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Hearing health @ Honiton Hearing

Honiton Hearing News:

We search around the world to keep you up to date on the latest hearing related articles. Today we have found an interesting article regarding an unusual subject.  If you suffer from any hearing related issues such as earwax build up or you are looking to get a hearing test we treat many customers from around the Devon and Honiton area.

Earwax removal, Microsuction and the very latest digital hearing aids are available.

 

Though public transportation is thought to be better for the environment in that it reduces greenhouse gas emissions, saves energy, and improves air quality, according to the Federal Transit Administration, there may be a negative effect on your personal health.

According to a recent Canadian study, commuters traveling during peak hours were exposed to maximum noise levels. A summary of the study’s results, published on the Hear-it AISBL—a nonprofit organization that provides information on hearing loss—website, show the results of the study, which was published in the Journal of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery. In this article, we’ll share the highlights, edited and adapted from the Hear-it website.

COMMUTING STYLES

Researchers looked at two different commuting situations among Toronto residents: people waiting for a streetcar/bus as compared to people walking/biking to a subway. Bikers were exposed to louder noise than those walking or driving a vehicle. Noise levels were higher for those waiting on a subway platform as compared to those in the subway car. And, finally, research showed that those waiting at bus stops were exposed to the loudest noise of all.

PEAK NOISE

Though commuters often only experienced short and intense bursts of impulse noise exceeding the 114 dBA limit recommended by the EPA, researchers concluded this can be just as harmful as prolonged noise exposure. Up to 20% of the peak mean noise measurementsexceeded 114 dBA, and up to 85% of measurements at bus stops were higher than 120 dBA, according to the study. Researchers were concerned that prolonged exposure could lead to noise-induced hearing loss.

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Best earwax removal in Devon (Honiton)

Best earwax removal in Devon (Honiton)

 

The Honiton hearing centre in Devon are regarded as being the best in Devon according to clients. They come back time after time after trying other earwax removal clinics in the Devon area.

 

Colin Eaton the top audiologist for the Whole of Devon runs the Honiton Hearing Centre and is a proud member of AHHIP the industry council and advisory body for hearing audiologists.  http://www.aihhp.org/

If you are looking for earwax removal using the gentle technique of Microsuction https://honiton-hearing.co.uk/services/earwax-removal/ or the more traditional water irrigation technique, here at the Honiton hearing centre they can do them both.

 

Honiton hearing centre News:

In the news this week:

Researchers Identify New Type of Vertigo, According to Study Published in ‘Neurology’

Earwax, ear-wax removal, Devon, South Devon, hearing aids, Honiton,

Earwax removal and digital hearing aids in Devon U.K.

Neurologists have identified a new type of vertigo with no known cause, according to a study published in the May 23, 2018 online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology(AAN), the AAN announced on its website.

With vertigo, people have episodes of dizziness that can last from minutes to days. Vertigo can be caused by serious conditions, such as tumors, or conditions that are fairly benign, such the inner ear disorder Meniere’s disease. But for some people, no cause can be found.

In this new study, neurologists have identified a new type of vertigo where treatment may be effective.

“These conditions can be difficult to diagnose and quite debilitating for people, so it’s exciting to be able to discover this new diagnosis of a condition that may respond to treatment,” said study author Ji-Soo Kim, MD, PhD, of Seoul National University in Seongnam, South Korea.

To diagnose this new condition, the person sits in a dark room and the examiner moves the patient’s head forward and then the head is shaken horizontally for about 15 seconds. Then the patient opens his or her eyes and a video recording is taken of eye movements. The neurologists discovered that after the test, people with this new condition had eye movements called nystagmus that lasted longer than for other people. The new condition is called recurrent spontaneous vertigo with head-shaking nystagmus.

Among 338 people with vertigo with no known cause, 35 had this new condition and were included in the study. The participants had attacks of vertigo ranging from two or three times a week to once a year. They also experienced nausea or vomiting, headaches, and intolerance of head motions during the attacks.

The participants were compared to 35 people with other conditions that can cause vertigo, such Meniere’s disease, vestibular migraine, and vestibular neuritis. The test measured the time constant, or the time that represents the speed with which the reflexive eye movements can respond to change. For those with the new condition, the time constant during the primary phase of the nystagmus was 12 seconds, while it was six seconds for those with Meniere’s disease and five seconds for those with vestibular neuritis and vestibular migraine.

The neurologists also found that people with the new type of vertigo were more likely to have severe motion sickness than those with other types of vertigo.

A total of 20 of the 35 people with the new type of vertigo who had frequent attacks and severe symptoms were given preventive medication. About one-third of those had partial or complete recovery with the new medication. During the long-term follow-up of an average of 12 years after the first symptoms for 31 participants, five reported no more attacks, 14 said their symptoms had improved, and only one said symptoms had gotten worse.

Kim said that people with this condition may have a hyperactive mechanism in their vestibular system that helps the brain respond to movement of the body and in the environment.

“It’s possible that the vertigo occurs when this unstable mechanism is disrupted by factors either within the person’s body or in their environment,” Kim said.

The study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea. Learn more about the brain at www.BrainandLife.org, the American Academy of Neurology’s free patient and caregiver magazine and website focused on the intersection of neurologic disease and brain health. Follow Brain & Life on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram.

The American Academy of Neurology is said to be the world’s largest association of neurologists and neuroscience professionals, with 34,000 members. The AAN is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, concussion, Parkinson’s disease, and epilepsy.

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit AAN.com or find us on FacebookTwitterLinkedIn, and YouTube.

Original Paper: Lee S-U, Jeong-Yoon C, Hyo-Jung K, Ji-Soo, K. Recurrent spontaneous vertigo with interictal headshaking nystagmus. Neurology. 2018. Available at: http://n.neurology.org/content/early/2018/05/23/WNL.0000000000005689

Source: AAN, Neurology 

 

 

 

Tinnitus therapy, Honiton, Devon

Brainwave Abnormality Could Be Common to Parkinson’s Disease, Tinnitus, Depression

Tinnitus, news update:

Earwax removal, hearing aids and hearing tests in Honiton, Devon.

 

The Honiton hearing centre in Devon offers Tinnitus therapy

A brainwave abnormality could be a common link between Parkinson’s disease, neuropathic pain, tinnitus, and depression—a link that authors of a new study suggest could lead to treatment for all four conditions.

Dr Sven Vanneste, an associate professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas, is one of three authors of a paper in the journal Nature Communications regarding thalamocortical dysrhythmia (TCD), a theory that ties a disruption of brainwave activity to the symptoms of a wide range of neurological disorders, The University of Texas announced.

Dr Sven Vanneste, associate professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Dr Sven Vanneste, associate professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Vanneste and his colleagues—Dr Jae-Jin Song of South Korea’s Seoul National University and Dr Dirk De Ridder of New Zealand’s University of Otago—analyzed electroencephalograph (EEG) and functional brain mapping data from more than 500 people to create what Vanneste believes is the largest experimental evaluation of TCD, which was first proposed in a paper published in 1996.

“We fed all the data into the computer model, which picked up the brain signals that TCD says would predict if someone has a particular disorder,” Vanneste said. “Not only did the program provide the results TCD predicted, we also added a spatial feature to it. Depending on the disease, different areas of the brain become involved.”

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The strength of our paper is that we have a large enough data sample to show that TCD could be an explanation for several neurological diseases.

Brainwaves are the rapid-fire rhythmic fluctuations of electric voltage between parts of the brain. The defining characteristics of TCD begin with a drop in brainwave frequency—from alpha waves to theta waves when the subject is at rest—in the thalamus, one of two regions of the brain that relays sensory impulses to the cerebral cortex, which then processes those impulses as touch, pain, or temperature.

A key property of alpha waves is to induce thalamic lateral inhibition, which means that specific neurons can quiet the activity of adjacent neurons. Slower theta waves lack this muting effect, leaving neighboring cells able to be more active. This activity level creates the characteristic abnormal rhythm of TCD.

“Because you have less input, the area surrounding these neurons becomes a halo of gamma hyperactivity that projects to the cortex, which is what we pick up in the brain mapping,” Vanneste said.

While the signature alpha reduction to theta is present in each disorder examined in the study—Parkinson’s, pain, tinnitus, and depression—the location of the anomaly indicates which disorder is occurring.

“If it’s in the auditory cortex, it’s going to be tinnitus; if it’s in the somatosensory cortex, it will be pain,” Vanneste explained. “If it’s in the motor cortex, it could be Parkinson’s; if it’s in deeper layers, it could be depression. In each case, the data show the exact same wavelength variation—that’s what these pathologies have in common. You always see the same pattern.”

EEG data from 541 subjects was used. About half were healthy control subjects, while the remainder were patients with tinnitus, chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, or major depression. The scale and diversity of this study’s data set are what set it apart from prior research efforts.

“Over the past 20 years, there have been pain researchers observing a pattern for pain, or tinnitus researchers doing the same for tinnitus,” Vanneste said. “But no one combined the different disorders to say, ‘What’s the difference between these diseases in terms of brainwaves, and what do they have in common?’ The strength of our paper is that we have a large enough data sample to show that TCD could be an explanation for several neurological diseases.”

With these results in hand, the next step could be a treatment study based on vagus nerve stimulation—a therapy being pioneered by Vanneste and his colleagues at the Texas Biomedical Device Center at UT Dallas. A different follow-up study will examine a new range of psychiatric diseases to see if they could also be tied to TCD. Tinnitus, is thought to be connected.

For now, Vanneste is glad to see this decades-old idea coming into focus and suggest that Tinnitus is getting better understood,.

“More and more people agree that something like thalamocortical dysrhythmia exists,” he said. “From here, we hope to stimulate specific brain areas involved in these diseases at alpha frequencies to normalize the brainwaves again. We have a rationale that we believe will make this type of tinnitus therapy work.”

The research was funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) and the Seoul National University Bundang Hospital.

Original Paper: Vanneste S, Song J-J, De Ridder D. Thalamocortical dysrhythmia detected by machine learning. Nature Communications. 2018;9(1103)

Source: Nature Communications, University of Texas at Dallas, Tinnitus.

Image: University of Texas at Dallas

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Hearing aid batteries in Honiton, Devon

News update on how rechargeable hearing aid batteries actually work in real life.

EXPERT INSIGHT #2: How long should the hearing aid battery last after a full charge, and how does Bluetooth affect this?

The Honiton hearing centre for earwax removal and Microsuction.

Courtesy of ZPower

 

 

 

 

Barry A. Freeman, PhD

Hearing aid batteries and rechargeable batteries are all around us these days. Honiton hearing centre looks at a recent news article showing how they all work in real life scenarios.

Barry Freeman, PhD, is vice president of business development for ZPower, and has been leader and educator in the global audiology community for over 35 years. Prior to joining ZPower, he was CEO and president of Audiology Consultants Inc (ACI), a private audiology consulting firm, and senior director of Audiology and Education for Starkey Hearing Technologies, a global manufacturer of hearing aids. Dr Freeman has served as chair and professor of Audiology at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) and has taught full time or as an adjunct professor in some of the most distinguished audiology programs in the country. Additionally, he owned and practiced for 20 years at the Center for Audiology in Clarksville, Tenn, and Hearing Services of Kentucky in Hopkinsville, Ky. He is a past president of the American Academy of Audiology (AAA), served on the AAA Board of Directors for 6 years, and continues to serve on several professional boards.

Q & As: This Week’s Top Selections

Q: How long should the battery last after a full charge?  How much does Bluetooth activity affect this? —Brent Spehar

A: This is a great and very important question.  Battery life is dependent on several factors including the amount of capacity of the battery, how fast the hearing aid drains the current, and the wear behaviors and habits of the user.

Much like how a car’s mileage range depends on its gas tank, the driving conditions, and the owner’s driving habits, a hearing aid’s battery life depends on the capacity of the battery, the wearer’s listening environments, and use of the various hearing aid functions, including audio streaming.

I like to use the example of an automobile.  How many gallons of gas does the fuel tank hold or, for hearing aid batteries, how many mAh capacity is in the battery?  How many miles per gallon does the car use or how many mA does the battery drain both when streaming and not streaming?  And, finally, is the car driven on the highway or in the city and is the air conditioner on or off?  Or, for hearing aids, how many hours per day does the hearing aid stream?  Does the hearing aid use 2.4 GHz streaming or does it is use NFMI with an intermediate device that has its own battery?  And, what features are turned on or off on the hearing aid?

Ask Your Question!

Send your questions to editor@hearingreview.com or via the comment box below.

Once you answer these questions, you can figure out “how long the battery will last after a full charge.”  I gave some example calculations in the HRarticle:  The Changing Landscape of Hearing Aid Batteries (Hearing Review, October 31, 2017).  

Please note a factor we have learned in our electronics’ lab.  Not all hearing aids are the same.  Some 2.4 GHz products have current drains averaging 4.8-5.0 mA when streaming while other 2.4 GHz products using lower power Bluetooth will drain the battery at 3.0-3.4 mA while streaming.  Some 2.4 GHz products when not streaming may have battery drains of 1.8-2.0 mA, while some of the newer products with bilateral beam-forming may drain the battery at 2.3-2.5 mA when not streaming.

The key is to know your products and know your patient’s listening habits.  This is critical to good counseling.

Q: Is the life of the hearing aid circuit reduced as a result of using the rechargeable system? It did happen when [a previous model of hearing aid] were rechargeable. —Anjan Muhury

A: The ZPower Rechargeable System has been thoroughly evaluated by the hearing aid manufacturers and there is no indication that the system will have a negative effect on the life of the hearing aid circuit. The ZPower silver-zinc battery is designed to mimic the performance of traditional zinc-air batteries and is transparent to the DSP of the hearing aids. Extensive studies of hearing aids using the ZPower System also show the system including the ZPower silver-zinc batteries have no impact on the electrophysiologic performance of the hearing aids. Therefore, the ZPower System will not have a negative impact on the hearing aid circuitry or performance.

Previous Q & A’s

Q: What’s a realistic time frame for a rechargeable hearing aid battery to last?

A: Rechargeable silver-zinc batteries last about a year. They are removeable and therefore easily replaced. It is recommended that rechargeable silver-zinc batteries are replaced once a year by a hearing care professional.

Li-ion batteries are sealed within the hearing aid, and are usually removable only by the hearing aid manufacturer. They last approximately 4 to 5 years.

Q: What would happen if my patient accidentally places their hearing aids in the charger while they have zinc air batteries in them?

A: When the hearing aids are put on the charger, the charger will check to see what type of battery is in the hearing aid.  If the charger detects a disposable zinc air battery, the lights on the charger will turn red.  If the charger detects a silver-zinc battery, the lights on the charger will start blinking green; once the battery is fully charged, the lights will turn solid green.

Q: Can my patients overcharge a ZPower battery if they leave it in the charger for too long?

A: The batteries will not overcharge if left in the charger.  It is a best practice to put the hearing aids back on the charger when the hearing aids are not being worn during the day.  This will keep the hearing aids turned off and the batteries charged.  For long-term storage, if batteries will not be used for over 2 weeks, the rechargeable batteries should be removed from the hearing aids and stored in a location where they will not touch each other or other metal objects.

Q: What happens when the silver-zinc rechargeable battery is getting low on power?

A: The hearing aid wearer will hear the low battery warning.  Once the low-battery warning occurs or once a hearing aid shuts off due to a low battery condition, the battery door should not be opened and closed to reboot the hearing aid. Rebooting after the low battery warning can override the smart circuitry in the battery door into believing it has a traditional disposable battery installed and, although the hearing aid will continue to work for a short period, it may over-discharge the battery. If a low-battery warning from the hearing aids is received, the hearing aids should be placed in the charging base for charging or the batteries should be replaced with non-rechargeable batteries.  The rechargeable batteries should not be stored with metal objects such as keys or coins.

Q: How often should the batteries be charged?

A: The batteries should be fully charged every night. Once the hearing aids are finished charging, the indicator lights turn from blinking green to solid green. A full charge may take up to 7 hours—the charge time varies based on how much the battery was depleted during the day. Do not try to extend battery life by charging every other day, as this increases the chances of depleting the battery. A fully depleted battery will take longer to charge and may not fully charge in time for next use.

Q: What happens if the hearing aid wearer forgets to charge the battery at night?

A: They can use a disposable zinc-air battery until it is convenient to re-charge the batteries—ideally the rechargeable batteries should be charged the next night.  The rechargeable silver-zinc batteries are a gold color, so they will not be mixed up with zinc-air disposable batteries.  The rechargeable batteries should be stored in a safe place and should not be stored with metal objects such as keys or coins.

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Earwax removal in Devon (Honiton hearing centre)

Earwax removal in Devon at the Honiton Hearing Centre.

Earwax- (ear wax), removal in Devon at the Honiton hearing centre.

 The Honiton hearing centre conduct free hearing test and hearing aid trials. Colin Eaton is the Chairman of AHHIP and is fully trained and qualified to conduct Microsuction and ear irrigation at his clinic in Honiton Devon.
Oticon OPN_miniRITE_miniRITE-T_BTE13 PP_

Reportedly the “official supplier” of hearing devices to the Veterans Affairs Administration, Department of Defense, and other federal agencies, Oticon has already brought the Oticon Opn™ open sound experience to many US veterans and active duty military service personnel, the company announced.  Microsuction of the ears to reduce ear wax is crucial before any work is done on a free hearing test at the Honiton hearing centre, the Oticon Government Services team will supply two new Opn solutions, Opn miniRITE-T and BTE Plus Power, and two new features, Tinnitus SoundSupport™ and Speech Rescue LX, to support the care provided by VA and government audiologists.

Microsuction for earwax removal is critical before any hearing aid is dispensed. Failing Microsuction there is always the option for the traditional earwax removal using water irrigation (ear irrigation).

“Many hearing care professionals in the Veterans Affairs Administration have experienced firsthand how Opn’s benefits of less effort, better recall, and better speech understanding in noise provide real-world, practical, and significant impact on quality of life,” said David Horowitz, Oticon Government Services manager. “Now our expanded offerings bring even more benefits to more patients, especially veterans suffering with tinnitus, the most prevalent service-connected disability.”

Tinnitus SoundSupport is designed to enable VA audiologists to address the needs of veterans who experience both hearing loss and tinnitus with a range of customizable relief sounds, including broadband and ocean-like sounds. For veterans who prefer a telecoil, the small, discreet Opn miniRITE-T features a telecoil and tactile toggle switch for volume and program control.  The Opn BTE 13 Plus Power gives veterans with hearing loss up to 105 dB HL access to Opn’s open sound experience. This hearing solution features a telecoil, toggle switch, and a two-color LED indicator.

All Opn styles and performance levels now also feature Speech Rescue LX, a feature that is designed to improve clarity and speech understanding for people with high-frequency hearing loss, according to Oticon. Speech Guard LX is designed to increase access to speech by rescuing speech cues that might otherwise be inaudible.

For more information about the expanded Oticon Opn family, visit www.Oticon.com/OPN.

Source: Oticon

Image: Oticon

Honiton earwax removal Devon

Devon earwax removal service in Honiton

Honiton-hearing.co.uk

Children with Hearing Loss May Experience Higher Rate of Bullying

Honiton hearing

balance issues in children

New UT Dallas research indicates that children and adolescents with hearing loss experience higher rates of peer victimization, or bullying, than children with typical hearing, UT Dallas announced in a press release on its website.

In the study, approximately 50% of the adolescents with hearing loss said they were picked on in at least one way in the past year. Previous studies show about 28% of adolescents in the general population report being bullied.

“I thought more children and adolescents with hearing loss would report getting picked on, but I did not expect the rates to be twice as high as the general population,” said Dr Andrea Warner-Czyz, an assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and a researcher at the Callier Center for Communication Disorders.

Dr Andrea Warner-Czyz

Dr Andrea Warner-Czyz

The study, which appears in the journal Exceptional Children, showed the type of bullying experienced by youth and adolescents with hearing loss mimics patterns in children with other special needs, with significantly higher rates of social exclusion.

More than one-fourth of adolescents with hearing loss indicated they felt left out of social activities, compared to only 5% of the general population reporting exclusion. These findings parallel published reports of fewer invitations to social events, lower quantity and quality of friendships, and higher loneliness in children and adolescents with hearing loss.

Researchers conducted an online survey of 87 children and adolescents ages 7 to 18 who wear cochlear implants or hearing aids for hearing loss. If they indicated they were picked on at all, the survey automatically generated follow-up questions on how often it occurred and why they thought they were targeted.

Approximately 45% said they did not know why, 20% said it was because of their hearing loss or cochlear implant, and 20% said it was because of how they looked or how they acted.

Based on information provided by parents and from other studies, Warner-Czyz said the problems with peers might reflect communication difficulties related to auditory skills.

“Sometimes they miss puns or a play on words, or other cues that have to do with humor. Or when something is said very quietly or in a noisy location, the student with hearing loss might miss it. And that can make them feel like an outcast, or it can make them look like an outcast,” she said.

“Friendships are important to most young people, but I believe are especially important for children with hearing loss.”
said Warner-Czyz. Alternatively, she said peer problems might indicate a broader issue of not recognizing social cues from conversation or distinguishing true friendship from acquaintances.

Researchers have previously said having at least one good friend is a protective factor against bullying. Most children in this study cited several or lots of friends, but anecdotal reports from parents and clinicians questioned the veracity of these friendships.

“Friendships are important to most young people, but I believe they are especially important for children with hearing loss,” said Warner-Czyz. “Anything parents can do to facilitate social interaction and friendship and letting them learn how to be a friend and who is a friend is critical.”

She said future research will delve more deeply into the reasons behind differences in friendship quality and peer victimization in children and adolescents with hearing loss to guide evidence-based, targeted therapeutic intervention and potentially contribute to effective anti-bullying programs geared toward children with special needs. She said these factors might go beyond individual youth characteristics to include a microsystem of school and home settings.

The research is part of a larger study exploring the quality of life in children and adolescents with cochlear implants.

Original Paper: Warner-Czyz AD, Loy B, Pourchot H, White T, Cokely E. Effect of hearing loss on peer victimization in school-age children. Exceptional Children. 2018;84(3):280-297.

Source: UT Dallas, Exceptional Children

Image: UT Dallas