Photo credit: A Health Blog licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
by David M. Sykes, Vice Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Harvard Medical School publishes a number of useful, consumer-oriented newsletters and blogs on issues related to health. Sometimes they touch on noise-induced hearing loss and other hearing-related concerns. In this recent blog, James Maple, MD, discusses hearing health and its relationship to brain function. If you’re looking for some insight into this issue that avoids the hype, this is a good place to start. Research has recently shown that there is a clear correlation between diminished hearing and decline in cognitive function. Research is ongoing to determine whether there is a clear causal link between the two and how it might work. What is clear is that that preventing hearing loss is important.
An earlier article in this same publication gives an overview of the emerging market for personal sound amplification products, a market that opened last month thanks to the Warren-Grassley Act passed in 2017 and signed into law in 2018. This law enables high tech “hearing assistive devices” to be sold over the counter without a prescription at drug stores, via online stores, etc.—for 1/10th the price of typical hearing aids. So now for a few hundred dollars you can purchase hearing assistive devices, try them out, and decide whether they’ll help you (or someone you know whom you suspect needs them). This article provides a useful, non-hyped description of PSAPs that makes good background reading before you begin shopping.
