Southwest Florida's Health and Wellness Magazine Health and Wellness Articles
By Hoglund Family Hearing and Audiology Services
If you want to make a New Year’s resolution that will really boost your life and well-being throughout all of 2018, then get your hearing tested!
“Addressing hearing loss can add to quality of life in many ways”, states Patricia Hoglund ACA, BC-HIS of Hoglund Family Hearing and Audiology Center.” Our lives are influenced in so many ways by our ability to communicate with others!” Here’s a short-list of what getting a hearing test and using professionally fitted hearing aids, if recommended by your hearing care professional, may do for you:
• Strengthen ties with family and friends. Healthy relationships rest largely on good communication. In one Better Hearing Institute (BHI) study, more than half the respondents said using hearing aids improved their relationships at home, their social lives, and their ability to join in groups. Many even saw improvements in their romance.
• Raise your spirits. People with untreated hearing loss often feel angry, frustrated, anxious, isolated, and depressed. But research shows that when they use hearing aids, many become more socially engaged, feel a greater sense of safety and independence, and see a general improvement in their overall quality of life.
• Lead you to feel better about yourself. An important perk of using hearing aids can be enhanced emotional well-being. Research shows that when people with hearing loss use hearing aids, many feel more in control of their lives and less self-critical. One BHI study found that the majority of people with mild and severe hearing loss felt better about themselves and life overall as a result of using hearing aids.
• Keep your mind sharp. Studies out of Johns Hopkins linked hearing loss with accelerated cognitive decline in older adults and found that seniors with hearing loss are significantly more likely to develop dementia over time. BHI studies found that many people with hearing loss report improvements in their cognitive skills with the use of hearing aids.
• Unleash your earning potential. Hearing your best at work helps you do your best. One study found that using hearing aids reduced the risk of income loss by 90 to 100 percent for those with milder hearing loss, and from 65 to 77 percent for those with severe to moderate hearing loss. And people with hearing loss who use hearing aids are more likely to be employed than their peers who don’t.
• Reduce your risk of falling. A Johns Hopkins study showed that people in middle age (40-69) with even just mild hearing loss were nearly three times more likely to have a history of falling. The intensive listening effort demanded by unaddressed hearing loss may take cognitive resources away from what is needed for balance and gait, experts have suggested.
“Hearing loss can be isolating, frustrating, and embarrassing. In addition to taking away daily pleasures, it can also threaten your independence” remarked John Hoglund ACA, BC-HIS. “Patient’s families very often remark how much more lucid, outgoing, and invigorated their family member became when they could understand voices more clearly!” “It can be a lifechanging event for people!”
Age-related hearing loss affects one in three of us by age 65. That shouldn’t be surprising. We’ve punished our ears with a lifetime of noise — from lawnmowers and hair dryers to car horns and loud music. But even as technology may have accelerated hearing loss, it is also offering unprecedented help. New hearing aids — some as small as a jelly bean — are producing greater amplification with less distortion. In fact, new technologies have made it easier to manage hearing loss and stay engaged in life.
Today’s hearing aids help people with hearing loss better hear sounds and people from all directions, and they filter out noise. Many sit discreetly and comfortably inside the ear canal and out of sight; and many are wireless, so they can interface easily with other high-
tech devices like smartphones, home entertainment systems, conference-room speakerphones, and hearing loops. Some are even waterproof; and others are rechargeable. “Our ability to help those with even the most complex pathology, has improved dramatically by these technological improvements” states Patricia Hoglund. Patricia started her career by building hearing aids and then trained people to build hearing aids, in more than a decade of working for hearing aid manufacturers, and interacting with some of the finest research and development professionals in the industry. “The sound quality, comfort, and technical performance especially in environments with background noise, is better than at any time in history” Patricia continues, “We have an agreement with every manufacturer we work with to give our Patients a SIXTY-DAY TRIAL PERIOD, so you will be certain that you are satisfied with the performance of these virtually invisible hearing solutions!”
Hoglund Family Hearing and Audiology Center also offers FREE HEARING TESTS to let you know the exact amount of hearing loss you may have, and furnish you with a dated copy of this evaluation for your personal medical records! “We never wanted expense to be a barrier to education”, John states, “so these consultations and evaluations are done on a complimentary basis!”
All it will COST, is a little of your TIME…
but the KNOWLEDGE you receive
may be PRICELESS!
Hoglund Family Hearing And Audiology Center
Fifteen 8th Street, Suite B (Next to Royal Scoop Ice Cream)
Bonita Springs, FL 31434
239-494-8651
Southwest Florida Tinnitus And Hearing Center
10020 Coconut Rd. Ste.120 (Next to LabCorp)
Estero, FL 34135
239-494-8652
AUDIOLOGY CENTERS OF HOGLUND FAMILY HEARING
13710 Metropolis Ave.Suite 101
(One block west of Gulf Coast Hospital)
Fort Myers, Fl. 33912
239-208-6827
