hello.

>> Welcome to HealthLine this Tuesday evening.

I'm Jennifer Blomquist.

I have the privilege of hosting the show tonight in case you're new to HealthLine this is a live show.

We're in the studio tonight and we are welcoming your calls.

We have one of our regulars as a guest tonight hearing instruments specialist and he is your go to guy for anything related to hearing.

So please feel free to call us any time during the show.

That's why we keep that phone number up at the bottom of the screen for you.

It's (969) 27 two zero.

If you're outside of Fort Wayne it's still a free call.

Just put 866- in front of that and we'll get you through.

Also want to remind you that you have two options when you call in.

I don't want you to miss out on an opportunity to get some excellent advice and so if you're shy you don't have to go on air to ask your question.

You talk to a call screener, a very nice lady.

We'll talk to you on the phone .

You can tell her your question and they can relate that to me and then I can ask Ted the question for you or you can ask it live.

And the nice thing about asking it live I will say is you can interact with Ted.

Maybe he needs to get more information from you to better answer your questions.

So I just want to let you know you have those two options and take advantage of getting some excellent advice tonight.

So Ted Blanford is our guest.

He comes out once a month and it's always great to have him on.

>> Thank you, Ted.

Thanks for having me.

I love being here.

It's it's so great.

It it and I learned so much about hearing aids.

You don't think about how important your hearing is.

We've talked about this before, Ted.

Everybody I think everybody is pretty good about once a year is supposed to go see your family doctor.

You have the check up, get your eyes checked.

You go to the dentist every six months.

>> People do not think about getting their hearing checked unless there's an issue.

Well, a lot of times what you hear is I haven't had a hearing since I was in high school.

I was in grade school.

Right.

Sixty four percent of people will see a dentist every year or every other year.

Seventy two percent or so we'll see an opthamologist or an optometrist every year every other year or so but only twenty three percent see someone to have their hearing tested or to have someone check their hearing at all and that's a that's a that's a very low stat and we should be taking our hearing much more seriously.

>> Yeah you don't think it's one of those things you don't think about it until you have an issue with it or are noticing that it's not what it used to be because I mean it's just one of those senses.

>> It's hard random thing to it's not something where you wake up one morning and sudden I can't those folks know that they have a hearing loss if you wake up and all of a sudden you cannot hear but you generally hearing loss as a gradual loss.

It does not have pain.

It doesn't cause any physical injury that you can feel on a continuous basis.

So when it does happen, the people that love you notice it more than you do yourself because yesterday wasn't so much different than today but it is a little bit worse today than it was yesterday.

We just don't see a perception.

>> We were talking last month toward the end of the show we didn't really have time to get into it but there are different kinds of hearing loss.

I mean it can be mild, it can be profound.

Yeah, well yes.

When we talk about different types of severity it's you have you have a slight loss and that's at the top of an audiogram and in some very, very slight we're not a whole that's being missed.

Then you have a moderate mild loss, mild to moderate loss.

We're you're starting to notice that there might be something going on but that also is a red flag because now we're talking about something that's completely different.

We're talking about am I hearing or am I understanding?

Yeah, because that moderate loss to moderate severe loss is when you start having difficulty in the understanding portion of your hearing and it is a completely different category and a lot of patients talk about as you see up on the screen on the on your left side of your of your screen it says I hear well that's those are the vowel sounds.

Those are low tones that says that you are aware that sound is there that lets you know that someone is talking on the right side who says it says I understand now the understanding portion those are the those are the consonant sounds the sounds that make words make sense.

>> And just inside that box you'll see just below I understand that's a critical speech box that is seventy eight percent of what you hear and understand when it comes to testing if your hearing loss falls within that critical speech box, there is a significant issue with the way you hear and understand and this is why your loved ones are continuously trying to explain to you no, I did not say cat.

I said hat or I didn't say parrot.

I said Ferit.

So the understanding portion of your hearing is how we communicate the high frequencies are what we use to be personal with each other whereas the low tones or the left side of the portion of your hearing that says I hear that says something is there and now it's once we get to those severe loss and the profound loss now there's this where folks start to realize oh boy, this really bad now and by that time there is some there is some possibility of some permanent damage when it comes to regaining your clarity regardless of what you how expensive a hearing is or how sophisticated the hearing instruments are or hearing aids are.

So when you you want to be able to address your hearing loss at a certain time so you can at least be able to maintain the integrity of the hair cells in the nerve endings that go to your brain and that's what we when we talk about understanding your your what we have is an audiogram and why this is so important to know where you're hearing loss is and what the baseline is so you can have that taken care and understand what you are looking at and be educated to your to your loss and and frankly be part of your own help.

>> Yeah, we had a caller last night that I think we appreciated the fact that she wanted to get some she said I'm not having issues right now but I want to get tested because I don't want to be, you know, a nuisance or I mean she was very kind about it but but she said I you know, I don't I don't want to aggravate the people around me.

>> I want to make sure that I'm getting help when things go bad.

And so you're talking about that's why it's better to maybe take some action before you notice any issues so that you have that baseline.

>> And this is also why it's important to see a professional about your hearing loss as opposed to taking it into your own hands and to look at a online hearing test or over the counter where there's no test required because a perceived mild to moderate hearing loss generally is not an accurate way of deciding what you're hearing loss really is an audiologist or a hearing is what specials will be able to look in your ear.

That's an autistic topic examination.

A lot of times it's going to be an examination that you can participate in if it's a video otoscope or a video or go to scrap in inspection so there's no wax a person that does not have that does on the line testing or goes over the counter doesn't have the ability to have a professional look in their ear.

A familiar voice test having to having the word test provided to you in speech to find out if you are missing words.

Are you having difficulty understanding speech but you hear people just fine.

I'm just having a hard time understanding these are the things that a professional audiologist are hearing is from a specialist can provide for the patient and provide you with the education and understanding of where your hearing loss really is so you can make a sound decision for the future of your hearing and the feel of course hearing care is brain care and we're going to talk more about this and some of the options and testing available to you things that are very important to think about.

But I want to remind everybody that Ted is only here to a little before eight o'clock we always end up getting calls that sometimes people wait toward the latter part of the show and I don't want you to miss out on getting a question in tonight.

So again, we keep that phone number for you at the bottom of the screen (969) 27 two zero still the toll free call if you're outside of Fort Wayne if you put an 866- in front of that number and Ted is here to answer any questions you may have you know, talk about the hearing aids.

>> You know what I cash last year I think when we first started doing shows together even years ago we started doing shows together I never knew until you said something to me about it's not just popping in a you know, a hearing aid.

>> It's it's a whole process and retraining your brain and most people probably don't think about that yet when we're talking about a gradual loss your brain gets comfortable with your hearing loss and I have yet to find someone that says I really like change.

>> Yeah, I really enjoyed training.

So if you have if you're introduced to your hearing loss or your correction and you see the significant difference, sometimes it takes a little time for your brain to catch up and relearn how to hear properly.

>> And this is another thing that if you're looking at and I will say that over over the counter and online things instruments they would be a very good idea for some people .

But what happens is if it's not adequate or it doesn't give you it doesn't give the adjustability and we have to understand hearing aids do not stop hearing loss so your professional will be able to fit your hearing loss not just for today but for the future because hearing aids have a have a lifespan as well.

So what we want to do is make sure that you have a lifetime of hearing and clarity left and having a professional guide you through that journey of your hearing loss and your hearing correction gives you the best quality of life, the best brain care and the best hearing care as your hearing changes over the years.

It's very, very important and that's one of the reasons why it's important to understand your hearing loss and identify it early and understand where you're hearing losses as opposed to what it could be down the road.

>> Yeah, and unfortunately you I don't know I'm thinking there's just such a push to do everything online DIY you know this is not a good thing.

I mean I know I wouldn't feel comfortable with it.

It definitely working with a professional be the way to go.

>> We do have a question from Janet.

Janet, are you still there?

Yes, I am.

I'll go ahead with your Janet.

Hi.

I'm 74 year old female.

I have to have lupus but I have just regular tinnitus just evidence that say if I deal with it just fine lately it's become a lot louder.

However, then I developed out of the Blue Hall pulsatile and I if in other words I hear my heart beating in my ear and it's literally driving me insane.

They did do a CAT scan with a contrast dye.

There's no acoustic neuroma, no inflammation, no fluids and so is hearing loss a possibility to develop that kind of tonight or do you just have to keep hearing it the rest of your days?

>> Oh no, that's a really good question.

And number one, you did the very first thing is to see a professional about it to find if there was an acoustic neuroma or any other medical issues that might be causing that.

And a lot of times we were talking about pulsating tinnitus is there's blood pressure issues that we may want to consider and also medications that we would want to consider.

And to answer your question, does that type of tinnitus cause hearing loss?

Well, tinnitus does not cause hearing loss and hearing loss does not cause tinnitus but they use the same mechanism .

It does land in the same portion of the brain.

But the the idea of understanding that 90 percent of people that are complaining of a of tinnitus that gives them issues during the day and gives them problems also have a hearing loss that is associated with that tinnitus.

The other 10 percent have tinnitus without what they would call a clinical hearing loss like we saw in the audiogram earlier, anything above that twenty decibel range would be considered in the normal range but yet they still have tinnitus.

That means that the hair cells, the mechanisms in your hearing have also still been damaged and is sending erroneous information to the brain in the brain only knows how to make one decision and making sound of those electrical impulses.

But I would also sense as part of your with your heartbeat and is pulsating I would also look into other issues it might be contributing to that such as high blood pressure or middle ear issues with pressure behind the ear drum or something like that that your E.A.

would be able to assess after that, get a full hearing evaluation to find out where there might be a hearing loss and find where that tinnitus is and see if it can be relieved and managed properly for you.

>> Janet, did you want to have anything else?

>> I do have low blood pressure so I said no, it's not blood pressure and don't have a hearing fall hearing screening all set up for June 1st.

FANTE'S Yeah.

And then what if we needed to know your opinion on cognitive behavioral therapy?

If all else fails, does it help ?

I mean this this thing is loud sometimes you feel like I can't live I live with all this noise in my left ear let alone the tinnitus in both ears.

>> Well, tha that's that's another great question is cognitive behavioral therapy has had some help with with certain types of issues when it comes to tinnitus, when it comes to calming and and bringing your blood pressure down and also allowing the brain to be soothed.

But the FDA the only FDA approved therapies and management for tinnitus is a proper fitting hearing aid that would give the the nerve center or the hair cells inside your cochlea the amount of support that it needs and that is and again there's no cure for it but I would not rule any of those other therapies out.

>> Well, I have my in point A. appointment on the personal aspect after I get my hearing screening.

>> It is fantastic.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I'm so glad that you're on tonight and you helped me a lot.

>> Thank you.

Thank you for calling in and those wonderful questions.

That was really, really good question.

Thank you so much.

>> Thank you Janet.

We wish you well.

I sympathize with her.

I did not realize that we've talked about tonight on the show before which is well I've heard it I've heard it tinnitus and tonight Bob OK, call it Bob.

>> I hear it both ways.

So you know, I think most people recognize it's the ringing in the ears but I've never heard of somebody with a constant sound of their pulse that would drive you nuts ringing wooshing buzzing whining There's there's 51 different categories of different signs of tinnitus his head will produce and and I think there's subcategories to all of those and everybody's individually everybody's different.

And when we're talking about where those and this is why it's so important to see a professional to have your hearing tested you can also see where your tinnitus is is most likely going to be and you can you can anticipate where the management would be and you can end on that audiogram when we're talking about those high frequencies in the understanding portion of your hearing.

It's also a lot of times where those damaged hair cells are that that is contributing to the to the tinnitus and the tinnitus that the patients are hearing and those are the things that you can't self assess.

Those are the things you can't realize on something that you're online or or over the counter.

You need to have someone help you with a with a journey towards a better hearing health lifestyle.

>> Yeah, no.

And I know you have talked about this many times.

It's a very important you've said to bring someone you know your spouse or people you live with with you to your appointment because yeah.

>> Because they're the ones you were saying that they notice things more than the patient themselves which better helps, you know, the people assessing .

>> So oftentimes I bet you will find out that the people around you are seeing the things that you're missing way before you will.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Happened to me quite often.

Yes.

It's not just wives nagging their husbands or maybe some real truth to what's going on there.

What we wish Janet well and she did ask some great questions and you can do the same thing.

You can do it just like Janet did were you ask the questions I it was nice in her case because she was able to have a conversation with you and get feedback both ways or if you prefer you can just call in and relay your your question to the call screener and then they'll give it to me and I can ask it answer it for you that way.

So again we get that phone number up at the bottom of the screen.

>> I know we're less than ten minutes away from the end of the show so I would call sooner rather than later.

One thing I wanted to touch on Ted was and you mentioned this already that the hearing aid is not going to recoup the hearing loss that you've had.

>> You're not going to be you know, if you're seventy five and have an issue you can't really make it new again but you can make it but you can make it at least manageable before it goes into the name.

>> It's it's a hearing aid.

The hearing aids will help with your hearing that you have left.

It's not going to provide hearing it's not going to make the hearing as a 20 year old again it's going to it's going to provide assistance to the hearing that you have left and it's going to make it the best possible.

And what's great about a well fit hearing aid by a professional is that it is going to be fit for the future.

Your hearing is going to continue to change.

Your hearing is going to continue to to evolve and is going to get worse.

It was not going to stop hearing loss and and having someone care for your hearing loss on a quarterly basis or a semiannual basis or an annual basis is to have someone see the changes as they occur, adjust the instruments, adjust the hearing aids for your future hearing so you can get the most out of your investment of your hearing aids and getting the most out of your healthy hearing as you possibly can.

I can't it cannot be restored.

Yeah, but it can be supported and that has to be something that you go in with a positive outlook on how you want your hearing to be because you if you if you want to look into how the best that you can here instead of trying to hear perfect and remember that you're hearing loss is much more visible than the hearing aids ever will be and also hearing better today is better than not hearing yesterday and certainly not better than hearing to not hearing tomorrow .

So if you take care of it and address the issue like any other chronic illness can't doesn't have a cure to it.

You want to be able to address it, manage it so you can have a healthy lifestyle and they just slashed the five minute card.

>> So I want to remind everybody like I said, Ted knows everything that you would possibly ever want to know about hearing hearing loss, hearing aids testing.

So please call I would just have a few minutes left but certainly enough time to get into a question or two .

>> What would you would your advice be?

I mean most people you know, especially if they're fifty or sixty is at a good age to think about having that baseline test done thirties and forties.

Oh, even younger.

It's because most people that age I mean I, I, I didn't know what people when I was in my thirties and forties didn't even think about that.

>> What baseline tells you where you started and that's and if you're going to be if you're going to be knowledgeable of your health , if you're going to be taking good care of yourself, taking good care of this body that we've been giving for for the limited time we're on this earth, our hearing is very important to understand that it's also our our brain is important knowing where you start start as early as you can and then if if it's normal on that range you can wait five years and then see if there's any change.

If you start noticing change then then you can adjust your pattern to what's best for you.

But I would say we wait too long to get started.

>> Yeah.

When we are talking about getting our teeth cared for , our eyes cared for but we neglect our our ears and our hearing starting early and being able to manage it for a lifetime is so much better than waiting until all of a sudden there's a problem and then you are trying to react instead of respond.

Yeah now I'm just being proactive about it in general.

Again, it's like you said, you know, people don't think about that, you know, as as all these other facets of their health care they don't really ever include hearing so and as a society I feel like we joke about it a lot, you know?

I mean how many comedy skits do you see where know Grampa's in the corner and he's saying something completely crazy and you know, people just were laughing and you know, in that situation OK for a show but in real life it's actually I think Tim Conway was was one of the best in the career when the show will go the hearing.

>> Yeah.

Know.

But he also understood if we'd look at it from a comedy point of view that is one thing.

But if we are looking at it from a longevity of family communication, it's we have the opportunity especially with our with our grandparents and our great grandparents and a lot of times in our parents we have history sitting in front of us.

Why would we not want them to be able to communicate with us and why would we not want to communicate with them?

And yes, there I am guilty of with my father with his hearing loss of laughing when we were kids.

Yeah.

And now we understand some of the some of the devastating consequences of untreated hearing loss and as we as we age we've talked about this before too that you know, if when people can't hear or can't understand, they tend to become isolated and we experience this at our house.

My husband had an illness that caused him to have profound hearing loss for a few weeks where he couldn't hear anything and the kids just gave up on trying to you know, I'd say did you say goodnight to Dad ?

And they'd say Well he can't hear me.

And I would say But you've got to go give him a hug and say, you know, you've got to do that.

>> And the kids were the first ones that they were just it became too much for them and I just forget how tragic that is.

>> You know, if your grandchildren aren't making the effort to talk because it does require work and it does and when you start noticing that the people you love are distancing themselves because you can't effectively communicate, it just shows you how important that you're hearing loss really is.

And that's when I say if you if you were someone that you love is having a difficult time hearing and understanding the first step is to love them enough to take them and see what is the baseline they're hearing loss and see if you can get it corrected if it is correctable and and enjoy a fruitful healthy lifestyle increased increased lifestyle for the rest of the life .

>> It's it's a very, very important hearing.

Health is brain health .

Yeah.

And you know, if you're if you're interacting with other people I mean a lot of people I think that's what keeps them going when they're older is they just enjoy the relationships they have with people.

And I just think that like I said, we joke about it but it is sad if they're kind of in the corner and not understanding what anyone is saying.

So I've always told my mother I said I want my children to know you like like I knew you and the only way that they can do that is if you can hear their questions.

>> Yeah, well those relationships are just priceless.

Yeah.

And you know, we only have that like you said a short time on earth make the most of it.

Unfortunately we are out of time so we're going to wrap up the show.

But Ted, always a pleasure to have you on.

>> This is really fun.

I enjoy it.

I just got the schedule for June.

So I think it's I want to say June 20th but it's like the third Tuesday in June.

So Ted will be back in case you missed out and calling in tonight.

You can call next month.

So thank you so much for calling in.

Thank you to Janet.

Wonderful caller and calling tonight.

We appreciate her question.

I'm Jennifer Bloomquist.

Take care.

Have a great week and we'll see you again next Tuesday