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Well, hello, I'm Jennifer Blomquist.

Welcome to HealthLine.

Thanks so much for joining us this evening.

Got a great show ahead.

It's a guest he's been coming on a few times this summer and he has full of a wealth of information to pass along to you.

He's a hearing instrument specialist so lots to talk about, lots of advice.

He can give you free advice.

You can't be that especially with all this inflation going on.

You might as well take it anything you can get for free.

Right.

So be sure to tune or join us by conversation if you there's the phone number, we'll keep it up at the bottom of the screen throughout the program it's (969) 27 two zero.

It's still a free call if you're outside of Fort Wayne just put an 866- in front of their when you call in you have two options.

You can either ask your question live during the show which is great or if you'd rather just have me ask our guests the question, just talk to the person on the phone, the call screener and get your question over to them and they will shoot it to me and we'll get it answered for you.

So I would advise you to call sooner rather than later what ends up happening.

A lot of times as folks call at the end of the show, we hate to miss an opportunity to answer your questions so go ahead and interrupt us at any time.

Ted Blanford is who is joining us this evening.

He's been with us a number of times in the past.

Ted, so great to have you back .

It's great to be here.

Appreciate it.

And before I go any further, I would have to thank you for your military service.

So Ted is a veteran and always want to thank you for all that you've done to serve our country.

So welcome.

Thank you so much.

Why don't we start with you are a hearing instrument specialists are you wearing hearing aids tonight?

I am and I mean OK so I can't see and so because people are always people are always you know, they hear about oh I don't want hearing aids at all people to know that I've got them all but I mean I can't even tell that you're wearing them technology today it's just great.

Yeah.

I mean really with the ability to hear better and than people knowing honestly when I when I'm walking down the street it's it's something that I reveal to them most of the time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's not like gosh I remember I know it's probably not as typical for young children to need hearing aids but I remember when I was in grade school a little girl my class needed hearing aids and her mom came in because she just didn't want kids to be staring at her daughter's hearing aids and she came in and showed them to us and she said this is what you know, this is what they look like and this is you know, how it's going to work.

And they were just these big clunky I remember they were like a beige plastic hearing aid and it is very noticeable the technology today is just not a grand your grandfather's hearing aids anymore.

That's what most people when they think of hearing aids what they don't like pictures, something big bulky, something that's more cumbersome than it is effective and that's not true.

We have amazing technology and there is there's and it's very discreet.

>> All right.

Good to know.

So if you feel like you need AIDS or maybe a loved one does, that's always something to keep in mind because I think that it's it is you can feel self-conscious if it's very noticeable.

There's no need to be but specialists out there can can do amazing things with hearing aids for you.

>> Right.

And you don't want to miss all the good stuff that's out there because you're worried about wearing hearing aids.

One thing we wanted to talk about first and this is kind of a recent development was about the FDA is going to allow people I was kind of surprised by this but they're going to allow people to purchase hearing aids over the counter this year they passed a law so 2017 2016 that one of the last pills that President Obama signed into law was the over-the-counter hearing instrument law and it's been years coming and now it's been announced that they're the finally found the category of a special category for hearing aids.

They are able to be sold over the counter.

Yes, So what what is that going to look like?

You know, I mean how do you even pick something out?

>> You know, I guess what advice would you give to people at this point?

Well, your guess is as good as mine right now because right now the what they look like or what the with the packaging is we're we're not aware of that yet.

They have not hit the shelves.

>> But we do know that there is for a perceived a perceived mild to moderate hearing loss and it is a it is something millions of people out there that had a barrier which was cost has an opportunity to to get help if they fall within that mild to moderate perceived loss category.

And it's a it's something that we have not been able to touch on in in a broad area or a pocket of a category of people that are looking for that help.

>> They could not afford it from before.

For example, there's approximately 30 million Americans today that have a hearing loss that that is noticeable to their daily daily life and now because of a medical condition, it could be there several categories of hearing loss anywhere from mild to severe to profound.

There's 30 million Americans that are suffering from a hearing loss.

We are only able to help about 20 percent them on a consistent basis country wide nationwide.

And a lot of that reason is because there was a or there is a cost barrier to that now we have a it may be a very small narrow window of loss but those that need that again and and cost was their barrier.

Now we have an opportunity to help millions more people and like being said, if if hearing if better hearing is our our mission in our in our career that is a good thing for for those folks getting better hearing in people's ears.

>> I just wonder is this going to be something where you know, you can go to a pharmacy and they will sell some products but they're locked you know they're out in the store but you would have to go ask somebody to give it to you.

I mean is this probably what it's going to be like?

You're going to have to at least speak with the pharmacist probably for some direction or I don't know if it was going to be you know, I wish I had that answer.

Yeah, I just wondered what it was going to look like.

So that would be what I would I would hate to speculate but it would be it would seem that it would be it would be in a place where we'd be secure because the cost is still going to be it's going to have some some cost to it but I wouldn't be able to speculate and give you a true answer because I truly don't know.

>> Yeah.

Just so well I guess you know and I couldn't believe when you talked about it had been six years that I've have been thinking about it.

>> Well, a lot of it is going through Congress to get the get to the legal definitions correct.

And being able to put something together is effective, cost effective and available and and it's not an easy thing to do when you're talking about a medical device.

>> Now one thing my mother used to say years ago was she she was having some issues hearing and she said she was going to go see her doctor and she said oh, I hope it's I hope he diagnoses it as a medical issue and not just from old age because now according to I don't know if this is true but she used to say because insurance you can get more coverage if it's medical related and I just thought I want to clarify that with you or because most people I understand as you grow older you're hearing is one the first census to Dole it is well it's called prospectuses when you when you have age related hearing loss and I have not seen a barrier between the medical and aged related hearing loss.

If you have a if you have a benefit from insurance, it's generally because of a it's not the losses of as the hearing aid that they're going to be there covering or are going to be at least helping to cover .

But that's when you talk about insurance is as a completely different show altogether.

OK, yeah, I know you get complicated.

It can be very complicated.

Well, stay tuned.

Hopefully time will be joining us more in the future.

We can kind of keep an eye on this and realize.

All right.

Absolutely perfect.

Absolutely.

Well, one thing we wanted to talk about was tinnitus which I think a lot of people have heard heard of it.

And just to I mean I've just always heard it's a ringing in the ears.

I know if you want to address that and if it's constant or intermittent ringing, buzzing, humming there's about fifty different categories of sounds that we're talking about when it comes to tinnitus or tinnitus.

There's two ways of saying and both of them are correct but it's a perceived sound inside your ears or in your head that does not have an outside source and it it's very difficult to try to explain to someone the ringing that you have in your ears.

I personally have it myself and try to describe that I call it a night sounds or crickets or cicadas or something like this where a buzzing and my mom would call it June bugs but I could never have a hard to tell my mom June bugs make sounds but but the it is tinnitus also affects 50 million Americans that have tinnitus to the point where interferes with their life partially or significantly throughout their day.

And that is a that is a very, very big problem across the United States because oftentimes you're looking at you're looking at a problem that you cannot explain to someone and they don't know how to help you with it because there is no cure for tinnitus.

We can only manage it and manage it well but it needs to be it needs to be recognized, diagnosed and or at least recognized as it fought and then cared for so it can be intermittent or can it be Constanta?

>> Did you both apply?

Yes, they both apply.

OK, this is where tinnitus is a is a real enigma for a lot of folks because I don't hear it until it gets quiet.

It's or I don't hear it until I'm trying to concentrate or these things now remember tinnitus if you have ambient sounds around you and there's sounds out there to help your ears and the nerves in your in your cochlea mask, that sound it's going to make to the it's going to make the perceived sound be less and once you get calmed down especially at night time you're trying to focus you get try to concentrate reading a book, watching your show and that tinnitus starts to build up because there's no more ambient sound out there to be able to help match that sound.

>> Yeah, I just would think it would be miserable as far as sleep I would think it's going to impact some people.

>> It's very difficult for a lot of folks when it comes to sleeping, getting to sleep, staying asleep and if you wake up in the middle of the night getting back to sleep and this is a vicious circle when it comes to tinnitus because if you are fatigued in the morning, your tinnitus is also get your tinnitus can get worse by the stressors that are in that are induced by a fatigue day of work and then you get on a roller coaster or loop that you can't seem to get yourself out of and it takes it takes some it takes some time to be able to find out how we can help you to find out where you are in the company we have this cycle where are you in that cycle and how can we how can how can it be hearing professional help you manage that sound so your cycle can get back to at least where it's not as noticeable?

We can put it on a scale of one to ten if you have a seven and we can reduce that sound and the professional can reduce the sound to a two , that's a really big victory for someone who's been suffering with that sound for such a long period of time.

>> Do you find that it aid is impact people at a particular age?

Is it typical or was any difference between men and women experience more often?

Yes, those boys tend to have tinnitus a little bit more often than the girls do.

>> Yes, as a matter of fact from anywhere from tinnitus is not a respecter of age but obviously these studies have shown from twenty two to eighty generally if you watch it climb with age and for the most part men have a tendency to have tinnitus about 10 to 15 percent more than women would be OK but until you get the 70 to 80 range where women surpass the men generally because men have a tendency to not live as long as women and there's where that there's that kind of levels out and moved on.

But yeah, there's the the age issue generally is not it's it's a broad range of ages that are affected with tinnitus.

Yeah.

And I mean do people recognize it as tinnitus or do they just I mean or is it subtle person or persons from what we found is generally no they don't notice tinnitus until they start seeing more and it's more recognizable if we go back to that the chart we had with a cycle, it's starting to be something that bothers us enough for us to do research and then we realize tinnitus can only talk to speak from my personal experience where I where I I had ringing my ears since I was twenty .

>> And do you think from being in the military did that maybe have that an auto toxicity because over the counter there's a level over the counter drugs and some prescription drugs that also induce ringing in the ears and there was a there was a moment where I had too much anti inflammatories and in that I have a genetic propensity for it.

OK, so it just moved too long.

>> Sure.

We did get a call I wanted to ask you it was from somebody named Erin.

She wanted me to ask it for her right on topic.

She wanted to know if the events that can help to manage tonight is yes.

What's what can you do?

Well, as a matter of fact, hearing aids is the hearing aids are the only manege tool that is FDA recognized.

>> I shouldn't say hearing aids.

I should say the sound amplifier sound therapy and it's noise therapy.

The hearing aids provide is what the FDA recognizes and not only hearing you do the same but you're hearing specialists in your audiologist would be able to recommend a hearin aid that will not only fill in the spaces where your where the nerve endings in your cochlea are firing erroneous impulses to the brain and also there's special masking sounds that can be provided as well to help soothe the brain so they can it can have a competing sound to help manage that tinnitus.

Yes.

So yes, that's a very, very good question.

There are instruments that can help you with your managing your tinnitus so you're not stuck so you're not stuck.

There is hope also like you said, you can't cure it but you can make it better.

Mm hmm.

Yeah, there is no cure but if we can manage to it can be managed quite well.

>> But that was a great question from Aaron .

I want to just remind all of you they just showed me the ten minute card.

I can't we only have ten minutes left usually that is a topic for a while.

The show goes very quickly so please feel free to call.

We are talking about tinnitus but if you have something else hearing related that you'd like to ask Ted about, he isn't hearing instrument specialist so feel free to interrupt us at any time.

We welcome your call.

You can do it Aaron .

If you can just have the call screener reference the question to me and I'll ask it or you can ask it like so what we talk about when we see tinnitus and why tinnitus happens, what is affected with tinnitus?

I we we like to discuss it as a road.

I'm a very if we're driving down a nice smooth road there's no bumps.

There's no potholes that is how our youth are hearing from our ears to our brain.

It's a nice smooth line.

>> Well as time or when tinnitus occurs we'll think of it as a as a pothole.

>> And when you put the instruments on we were just talking about instrument that could help with tinnitus and with the instrument does is it takes the natural healthy sound of the ambient sound around you in the world around you and it fills in that pothole and it gives it a nice smooth road to go to your brain because what tinnitus is we have hair cells in our cochlea deep down in our ear, our inner ear that are damaged or their beat up and a good example here and the ones that are bent over or the ones that are broken those are sending random impulses of electricity to the brain through the auditory nerve and the brain can the brain can only do one thing when they get that electrical impulse and they create sound.

What the instruments do is they fill in that pothole or they they help support that nerve to send a a more healthy natural sound to the brain so it won't be as evident and allows the brain to relax because when the brain is getting those erroneous impulses it's on high alert all the time.

It doesn't allow to relax which also causes those stressors which makes tinnitus words which makes you stress think that would cause anxiety in some people anxiety, depression and all.

>> There's several things tinnitus, untreated hearing loss and untreated tinnitus can can lead to anxiety can lead to depression, can lead to isolation, can lead to all these other social issues that we are not really we are not really all the time keying into this could link to my hearing loss or this could be linked to my tinnitus is a very, very distinct link to it and we've talked on this show before.

One thing I always appreciated how it's been years but we talked about how you know when you have that you have to shout I love you to somebody.

It really kind of loses its meaning .

>> Oh, my grandmother's favorite phrase is if you can't yell at someone and say I love you and look like you mean it.

Yeah.

You know but I remember any of you gentlemen years ago and he was turning one hundred and seven on Christmas Day and I felt so bad because I didn't want to scream at him but his family had no problem and they were just yelling and they were kind of like Are you going to live another year?

And they were yelling at him and he was able to respond but it was just so uncomfortable.

You know, I thought gosh, of course it's kind of an extreme but yeah, nothing really seems natural about having a conversation if you have to shout really that would be a prime example of the quality of life that you want to have in here and being able to hear well you that quality of life because you see that the family wants to be part of his life and he wants to be part of their life .

If we just had that conduit of hearing aids they would they would help them make that connection.

It makes it makes a huge difference in everyone's life , especially when you have someone who is 107.

Oh yeah.

On Christmas Day.

Could you imagine the history sitting right in front of you?

Yeah, you could talk about anything.

>> He had really good advice although this has nothing to do with this show.

But he told me that he had been smoking a cigar every day since he was seven.

Is this George Burns?

You know, of course this is 20 some years ago but I didn't believe him but his family said yeah, everything in moderation except this cigar that he had to smoke every day.

>> You know, I'm wondering over time once you get hearing aids ,is it kind of I mean would they normally last you like a year and then your prescription can change or how how often maybe would you need to change here?

>> That's a really good question.

It depends on your hearing loss hearing.

Do not stop hearing loss, OK?

Hearing aids do not cure hearing loss.

>> Hearing aids are a tool to help support the hearing.

You have left that as you age and as time goes on it continues to get worse seen with a lot of our chronic issues with our bodies eyesight for example glasses don't stop hearing I my glasses will not stop this time hearing loss but but hearing aids don't stop hearing loss but we have to understand that.

So this is why it's important to make sure you see your professional on your on your on the on a timely basis to have checkups testing because our hearing changes we need to adjust and adjust the the hearing devices as well as your hearing changes and for longevity it depends on the hearing loss itself and the of course the the age of the hearing instruments and technology and things such as this.

There's several factors involved in it.

But you're hearing professional will be able to help you make those decisions when it's time and you can only know when it's time as if you have a history of being consistent with your care.

>> You know, another thing I wanted to say this is a sensitive issue because nobody wants somebody to say, hey, you know, you've got a problem.

You need to get this taken care of and I feel like some people who have had hearing issues they don't notice it maybe as much as the people around them.

So how do you approach somebody without offending them?

Because the last thing you want is for them to become resistant to getting care is you try not to have the whole intervention thing don't sic the whole family out of skiving, you know so well I've seen that but yeah, honestly we don't know I'm speaking from some from my perspective of wearing hearing is we don't know what we don't know for sure but I'll tell you is the person who cares about me the most is says hey you're not hearing well and it's the person who cares about me the most is that says or if you give the care if you care about the person it doesn't hear well let them know they want to you want to be part of their life .

You want to be you want to be involved with them and you want them to be involved and we can't do this if we can't if we can't hear and converse and have a connection to my mother.

If you don't we're hearing instruments you can't know my daughter.

>> I want my daughter to know you like I knew you and the only way is if you can answer her questions just it for kids.

You know, I think sometimes that's what sets you know I know that's why my mom finally got hearing aids.

She had had hearing loss for years stemming from a very bad ear infection in her 30s.

But when we started when all of us kids started having children, she didn't want to miss out on that, you know, so I nothing want to use the kids as a pawn but you know yeah, they don't want to not know their grandchildren.

You want to be here you want to have that connection with the people you love the most hearing is that connection to they see your eyes are the windows to your soul with your but your connection is the connection to the world you're hearing the connection to the world and you want to be able to have that all around you.

The best you possibly can and you deserve to be able to hear the people you love the most.

You deserve to be able to be involved in their world and hearing is that can do it well and I think you if you phrase it that way in a gentle instead of judgmental, I think some people feel like they get people get, you know, short tempered about it pretty sensitive.

It really is is very sensitive.

It's easy to be defensive and the idea of being able to let them know how much you love them and this is why we want to have this conversation and if nothing else, let's just see.

Yeah.

And let's give it to find out what it looks like and then make a decision but always have me make an educated informed decision now and you know, like you said you said you sometimes your mom wouldn't wear hers.

You know, that's another thing you don't want to harp on that but maybe that's a good approach to say absolutely I'm not doing this to get on your case.

I just want you to be why don't you want them to be safe?

>> I just worry about somebody not being able to hear in their house if a smoke detector went off here in Canada's health care and hearing here is brain care and hearing health is brain health .

That's what we try to this is not something that just hangs on your ears to make things louder.

This to make you this is to connect you with the world and give you a healthy brain and a healthy connection to what's going on around you.

>> It's very, very important.

Right.

Great advice of course as luck would have it, the show is is done.

It goes so fast and Ted has so much good information to share.

So we have to have him back.

I hope you take all this information to heart.

Maybe you know somebody who could really use some help in this area and give him some advice.

Like Ted said, if you approach them gently and tell him it's because you love them, I care about them that may that may take a better be a better path to getting them the care that they need.

So again, Ted Blanford, a hearing instrument specialist, thank you so much for coming back on.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Oh, sure thing.

Look forward to the next time and we hope you have a great rest of the week.

Stay tuned for our next program and we'll see you back on helping out one week from tonight.

>> Take care