LACE Therapy For Better Listening Skills

Hearing better is a lot like physical therapy.  It takes work and you tend to get out of it benefits proportional to what you put into it.

One type of therapy we offer at Timpanogos Hearing & Balance is called LACE (Listening And Communication Enhancement).  This is a low cost training program that allows you to perform additional training in your own home.  This program is proven to improve one's ability to listen more effectively especially in noisy situations, which is the main complaint of people with hearing loss.

LACE is done using a computer or DVD. LACE is designed to enhance listening and communication skills, get the patient involved in the therapeutic process, improve confidence levels, and provide communication strategies. The program consists of a variety of interactive and adaptive training tasks for listening to speech in noise, rapid speech, and auditory memory.

 Besides the immediate feedback given for each task, LACE provides the patient with a graph depicting daily improvement and progress from the start of the training.

It should be reinforced at this point that better hearing is not a passive process where you simply let the hearing aids do all the work; success does not rest solely on the hearing aid and the expertise of the hearing healthcare professional. To optimize your hearing aid experience you must become an active participant. One of the best ways to do this is to become an active listener using software like LACE.

LACE training is conducted in the privacy of your own home at a pace comfortable to you.. LACE consists of twenty 20-30 minute listening exercises of progressing difficulty and can be completed in ten days, or longer if you wish. Research on thousands of people with hearing loss demonstrates that you can expect on average a 40% improvement of speech comprehension in noisy situations, if you complete the training program. Using the listening skills you will acquire with this software, along with communication strategies as well as the advanced features of your hearing aids such as directional microphones or wireless technology you could do even better depending on your degree of hearing loss.

Here are some questions and answers about LACE.

Q. How do I know if I need LACE auditory retraining therapy?
A. All people whose hearing loss is less than profound or deaf will benefit from auditory retraining therapy. In fact even normal hearing people can benefit by training their brain to listen better in noisy situations.
Q. Where do I get LACE software?
A. You can get LACE directly from your hearing healthcare professional at Timpanogos Hearing & Balance.
Q. How much does it cost?
A. If you purchased hearing technology from Timpanogos Hearing & Balance, we only charge $50 for the program.  If you buy it online, you will pay $100 to $150.
Q. What equipment will I need to do LACE?
A. It is preferred while wearing your hearing aids that you use a computer with loudspeakers through your mouse or keyboard. If you do not have a computer the DVD version allows you to take the listening skills training using the DVD remote but for those with manual dexterity problems this may be difficult. In addition you will not be able to connect to the Internet to send your on-going results to your hearing healthcare professional, which is a helpful part of your therapy program.
Q. Will my acquired listening skills be permanent?
A. Yes they will; but some people may need refresher training with their software.

If you have questions about this program of about hearing better in general, you can call our office at 801-770-0801 or go to www.utahhearingaids.com. 

Why Ear Wax and Hearing Aids Aren't Friends

Cerumen or earwax is a self-cleaning agent produced in your ears with protective, lubricating, and antibacterial properties. Earwax is not really a "wax" but a water-soluble mixture of secretions (produced in the outer third of the ear canal), plus hair and dead skin. Earwax is not formed in the deep part of the ear canal near the eardrum, but in the outer one-third of the ear canal. It naturally works its way out of the ear through movement of your jaw while speaking and chewing.

But for patients who wear hearing aids, special attention must be paid to make sure earwax does not damage the aid or impair function. Cerumen in the ear canal can cause the hearing aid to fit poorly and not seal properly. If the hearing aid fits poorly, sound produced by the aid passes around it and out of the ear canal, where it is picked up by the microphone and reamplified. A positive feedback loop is created and audible, high-pitched feedback results. Cerumen removal eliminates feedback, when the feedback is due to excess cerumen.

Too much earwax can also damage the listening device. In fact, current estimates from various hearing aid manufacturers indicate that 60 to 70 percent of all hearing aids sent for repair are damaged as a result of contact with cerumen.

Patients who wear hearing aids should have their clinician examine the ears for impacted cerumen during a routine healthcare visits, but this does not need to occur more frequently than every three months. Examination is accomplished by removing the hearing aid and inspecting the ear canal with a handheld otoscope. If the patient has bilateral hearing aids, the second ear is examined after replacing the first hearing aid, to facilitate communication.

If your doctor finds evidence of earwax impaction, he or she may need to perform a variety of techniques to help remove the obstruction. These include:

1. Flushing the ear with cerumenolytic (wax-dissolving) agents, which include water, saline, and other agents of comparable efficacy.
2. Using irrigation or ear syringing.
3. Manual removal with special instruments or a suction device, which is preferred for patients with narrow ear canals, eardrum perforation or tube, or immune deficiency.

If you would like to have a complimentary ear wax check, please call our office at 801-770-0801 or see www.utahhearingaids.com for more information.

Reposted from the American Academy of Otolaryngology

New Study Shows Link Between Diabetes and Hearing Loss in Women

A recent study has proven that diabetes is often associated with hearing loss in women.  The study, done by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, examined the medical records of 990 men and women who had hearing tests between 2000 and 2008. Patients with diabetes were divided into two groups: well-controlled and poorly controlled.  The poorly controlled diabetics had  28%  worse hearing than those without diabetes.

The study also discovered that the younger the diabetic was, the more likely she was to suffer from hearing loss.

Because men are already more likely to experience hearing loss due to louder lifestyles and activities, the study was not able to prove any relationship between diabetes and hearing loss in men.

The implications in this study are significant.  There have been previous links proven between diabetes and loss of sight, so many physicians recommend yearly vision exams when a patient is diagnosed with diabetes.  This study implies that they should also be referred for yearly audiologic examinations as well.

This information was presented at a medical meeting and should not be conclusive until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.  You can find out more about hearing loss at www.utahhearingaids.com or call our office for a free hearing consultation at 801-770-0801.

Get Your Hearing Checked During American Heart Month!

What do those two things, hearing and heart health, have to do with each other?  Research shows plenty.  For example:

In one study, published in The Laryngoscope, researchers hypothesized that low-frequency hearing loss is associated with underlying cardiovascular disease; and a mathematical formula using audiometric pattern and medical history to predict the probability of cardiovascular diseases and events was developed and tested. The researchers concluded that the audiogram pattern correlates strongly with cerebrovascular and peripheral arterial disease, and that it may represent a screening test for those at risk. The researchers also concluded that patients with low-frequency hearing loss should be regarded as at risk for cardiovascular events, and that appropriate referrals should be considered.

In another study, published in the June 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, researchers looked at hearing sensitivity in older adults and its association with cardiovascular risk factors. They concluded that modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease may play a role in the development of age-related hearing loss. Risk factors associated with poorer hearing sensitivity in men included high triglyceride levels, high resting heart rate, and a history of smoking. In women, poor hearing sensitivity was associated with high body mass index, high resting heart rate, fast aortic pulse-wave velocity (PWV), and low ankle–arm index (AAI).

In still another study, published in the June 2010 issue of the American Journal of Audiology, the authors reviewed research that had been conducted over the past 60 plus years. They found that the negative influence of impaired cardiovascular health on both the peripheral and central auditory system, and the potential positive influence of improved cardiovascular health on these same systems, was found through a sizable body of research.

To schedule a free consultation with one of our Doctors of Audiology, call us at 801-770-0801 or go to www.utahhearingaids.com for more information.

New Study Links Hearing Loss With Increase Risk of Dementia

A recent study by researchers at Johns Hopkins and the National Institute on Aging has found that adults with hearing loss are significantly more likely than adults with normal hearing to develop dementia.  The study also concluded that the greater the hearing loss, the higher the risk.

The study followed 639 people ages 36 to 90 who initially did not have dementia.  The volunteers were tested for hearing loss and dementia every two years for nearly two decades.

Researchers found that those with hearing loss at the beginning of the study were much more likely to develop dementia by the end.  The risk of dementia only began to rise once hearing loss began to interfere with the ability to communicate-- for example in a noisy environment such as a restaurant.

Interestingly enough, the study also found a link between hearing loss and Alzheimer's risk, but the link was not as strong as between hearing loss and dementia.

The author of the study, Frank Lin, M.D. says that whatever causes dementia also causes hearing loss, but they don't have clear evidence.  He states that it is more likely that the stress caused by the effects of untreated hearing loss contributes to dementia and Alzheimer's.

Previous studies have proven that those with untreated hearing loss experience fatigue, stress and frustration after spending extra energy trying to decipher what those around them are saying.  This also contributes to social isolation, which has also been proven to contribute even more to dementia.  Dr. Lin says that it could be a combination of those two-- neurological stress and social isolation, that is the cause.

Unfortunately, people don't tend to give hearing loss the same kind of attention they give other conditions such as high blood pressure.  However, this research tells us that we may want to take a more serious look at treating hearing loss-- not just as a matter of improving quality of life, but also as a matter of increasing over-all health.

Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a greater emphasis on hearing loss research and on finding the link between hearing loss and other aging related conditions.

If you would like a free hearing consultation with a Doctor of Audiology, please call our office at 801-770-0801.

You can read the full study from the Archives of Neurology here.