.

Hello and welcome to Health this Tuesday evening.

I'm Jennifer Blomquist.

Thank you so much for tuning in.

You're going to love this show if if you're a new viewer to this program it is a live show and we have a live guest with us who will answer your questions live during the program.

So that's why we keep that phone number up at the bottom the screen throughout the show no commercial breaks.

It's just your time to call any time between now and a little before eight o'clock.

So it's (969) 27 two zero if you're outside of Fort Wayne it's still a free call as long as you type in an 866- before the other numbers and somebody will talk to you on the phones and then you can either ask your question live during the show which is great or if maybe you're a little shy and you prefer that I ask the guest your question you have that option as well.

So I just don't want you to be scared about calling in a do not just throw you on the air.

They will talk to you on the phones first and you can decide what you want to do.

Let's go ahead and meet our guest tonight.

He's become a regular the last few months and happy to say is Ted Blanford and Ted is a hearing instrument specialist and he knows his stuff.

He knows it all if you've got a question anything related to hearing Ted knows the answer I've never seen I've known him for years so he's been on the show a number of times.

He's never not had an answer.

OK, so don't be shy.

Give him a call a wealth of knowledge.

It's the only thing that I think is truly free today.

>> It's not I mean it's a free call and free advice and at least you know, maybe you're on the fence about what to do with a hearing related issue maybe for yourself, maybe for a loved one.

Why don't you just ask Ted maybe what you should do or get get his thoughts can't hurt and it is free.

>> So why don't we go ahead?

We're going to start talking about hearing issues and hearing aids and things like that.

But please don't hesitate to call that number on the bottom of your screen any time.

So Ted, we always talk about, you know, how hearing is so important to your relationship and of course hard to believe but one week from Thursday is Thanksgiving you're going to see most people are going to see a lot of family.

>> The holiday season is upon us and we are the the importance of hearing and connecting to your family is immeasurable.

You don't want to miss those important moments with a grandchild or a child or your family members around you and you and just as important for not missing something that they say and being part of the conversation you don't really want to be that person is sitting in isolated away because you don't want to be that you don't want to be a burden on them having to repeat themselves continuously and things like this.

So when we talk about hearing being the foundation of what we do in our gatherings and being part of our family, it really is essential and it helps us reconnect with those around us and be able to be part of their lives as much as them wanting to be part of our lives and hearing is that foundation.

>> And you know, when you're saying that I can think of times when my mom would have like one of her aunts or an elderly relative who maybe lived in assisted living or something like that but they would be brought over to my grandma's house for the holidays.

And I just remember, you know, sometimes they just looked sad, you know, and I'm sure now I was young and couldn't appreciate the situation back then.

>> They probably couldn't hear us and it's not so much as the they can hear the noise.

They can hear the sound.

They know that people are talking to them.

It's just the understanding is the connection is to be it being able to understand what's being said so you can have that conversation and think of it this way our grandparents, they lived in a completely different time.

Imagi the the wealth of knowledge and history and the wonderful stories of other people about your parents.

>> How about them and having their hearts filled to us but we can't open that up until we can open up their hearing.

>> Well, and one thing we've addressed before but I don't think you can address it too much is it is a sensitive issue, especially if the purse because you were saying you encourage somebody to go with the individual who's having the issue because the person who has the problem doesn't see it the same way as those around them.

>> Yes.

And that's where the frustration comes in.

Yeah.

Why why are you not we get the selective hearing questions or why why can you why can you hear what I'm saying or where I can hear when someone's on the other side of the room is talking but you can't understand what I'm saying personally and that's an important thing to know that hearing doesn't belong to yourself when you start to lose it.

It belongs to those that you love and it gives you an idea how important you really are and when you are trying to figure out what someone is saying and being in a very close fluid relationship with them and you're hearing belongs to those you love as much as it does to yourself when you start to have difficulty in conversation maybe that's a good way to preface it.

>> You know, if you're trying to encourage a loved one to go is I'm doing this because I love you.

I'm not absolutely what you want the people you love to be part of your life .

>> So yeah.

So what's the first step then if somebody is having you know if somebody is having an issue whether they think they are or not, you should start with some testing.

>> I do really well and then the testing we did we talk about one very important step of the process to getting hearing health help is the audiogram.

The audiogram is the chart on that shows us how well you hear or what you hear and what you don't hear and it's very important there's a graphic on the on your on your screen now and you see him in colors.

Blue is less red is right and there's specific areas that are for low tones which would be to the left of your screen and the high frequencies to the right of your screen.

The low tones help you know that sound is there.

That is the loud sounds but what we call the hearing portion I hear you and on the right side of the screen of that dark line in the middle that's the understanding portion of your hearing.

That's the soft sounds the sounds that make conversation make words mean something they give meaning to the words that you're hearing and when those are at a certain level they don't they don't produce the energy to your brain because what happens hearing is your ears are a receptacle.

They gather the information and they send to your brain where your brain translates those random sounds and noise into discernible words and allows you to know that what you're hearing means something to you .

And we hear with our brain we don't hear with our ears so that one small key the audiogram gives us so much more information.

You're hearing specialist in your audiologist.

We'll take that information and be able to build help for you by what they see on that piece of paper.

>> You've said that before too that even different types of voices like a woman's voice would be interpreted differently than a lower pitched voice like a man's voice.

If we look at it from low tones to high or low frequency high frequency a woman's voice is generally generally has a higher frequency or starts in a place where the higher frequencies are there, the softer voices are also there and when you cannot hear those high soft voices or those high softer tones then they will have a much more difficult time hearing women and children.

You'll often see that I can hear you talking but I don't understand what you're saying or it sounds like people are mumbling.

Well this usually is indicating that the right side of that chart is showing a very significant loss and then the other thing I think people don't realize is I mean you have there are different kinds of hearing aids and this is a very custom type of you know, fit you just can't really do a cookie cutter for everybody's situation I guess is different.

We look at individual each brain is different.

Each person is different.

Each person's hearing loss is different.

I often say that with with with or hearing professionals out there we could take a hundred people with the same audiogram but each one will respond to those sounds differently.

That's why we have bands and channels.

We hear this often with bands and channels.

The bands tell us the loudness or softness within that within those ranges to be able to bring them up to each individual tolerances and understanding where the channels give us specific frequencies so we can make very precise adjustments without disturbing the other frequencies that are also giving something to the patient as well.

So you're hearing specialist in your audiologist in the area can take that information with the bands and channels.

So if you think of it this way, the bands give you what you can hear in loudness or softness and the channels give you what you hear when it comes to specific sounds.

So we take those specific sounds and we're able to adjust them for your needs very, very specifically.

And so when we're talking about hearing aids, not all hearing aids are made the same and this is why you have to be very careful with it.

>> And when you're trying to figure out the right fit or settings for people, is it kind of like when you go to the doctor and they have that big apparatus in front of your eyes and they'll say is you know, is A or B, you know, clear is it kind like that where you're tweaking it and asking the patient yes because their opinion does count and they're the way that they respond to sound does matter and we that's why it is only one piece of the puzzle.

The audiogram is one piece of the puzzle.

If we were just to say OK, this is what you have, this is what you get, it's not a cookie cutter and it usually has to be very meticulously adjusted and shaped because your brain is also changing shape and is adapting and learning how to hear again.

Again, our ears are a receptacle here.

The ones that are gathering the information our brain is translating that information into the sounds and the conversations that we need and it takes time for it to relearn how to hear again.

We have lots more that we can talk about but we did get somebody wanted to ask you a question.

She wanted me to ask it for her.

So Sharon called it and she wanted to know how I got that's a good question how dementia would affect hearing loss sharing.

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

As a matter of fact, dementia and hearing loss are often mistaken for each other as well .

But let's take that question and turn it around a little bit.

How does hearing loss affect dementia?

Johns Hopkins University made a study from nineteen eighty seven I believe it was nineteen eighty seven on and they've they've concluded that a mild to moderate to severe hearing loss that is untreated.

You have a two hundred to five hundred percent increased risk of dementia over time if it's not treated or treated.

So there is a direct correlation between a hearing loss and dementia especially if a if a person that is has a hearing loss, has a propensity for dementia or has a has a family history of dementia.

So it's very, very careful if you have a hearing loss to be to understand that it does affect how your brain is growing or developing or declining over time.

>> So if you had a patient who is maybe even in early stages of dementia, can they are they aware of what's going to work for them when you're talking about the patients, you know, interacting with them as far as you know what what they feel most comfortable with or what they think the right level is, how do you deal with that with somebody?

>> This is why you always have loved one with them.

Yeah, OK. Because we work with a team and work with the family and it makes very you're hearing specialist your audiologist will be able to work as a team with the family members is very, very important.

Sharon, thank you very it's a great question and we appreciate that and we encourage others to call.

>> We have one other person waiting to ask a question or wanted me to ask it again.

So Devin wanted to know what is the progression of tinnitus?

>> We've talked about tinnitus before about if you want to remind folks yeah, that's perfectly fine.

Thank you very much for your question.

Tinnitus is something that also is effective with the same mechanism you're hearing.

It's one of those when the nerve endings inside your inner ear are damaged and they're sending a a random signal to your brain and your brain is interpreting that sound that electrical impulse as sound and you see up in the upper left hand corner of your screen you see some of those it looks like haystacks that are bent over or broken.

Those are the nerve centers.

Those are the nerves that are sending the electrical signal to the brain that is interpreted as a ringing, buzzing or humming that we call tinnitus or tinnitus and the progression is generally genetic or if it's induced by loud sounds or how much loud sound you've been exposed to and as we age it does get worse and that's a great question.

>> I was going to you know and I was going to ask you too if somebody who has that gets it.

Yes.

Thank you.

And again, our phone lines are open and we're only here till eight o'clock or it is only here about eight o'clock is the expert.

So don't waste don't waste another minute if you have a question please call sooner rather than later.

Again there's a phone number at the bottom of the screen it's (969) 27 two zero still toll free in case you're outside of Fort Wayne as long as you put an 866- in front of there with the tinnitus I mean it sounds like that over time you would be getting worse.

I mean like somebody who would maybe have hearing aids to help deal with that in a year or two with maybe need to have different hearing aids to as it progresses necessarily understand once again hearing aids are not all made the same and not all of your hearing aid has maskers built into them to help with tinnitus and as are hearing changes as our brain changes with our hearing or with our tinnitus remember seeing your professional on a consistent basis for checkups and adjustments will help maintain that that that management of your tinnitus and that's really what is key is not just the proper hearing hearing aids but it's also the proper aftercare is critically important when you have tinnitus especially now we look at it.

Tinnitus is as when we are looking to manage that.

It's like having a road from your ear to your brain and that road has potholes inside that on that road.

It makes it rough and it's not very smooth what the maskers do or ambient sound as well does in the hearing aids it smooths in fills in those those potholes not with gravel and asphalt and dirt but with with healthy sound and it makes it that that transition from the ear to the brain as smooth and as unencumbered as possible and that's how we manage tinnitus with masking and with ambient sound taking care of the hearing loss feeling in that space with good sound to the brain.

>> Right.

And they just flashed a car that we have ten minutes left so we're in the final countdown.

So I want to remind everybody again to please call (969) 27 two zero if you have a hearing related question I'd like to ask Ted before I forget we've shown people different hearing aids on the program before but in general they all technically work a similar way there maybe tweaked and if you want to talk about how the hearing aids if we want if we want to break down the hearing aid into the basics, it is a microphone, right?

It's a processor and a speaker if you will, a receiver and in the microphone gathers the sound goes through the processor where it takes a sound and makes it an amplifier .

It amplifies it to the to the proper levels of each individual channel and band that we were talking about and then sends it through the speaker to the ear the ear sends it to the brain and we have we have good sound.

So we're looking at a mechanical device that's very precisely adjusted to your needs and so you do have a very simple type of system or boil it down to a simple type of system a microphone amplifier and a speaker.

But take those pieces and we put in the human factor and it's a little more complex than that.

>> Oh sure.

Yeah.

You just don't pop it in and magic happens.

That's one thing I've learned over the years actually talking about hearing aids.

It's we do have somebody wanted to ask you about that head Karen.

>> Are you still there?

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you for waiting.

You have a question about hearing aids?

>> Yes.

Well I need maybe some advice I am hearing impaired myself with AIDS but my question is my granddaughter diagnosed two years ago she's eight diagnosed two years ago with a rare disease but as part that she was tested and fitted with hearing aids recently in the last maybe three months, however, the parents were concerned that maybe she was getting too much input and now they have decided that she does not need to wear the hearing aids.

And my question is you're talking about the hearing aids or hearing talking to the brain contributing to brain cognition.

You know, with Ebola which is an issue with her.

So which you are kind of simple recommendation B she should continue to wear those hearing aids and continue to work with the audiologist to make sure those adjustments are done again and not just simply stop wearing hearing it.

>> Oh, Karen, that's thank you very much.

That's that's a really good question and it's a situation that that happens quite often when we talk to when we talk to patients across a broad spectrum of hearing health where where time of the hearing is always important the more information the brain can get in the proper the proper amount, especially if it's in a prescriptive correction like a hearing instrument, the more you wear the more the brain is able to do what the brain is supposed to do.

So working with a professional, working with her audiologist and working with the family to make sure that there is a consistent where and then and it's adjusted properly so it's not getting to where she's not getting too much information or she's not getting too much stimulus and getting the proper amount and it can be determined based but with your with her audiologist and her parents working together for the best of your granddaughter's hearing lf so I would I would say yes.

Let's continue with the proper care.

>> Karen did you want to ask Ted anything.

Thank you Karen.

>> That's good to see.

I hope I answered your question.

Thank you.

OK yeah that sounds like a sad situation.

I mean we don't typically hear about a lot of children having to wear hearing aids as much as you would hear about somebody older so yeah.

>> And making sure that you're wearing them consistently is always very, very important regardless of your age I take it.

Yes.

Regardless of the age.

Yes.

We had somebody else Ted who called in and wanted me to ask the question.

So Henry wants to know are there any types of foods that is interesting that would help with hearing loss and are there any foods that can attribute to hearing loss?

>> Oh goodness.

Caught me off guard on this one.

>> I've never heard that before.

I I'm not I'm not sure I know that there is any FDA approved foods that that help with hearing loss.

>> But I do know that if there's any any foods that would be put into specific medications that would would cause weakening of the hearing, I couldn't tell anything specific.

But I do know that there are some pharmaceuticals over two hundred over the counter and prescriptive correction prescriptive medications that do cause weakening the hearing and ringing the ears.

So but I can't help you with with the types of food that would cause hearing loss or actually improve hearing itself.

So you got me stumped on that one I think I was that's the first yeah it's a it's a good question.

>> Is it just and you know I just started off with I know all the answers.

>> Yeah.

Well you know, just an unusual question.

You know was it make jokes about it was a yes carrots help your eyes and you know and that's a good example.

Yes.

So all right.

Well in general I guess just eating a good well-balanced diet would help your overall health .

>> So my here and I think if you if you maintain you maintain your electrolytes and you drink plenty of water just like you you would you would do another healthy diet.

A healthy diet keeps a healthy body and healthy brain keeps keeps you it keeps your systems correct and and I would say that that's drink plenty of water and do the Ovaltine if it's in water at that time of year whether you have the Ovaltine drink your Ovaltine.

Yeah yeah.

Milk and especially now getting into the holiday season when it is busy and people tend to kind of you know they forget to take care of them.

>> Yes.

Yeah but that does it you know and it is I know we got a reminder from our dentist's office the other day like use it or lose it you know your benefits are expiring for this calendar year.

You come in and use it and we've talked about this before.

It said that people don't think twice about oh yeah, I got to get to the dentist every year.

I got to get to the doctor every year.

It's a good idea to factor in your hearing as well as you talked about consistent believe it's like seventy two percent of of folks will go see their their eye doctor every year every two years and sixty percent or plus go see their dentist yearly or every other year and only twenty three percent will have an annual exam with their hearing or see their audiologist or hearing specialist within a year or two of each other and or a lot of times they haven't seen someone to check their hearing since they were in grade school or in high school.

So it's very important that they at least get a baseline and understand where you're hearing losses or if you have if you have a hearing loss or if you're not find where your hearing is.

So in case something does go you start to get weakened, you know where you started and you can tell how much of progression there was.

It's very important to be understanding of how you're hearing health affects your brain and how a hearing health affects the rest of your body and importantly how you're hearing health affects your family and the people you love especially during the holiday season.

We're gathering with the people we love.

I want to be part of who that whole family again a especially if you have someone that is older they have so much more to contribute just in this time of year.

The stories are out there and they're so important to the rest of the family.

>> Those are the best stories to you know what I mean.

It really makes you appreciate, you know, when the things that they experienced in their life and can tell us about how things that are different today I don't know if we have time to squeeze this in.

We don't have any other questions coming in although we could certainly squeeze one in.

So feel free to call (969) to seven to zero just a couple of minutes left.

But I did want to talk to something that I don't know if we've talked about this before the an acronym is S.R.O.

s and I don't know if you want to talk about what what that is.

>> Well to make basically it's a cross system and they call across because if you have one ear that doesn't hear and you have one here one ear that does here and it basically is a transmitter on one side and a receiver on another and it takes the sound from the other side that does not hear and sends it to the side that does here with a slight time delay.

So it feels like you're balanced hearing from both sides of your head.

>> Do you find that that is I mean I guess I didn't think about that would the ears each year have a different hearing impairment and they could yes, absolutely.

>> But this is something that's much more off balance and much more severe because the the the cross side what we call a cross side cross and that is with transmitter site has no hearing OK and is is using that transmitter to use one ear to help your brain work with both sides of your head.

And it is it's a it takes a little more time to get right but with the right diligence and the proper testing and and ah our wonderful audiologist and hearing specialist here in Fort Wayne we have a lot of cross patients out there and we're just a little bit of diligence that can make someone's life so much more enjoyable being able to have a full sound around them three hundred and sixty degrees and it gives them that spatial orientation and be able to feel more comfortable in crowds being able to hear better crowds and being able to hear better in gathering settings.

Go right back to the the holiday season one week from Thursday hard to believe and our time is already up sadly but this was a great show.

Thank you so much Ted.

You have a job so blessed to have you with us and thank you so much to all of you who called in tonight.

Really great questions.

I appreciate that.

We're going to be back next month with another show with Ted and of course is a help line every Tuesday.

>> So make sure you turn in tune in next Tuesday.

Take care.

We'll see you next week.

Bye bye.