Meet Dr. Steven Forsey!

We would like to introduce to you the newest member of our team, Dr. Steven Forsey!  Dr. Forsey will be mainly working in our NEW SPANISH FORK office, which will open in July 2011.  (More information coming soon!)

Dr. Steven Forsey was born and raised in Spanish Fork. He has strong roots in southern Utah County as his family owned and operated “Forsey’s Variety Store” in Spanish Fork, Payson, Nephi and Heber City. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Communication Disorders from Brigham Young University and his Doctorate of Audiology degree from Idaho State University.  Dr. Forsey specializes in hearing aid sales and service, balance and dizziness assessments of adults, diagnostic hearing and pediatric hearing assessments. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology and is certified by the American Speech Language-Hearing Association.

 In his spare time he enjoys snowboarding, hiking, spending time with his family, and changing the air filter is his favorite way to pretend he is good with cars. He is married to Mandy Johnson also from Spanish Fork and has three children. 

Dr. Forsey will be wroking in the American Fork office until July--- stop by and say hello!

Check Out These Hearing Videos!

In an effort to promote more educated choices among our patients, we have been working on our website.   We now offer professionally produced video clips on our site on the following topics:

• Hearing Loss Overview 
•  Signs of Hearing Loss
• Hearing Technology Overview
• Choosing the Right Hearing Technology
• Tinnitus Overview
• Why Two Hearing Devices Are Better Than One

We hope that you enjoy these informative videos!

Calorie restriction may delay age-related hearing loss

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US have succeeded in delaying age-related hearing loss in mice by restricting their intake of calories.

Experiments with mice have shown that a 25% reduction in calories activated a single enzyme, Sirt3, which helped preserve hearing. The experiments are described by researches in the journal Cell.

"If we can find compounds that activate Sirt3 we may be able to obtain some of the benefits of caloric restriction without having to restrict our calories," said Tomas A. Prolla, a professor of genetics at University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US and senior author of the new paper.

Prolla and his colleagues carried out experiments with normal mice and mice deprived of the Sirt3 enzyme. In one experiment both groups were fed the 25%-reduced calorie diet for 10 months. The diet had the same weight loss effect on both groups.

Although the diet delayed hearing loss at various frequencies in the normal mice, it did not work at all in the mice lacking Sirt3.

Energy factories and free radicals

The experiments also suggested how the benefits of caloric restriction play out at the molecular level.

"What seems to happen that drives caloric restriction is that the organism senses it is under stress," Prolla explained. "There are then metabolic changes that favour self-preservation."

Under normal conditions, he said, levels of Sirt3 are low. Caloric restriction appears to boost levels of Sirt3 and the boost helps the cells' energy factories, called mitochondria.

The mitochondria produce not only the energy, but also atoms called free radicals, which damage cells and advance the effects of aging. When Sirt3 levels rise, however, they reduce production of the harmful free radicals. One result is less damage to cells, including the cells of the inner ear.

"We need to find out which are the main mediators of caloric restriction," Prolla said, explaining that the current study indicates Sirt3 is one of them. "Once we've identified them we can come up with interventions that mimic caloric restriction."

Click here for the full article from the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel