Do you remember the Q-Ray Bracelets? You know, the magnetized wristbands that vowed to provide immediate and significant pain relief from arthritis and other chronic ailments? Well, you won’t see much of that marketing anymore; in 2008, the producers of the Q-Ray Bracelets were legally required to give back customers a maximum of $87 million
Hearing impairment is dangerously sneaky. It creeps up on an individual over the years so gradually you hardly notice, making it all too easy to deny it’s even there. And then, when you finally recognize the signs and symptoms, you shrug it off as inconvenient and irritating because its worst consequences are hidden. For approximately
Popularity, fortune, and screaming fans — these are a few of the words and phrases you’d select to summarize the life of a professional musician. In spite of this, what you probably wouldn’t take into account is “hearing loss” or “tinnitus,” the not-so-enjoyable side-effects of all that celebrity, fortune, and screaming. The unfortunate irony is,
85 decibels. That’s the noise intensity at which repetitive exposure can trigger significant hearing damage. 100 decibels. that is the noise degree reached by a rock concert, which is not-so-good news for performers or concert goers. It’s also a portion of a greater problem: According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), around 30
These days, millions of people wear hearing aids every day to be able to hear better. This is nothing new, even though the technology has certainly advanced significantly. Readily available in a large number of shapes, sizes, and even colors, today’s hearing aids only weigh a few ounces when they used to weigh several pounds!
Hearing aids have gone through a multitude of iterations in their 200-plus year history. The technology that is deployed in hearing aids has historically been developed by means of a devoted scientist who is either impacted by hearing loss or has a friend or family member affected by hearing loss. For example, Alexander Graham Bell’s
There are many ways that you can protect your hearing. Staying away from loud sounds is one of the most common, but what if you could protect your hearing by avoiding a medication? It turns out that this is the case with ibuprofen, a drug that many people around the nation use to treat minor
The holiday seasons is one of the best times of the year to get together with people that you cherish and share stories about the year past. For most people, this is a very pleasurable time filled with reminiscing. Yet, for the people in our lives that suffer from hearing loss, it can be a
People who have hearing loss and use hearing aids to supplement their hearing need to be aware of the changes that have come to hearing aids. While you may have been able to easily program your own hearing aid in the past, the modern hearing aids require that you go to a hearing specialist in
There has been another leap forward in the technology that governs hearing aids in the modern world. This new technique, called brain hearing, is a novel approach to developing hearing aids that makes them more durable and more effective at treating hearing loss. While the digital models of hearing aids were somewhat bulky and unsightly,
Of all of the numerous changes that have occurred in hearing aid technology, cell phones appear to have had the greatest impact on it in recent years. While there have been a variety of improvements in hearing aids, such as the cochlear implant and digital displays, the fact that cell phones have been able to
For any person who has suffered from hearing loss in their life, there has always been the hope and expectation that technology will grow to the point where it can offer relief. However, for people who have such tremendous hearing damage that neither technology nor surgery can help them, there has been little to celebrate.