Healthy Options 10/4/23: How we hear, how to protect our hearing, and recognize & manage hearing loss from infancy to adulthood

Host/Producer: Rhonda Feiman
Co-Producer: Petra Hall

Healthy Options: For Well-being & Being Well

This month:

How do we hear?
What can cause hearing loss?
Are there differences in sensitivity in how individuals react to loud sounds?
How can we protect our hearing?
How do you know that you are experiencing hearing loss?
What are some detriments to delaying or not getting hearing aids when they are needed?
How would an audiologist assess your hearing ability? 
How is the hearing of infants & young children assessed, & addressed?
What are the differences between prescription and over-the-counter hearing aids?

Guest/s:

Kate Weiss is an audiologist in Minnesota, & currently an independent consultant, after a 40-year career spent mostly in pediatrics. She worked for many years at Children’s Hospitals & Clinics of Minnesota, and in the Minneapolis Public Schools’ home-based birth-to-three program, Early Childhood Special Education preschool program, and with deaf and hard of hearing students and their families and teachers in elementary, middle, and high schools. For several years, she worked with both children and adults of all ages at St. Paul Rehabilitation Center. She was co-chair of the task force that developed protocols for universal newborn hearing screening, infant hearing assessment, amplification fitting, and parent advocacy for the State of Minnesota’s Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program.

FMI: 
From CONSUMER REPORTS online (& the May/June 2023 magazine article, HOW TO HEAR BETTER NOW).
Check out the other links they also list, on ratings of both prescription and over-the-counter hearing aid brands & retailers.)

1. Your Guide to Hearing Helpers
www.consumerreports.org/health/hearing-aids/your-guide-to-hearing-helpers-a2688068457/

2. A Complete Guide to Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids
www.consumerreports.org/health/hearing-aids/complete-guide-to-over-the-counter-hearing-aids-a3898239010/

3. This Quick Quiz Can Screen You for Hearing Loss (Note: Not a “hearing test” to screen for hearing loss, but a good tool to help people screen for how much hearing issues interfere with their social/daily life, and about the possible need for hearing aids.)
www.consumerreports.org/health/hearing-ear-care/self-hearing-test-for-auditory-wellness-a4832177815/

About the host:
Rhonda Feiman is a nationally-certified, licensed acupuncturist practicing in Belfast, Maine since 1993. She primarily practices Toyohari Japanese acupuncture, using gentle and powerful non-insertion needle techniques, and also utilizes Chinese acupuncture and herbology. In addition, Rhonda is a practitioner of Qi Gong and an instructor of Tai Chi Chuan in the Yang Family tradition.