to go with you because early detection will allow you to have a early warning system and being able to care for your because what we talk about is like I said, hearing health is brain health and a completely connected a person with a hearing loss and mild to moderate to severe hearing loss and it seems like a pretty broad range.

But what are the word to think about?

It's mild is a 200 to 500 percent increased risk of dementia.

There's a 30 to 40 percent increase rate of cognitive decline when someone is working with UN unprotected and unchecked hearing loss of mild to moderate to severe.

So we're talking about folks that have issues falling.

Yeah, we have we have issues that have just increased risk of quality of life basically is making sure that you have making sure that you have your hearing and your brain connected and healthy hearing aids don't stop hearing loss.

>> And I want to make sure that that people you're not you're not going to get back you know you can't take those kids if if the hair cells are damaged or destroyed, we can't grow them back.

So it goes back to the month of awareness and being sure that we are caring for what we have today but we can't care for what we have today if we don't have it tested to find out what we do have because it's not something that happens overnight.

This is a gradual loss that takes time and we don't know what we don't know.

>> So let's find a way to get a baseline that you had said one thing I didn't know if you wanted to go over just the typical appointment because I most people except maybe what the screening you would have had in school you know, in elementary school they probably haven't had a hearing test.

>> So what what can you expect do you said bring someone with you?

It was pretty simple.

It definitely take someone with you, someone that you someone important to you basically it's basically you go in, you get your intake, you give your medical history and you're anything we would be or it would be interesting or pertinent to the practitioner that you're going to be seeing of course have your insurance checked generally you have your insurance checked at the at that office that you choose and otoscope examination now having a video video examination of your ear canal to make sure that it's not wax is causing this muffled sound in your ears and that way we know that you do have a clear path to the eardrum.

There's no damage to the eardrum.

Your husband would where of that terrible problem and then of course is what we call a speech discrimination test or speech understanding test to find out how well you hear and understand single syllable words and we have a what we call a familiar voice testing the person you bring with you is the one that you're with the most.

That's the most important voice to your life at the time.

OK, have them do the testing as well with you so it can be involved with the care for your hearing as well.

So a familiar test.

How well do you hear the people around you and then of course we call the beeps and bong's the audiogram have a basic baseline of what you hear what you don't hear so you can be like on the screen there red is right, blue is left that shows a severe hearing loss and those beeps and bong's to find out exactly what you can and cannot hear so we can your practitioner can shape the solution to your needs now that was what you saw on the screen was a severe hearing loss you may not be in that category yet or you may not be in that category ever but you will finding out right here is a good example of someone who is within the normal limits but needs to keep an eye on where they at.

Now we know a baseline five years from now that may change so you know where you started and where you're at.

So you can make an educated educated decision on how to best care for your hearing and that's what May is all about.

>> Let's have that conversation about hearing.

Well, you know, you said on the show before you go to the dentist regularly most people go to the dentist regularly.

We don't think about, you know, every year.

So you get your eyes checked.

You just have a physical every year.

I mean we do all the stuff that you don't ever hear people really talk about Boyega I got to go see somebody for hearing and if you want to if you were to talk to somebody on the street and most of the folks they wouldn't know where to go to have a hearing hearing checked and we have a plethora of amazing hearing care professionals in Fort Wayne that are ready and willing and waiting to be able to care for you now we do we have a wonderful medical community in general but hearing like Ted said, we've got some of the best in this area so take advantage of that.

>> I did want to get to a life question, Fred, thank you so much for your patience.

>> But you have a great question for Ted.

I thank you for taking my call.

Sure.

I have.

>> I'm 84 years old.

Eighty five years old and I have a hearing aids that I wear and I stay paid several thousand dollars for this hearing aids because they amplify the higher frequencies which I don't well.

Hmm.

And today I see hearing aids advertised for a couple of hundred dollars a cheaper hearing aids do the application of selective say or don't say?

>> That's a very good question, Fred.

Now let's talk I believe or to your question is about the over the counter hearing instruments now those are a an option for for some a certain segment of the hearing impaired.

Now remember that the the the over the counter hearing instruments are designed for a mild to moderate pressie hearing loss because there's no testing involved and there's nothing in there.

>> But if you have anything beyond if you have a moderate hearing loss or worse, those over the counter instruments are not going to reach your needs.

What you did was a good was a very good choice to find someone who can care for those and know what you're hearing loss is and design a prescriptive correction made specifically for you.

But like I said, the over the counter hearing instruments they have a purpose and there are there is a a segment of the hearing impaired.

They have a a mild to moderate hearing loss that may get some benefit from them.

But remember this rule the higher the technology the heart of the hearing is going to work for you and as especially if it's in your budget and your needs, your budget, your needs have to be at the forefront of what your decision is going to be and making sure that you get a a test that you understand that the practitioner understands and be able to shape the correction that's best for you and your hearing loss.

>> I hope that answers your questions further.

Did that help you understand Fred?

>> Fred, did you want to ask Ted anything else before you go and your loss ?

I think I think Fred might have his phone on.

So are the TV and I can hear that.

Yeah.

So well he had a great question because yeah, again, this is something that if you don't deal with it every day like you should that you're the profession you're in this profession most of us think oh well why is this one so much cheaper than this?

>> And it's it's hard to make an informed decision.

But you've also said before there's no cookie cutter so no there isn't there is no education.

>> And then in the over the counter during his speech, like I said, have to have a purpose out there and there is a segment of folks that they really do help well but as for a perceived mild to moderate hearing loss and there's no testing involved, that's a that's something that I think that is going to be a factor in your decision process.

>> I would think most people especially you know, if you're if you feel like you're struggling going going the safe route I guess of getting all the testing done is good.

>> Ted, this is a question that somebody had called in a little while ago and wanted to ask for it.

We ask you about it.

So his name was Peter and he wants to know are the new hearing aid devices that can connect your phone automatically sound controlled?

>> Yes, there are.

>> I didn't know that this was a thing.

So Peter, fantastic question.

The the the the world of hearing aid technology has exploded and there are hearing instruments, artificial intelligence sensors embedded in that almost every hearing instrument today connects to your phone in one way or another, be it a Android or an iPhone, whichever phone that you use.

And yes, they do have a lot of controls involved volume control, environmental controls, a lot of background controls and a lot of speech controls.

So there's that the the higher the technology instruments have some tremendous controls.

As a matter of fact there there's technology out there that has a virtual amount of automatic controls and actually sensing the environment around you.

But yes, the technology is out there.

If you do your research there, you'll find very, very easily I didn't even know that existed.

>> But I will say I will say it's I I just see like a lot of infomercials and things like that about hearing aids that I guess I never really noticed before.

So I agree with you.

I feel like at least there's a lot a lot of marketing going on anyway that would maybe point people that direction and to have that conversation find a professional to have that conversation with them and there may be more than happy to point out some of the amazing things we're hearing instrument do today.

>> And you know, if you know if you're at a loss of where to start, I would I don't know, maybe your family doctor would be the best place to start maybe as far as that's one way to get information.

>> Yeah, but you always look for someone who in your family doctor would be pointing in the right direction or look online and find a hearing practitioner that will take some time with you.

>> OK, all right.

I don't know if we can answer this really, really quickly but Vickie wanted to know she has supersensitive hearing.

>> Is there anything to help with this?

Yes.

OK, yeah.

Hyperacusis thirty six percent of your hearing make sure you are aware of your environment.

>> Make sure that you are able to where if you need to always have hearing protection with you protecting your sensitive hearing is important.

>> So the best way to do that is to be aware of your environment and also be prepared to have earplugs or a hearing protection.

And if there's a lot of folks out there that can make some custom hearing protection that look amazing for those with very sensitive hearing.

>> So those are the things you can do.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you to all of you who called in tonight.

Wonderful show.

>> I really appreciate it.

And Ted is coming back I think it's the third week in May well be here so please tune in again.

Great questions.

Ted Blanford, hearing instrument specialist, thank you so much.

Thank you for having appreciate it.

>> I'm Jennifer Bloomquist.

Take care.

Have a wonderful evening.

We'll see you next week