Oxford Dictionaries defines life-hack as: “A strategy or technique adopted in order to manage one’s time and daily activities in a more efficient way.” Life hacks can save you both time and money, and some are so simple you’ll wonder why you hadn’t previously thought of them.

Inventive but simple life-hacks include flipping your toaster sideways to make a grilled cheese sandwich, using the sticky region of sticky notes to clean between the individual keys of a keyboard, and using duct tape to open jars.

Life-hacks can also apply to the body: examples include scratching your ear to cure an itch in your throat, lying on your left side to relieve acid reflux, and pressing your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth to relieve brain freeze from ice cream or frozen foods.

But what about hearing? Are there any life-hacks we can use to help us hear better or easier? It turns out that there are several—here are our selections for the best 7.

1. Assess your hearing online

You can rapidly test for hearing loss using one of the several apps accessible online, or by taking the online hearing test on our website. If the final results suggest hearing loss, you can then arrange a professional hearing test with your community hearing care provider.

2. Use white noise for a better night’s sleep

Research suggests that using white noise can help you to sleep better as it helps to build a bedtime habit, keeps the room quiet, and helps “power down” your busy brain.

3. Wear customized earplugs to prevent hearing loss

Prolonged and repeated subjection to any sound above 85 decibels can induce irreparable hearing loss (rock concerts can get to over 100 decibels). Using custom earplugs is a simple way to protect against hearing damage, and the latest earplugs can preserve sound quality while reducing volume. Call your local hearing care professional for more information.

4. Safeguard your hearing with the inverse square law

This law of physics could end up saving your hearing. The inverse square law states that as you double the distance from the origin of sound the strength of the sound falls by 75 percent. So, instead of standing front row at a rock concert, increase your distance from the loudspeakers as much as you can (while sustaining a good view).

5. Use the 60/60 rule when listening to music

If you listen to a portable mp3 music player with headphones, keep the volume at 60 percent of the maximum volume for not more than 60 minutes per day to prevent hearing loss.

6. Favor your right ear for speech

A study executed over the course of six years by researchers at UCLA and the University of Arizona found that the right ear is better designed for speech and the left ear for music. So the next time you’re having trouble hearing a conversation, direct your right ear towards the speaker.

7. Control your hearing environment

Using hearing aids is probably not regarded as a life-hack, but it is the only way to properly enhance hearing in the presence of hearing loss—and the things you can accomplish with the latest hearing aids are truly amazing.

As an example, a number of hearing aids are wireless and can be controlled with smartphones or digital watches. As a result, the individual can inconspicuously modify volume and settings for each situation—in essence, the user can literally regulate the sound environment. We can’t think of any other life-hack cooler or more helpful than that.

What did we miss? What are your preferred life-hacks (health-related or in general)?

Congratulations on taking the first step toward healthier hearing by scheduling your hearing assessment. You’re already ahead of the game, as many people delay having their hearing tested for years—in some cases decades.

But now that you’ve scheduled your hearing test, you’ll want to see to it that you’re prepared for the appointment, particularly if test results show that you could benefit from wearing hearing aids. Purchasing hearing aids can be difficult, but if you ask the right questions, your hearing care professional can help direct you to the most appropriate technology.

To attain the best hearing you can, remember to ask these five questions at your upcoming hearing test.

1. What type of hearing loss do I have?

Your hearing care professional will test your hearing using the most current technology, and the results of the test will be printed on a diagram referred to as an audiogram. Make sure your hearing professional reviews the audiogram with you and discusses:

• The type and degree of your hearing loss. High-frequency hearing loss is most common, and is classified as mild, moderate, severe, or profound.
• How hearing aids can help, and if and why you’d need hearing aids for one or both ears. Hearing loss in both ears is most effectively addressed with two hearing aids, and the audiogram will present the results for both ears.

2. Which hearing aid is best for my needs?

Every patient’s hearing loss and listening needs are unique. The more your hearing professional knows about your way of living, the better they can prescribe the appropriate technology.

If you’re particularly active, for instance, you might give thought to the most up-to-date hearing aid technology with wireless capability. If you don’t need all of the bells and whistles, however, a more inexpensive solution is likely a better fit.

3. What are my options for financing?

Next is everyone’s least favorite subject—price. Although you should keep in mind that the benefits of hearing aids far surpass the cost (the monthly cost in most instances being lower than the cable TV bill), the price can still seem high.

Several financing options are available that can help you cover the cost, although not all options are available to every patient. Nevertheless, you should consult with your hearing professional regarding some of these sources:

• private insurance (uncommon but worth asking about)
• Medicare and Medicaid
• VA benefits
• charitable organizations
• state programs
• financing options (special healthcare credit arrangements)

4. How can I best adjust to my new hearing aids?

After you’ve selected your desired hearing aids and have had them professionally fit, you can head home and instantly hear perfectly without any complications, correct?

Not exactly. As with anything new, you’ll require some time to adapt. You’ll be experiencing sounds you haven’t noticed for some time, your voice may sound unusual, and the fit of the hearing aid may feel unpleasant. This is perfectly normal and expected, and will resolve itself in a short amount of time. You simply have to be patient.

See to it that your hearing professional provides instructions on how to best adapt to your hearing aids, including how to control them and how to master the features.

5. How do I take care of my hearing aids?

Hearing aids are cutting-edge and dependable products that should function reliably for many years. Even so, they do necessitate consistent cleaning and care. Talk to your hearing professional about cleaning kits and procedures, storage methods, accessories, and battery management.

In addition, it’s a wise decision to have your hearing practitioner professionally clean your hearing aids a few times a year.

As you prepare for your hearing test, keep in mind that achieving the best outcome requires:

1. understanding your hearing loss
2. coordinating your hearing loss and lifestyle to the right technology
3. selecting an affordable solution based on your budget
4. professionally fitting and programming your new hearing aids
5. adapting to and maintaining your hearing aids

With the help of your community hearing care professional—and by asking the right questions—you can ensure the best results and a life of better hearing.

Twentieth century neuroscience has discovered something rather amazing: specifically that your brain can change itself well into adulthood. Whereas in the early 1900s it was presumed that the brain ceased changing in adolescence, we now acknowledge that the brain reacts to change all throughout life.

Neuroplasticity

To understand exactly how your brain changes, consider this comparison: visualize your ordinary daily route to work. Now imagine that the route is blocked and how you would respond. You wouldn’t just surrender, turn around, and head home; rather, you’d find an substitute route. If that route turned out to be more efficient, or if the original route remained closed, the new route would become the new routine.

Similar processes are taking place in your brain when a “regular” function is obstructed. The brain reroutes its processing down new paths, and this re-routing process is defined as neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity comes in handy for mastering new languages, new abilities like juggling, or new healthier behavior. After some time, the physical changes to the brain match to the new habits and once-challenging tasks become automatic.

Unfortunately, while neuroplasticity can be beneficial, there’s another side that can be hazardous. While learning new skills and healthy habits can make a favorable impact on our lives, learning bad habits can have the opposite effect.

Neuroplasticity and Hearing Loss

Hearing loss is one example of how neuroplasticity can backfire. As discussed in The Hearing Review, researchers from the University of Colorado found that the segment of the brain devoted to hearing can become reorganized and reassigned to different functions, even with beginning-stage hearing loss. This is believed to clarify the relationship between hearing loss and cognitive decline.

With hearing loss, the areas of our brain in charge of other capabilities, like vision or touch, can recruit the under-used areas of the brain in charge of hearing. Because this lowers the brain’s available resources for processing sound, it impairs our capacity to comprehend speech.

So, if you have hearing loss and find yourself saying “what was that?” a lot, it’s not just because of the injury to your inner ear—it’s to a certain extent caused by the structural changes to your brain.

How Hearing Aids Can Help

Like most things, there is a simultaneously a negative and a positive side to our brain’s natural ability to change. While neuroplasticity exacerbates the effects of hearing loss, it also elevates the performance of hearing aids. Our brain can create new connections, regenerate tissue, and reroute neural pathways. That means enhanced stimulation from hearing aids to the parts of the brain in control of hearing will stimulate growth and development in this area.

In fact, a newly published long-term study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society revealed that utilizing hearing aids curbs cognitive decline in people with hearing loss. The study, titled Self-Reported Hearing Loss: Hearing Aids and Cognitive Decline in Elderly Adults: A 25-year Study, followed 3,670 adults age 65 and older over a 25 year period. The study found that the rate of cognitive decline was greater in those with hearing loss compared to those with normal hearing. But the participants with hearing loss who utilized hearing aids showed no difference in the rate of cognitive decline when compared to those with normal hearing.

The appeal of this study is that it concurs with what we already know regarding neuroplasticity: that the brain will reorganize itself according to its requirements and the stimulation it receives.

Maintaining a Young Brain

In summary, research shows that the brain can change itself all throughout life, that hearing loss can speed up cognitive decline, and that using hearing aids can prevent or minimize this decline.

But hearing aids can achieve a lot more than that. As reported by brain plasticity expert Dr. Michael Merzenich, you can boost your brain function regardless of age by engaging in challenging new activities, continuing to be socially active, and exercising mindfulness, among other techniques.

Hearing aids can help with this too. Hearing loss has a tendency to make people withdraw socially and can have an isolating influence. But by using hearing aids, you can ensure that you continue being socially active and continue to stimulate the sound processing and language areas of your brain.

There seems to be more misunderstanding when it relates to hearing care than with most other medical specialties. We don’t need to ask, for example, what a dentist or eye doctor can do for us. But when it comes to our hearing, we’re frequently unsure as to what we should do or who we should visit.

So what exactly can a local hearing care professional do for you? Several things, in fact—things that could result in making your life better and easier.

Here are 6 services you should know about.

1. Examination of hearing and balance

Hearing professionals are specially trained in evaluating hearing and balance. If you think you have hearing loss, balance issues, or experience ringing in the ears, the local hearing professional is the go-to professional.

By performing professional audiological evaluations, hearing specialists can skillfully establish the cause of your hearing loss or balance problems. And if your hearing loss is brought about by an underlying medical problem, hearing specialists can prepare the relevant referrals.

In addition, If you have persistent ringing in the ears, known as tinnitus, some hearing specialists can furnish targeted therapies.

2. Earwax removal

In some cases, what is thought to be hearing loss is simply excess earwax accumulation. While it’s not the most glamorous facet of the job, hearing specialists are skilled in professional ear cleaning. If this is the reason for your hearing loss, you could begin hearing better within a few minutes.

And always remember, it’s never safe to insert anything, including cotton swabs, into your ear canal at home. There are other appropriate ways you can clean your ears, such as with homemade solutions or ideally by visiting the hearing specialist.

3. Customized hearing protection

A great number of individuals make the error of first visiting the hearing specialist after they acquire hearing loss. Don’t make the same error. If you’re working in a noisy industry (for example as a musician) or participate in loud activities (such as hunting), you should invest in custom made ear protection to avoid future hearing loss.

You could just purchase some foam earplugs at the convenience store, but they’re ordinarily uncomfortable and create an aggravating muffled sound. Custom earplugs fit comfortably in your ear and preserve the sounds you desire to hear while protecting against the sounds that result in damage.

4. Professional hearing tests (audiometry)

Hearing loss is imperceptible, pain-free, and at times difficult to recognize or accept. The only way to get an accurate diagnosis is with the aid of a professional hearing examination known as audiometry.

Making use of sophisticated equipment and practices, the hearing specialist can accurately diagnose hearing loss. After performing the test, the results are printed on a graph referred to as an audiogram. Like a fingerprint, everyone’s hearing loss is a little different, which will be visually depicted on the audiogram.

If you can reap benefits from hearing aids, the audiogram will function as the blueprint to programming and personalizing the technology.

5. Hearing aid selection and fitting

Hearing aids come in many styles, from numerous producers, equipped with numerous features. Considering that everyone’s hearing loss and preferences are a little different, this variety is necessary—but it does make things a little overwhelming when you need to make a decision.

That’s where hearing specialists can really help. They’ll help you find the hearing aid that suits your hearing loss while making sure that you don’t throw away cash on features you simply don’t care about or require.

Once you discover the right hearing aid, your hearing specialist will make use of your audiogram as the blueprint for customization. That way, you’ll be sure that your hearing aid maximizes your hearing according to the sounds you specifically have trouble hearing.

6. A lifetime of healthy hearing

The health of your hearing should always be preserved as vigorously as any other component of your health. We have primary care physicians, dentists, and optometrists that help maintain various aspects of our health on a continuing basis.

In the same way, we ought to have a dedicated professional watching out for the health of our hearing. Your partnership with your hearing specialist shouldn’t end following your hearing test; it should be on-going. Hearing specialists provide a range of beneficial life-long services, including hearing aid cleaning, upkeep, troubleshooting, and repair, together with advice and guidance on the latest technology.

So although your hearing will inevitably change over time, your hearing specialist should not. If you agree to locating a local professional who cares about helping people above all else, you’ll enjoy the advantages of healthy hearing for life.

Congratulations—you’re prepared to join the millions of Americans who have realized how utilizing hearing aids can make life much more enjoyable and rewarding. Before long, you’ll be hearing sounds you’ve long forgotten about, participating in stimulating conversations, and listening to music with better perceptiveness for each instrument.

But before you can get to all that, you’ll have to proceed through a quick period of adjustment to get used to your new hearing aids. Here are five recommendations to help you make it through this stage and to help you get the most out of your new technology.

1. Visit a Hearing Care Professional

If you want the best hearing attainable, there’s no avoiding the first step, which is contacting a hearing care professional. They can help you find the right hearing aid that matches your hearing loss, lifestyle, and financial position. And, even more importantly, they can custom-fit and program your new hearing aid so that it’s fine tuned for your distinctive hearing loss.

Your hearing loss, like a fingerprint, is unique. That means every hearing aid should always be programmed differently—and this requires the skill-set of a hearing care professional.

2. Give Your Hearing Aids a Chance

Your brand new hearing aids will take some getting used to. You’ll hear sounds you haven’t listened to in a long time, your voice may sound unusual, and sound might overall just seem “off.” This is completely normal: you simply need time to adapt.

Get started by making a commitment to wear your hearing aids for as much of the day as possible, for at a minimum a few weeks. Put them in when you get up in the morning and take them out before going to bed. Although it may be awkward initially, you’ll adjust to better hearing in no time—and it will be well worth the effort and hard work.

If you find that you’re having a hard time adjusting, schedule an appointment with your hearing care professional. Hearing aids can be fine-tuned, so you never have to give up on better hearing.

3. Start Small

We suggest adapting to your hearing aids to start with in the comfort of your home. Attempt watching a movie or television show and paying special attention to the conversation; engage in one-on-one conversations in a quiet room; and listen to music while attempting to pick out different instruments and pitches.

Next, when you’re more comfortable, you can try your hearing aids out in more challenging surroundings like at parties, restaurants, and movie theaters. Modern hearing aids come with advanced features and environmental settings that can easily handle these heightened listening demands—which segues nicely to the fourth tip.

4. Learn the Advanced Features

After you’ve adapted to your hearing aids, you should begin to learn a few of the more sophisticated features. With the assistance of your hearing specialist, you can discover how to take advantage of the functionality and convenience of your modern hearing aids.

Depending on your specific model, you’ll have the ability to do things like wirelessly stream music and phone calls straight to your hearing aids, manipulate the volume from your smart-phone or digital watch, and easily switch settings to optimize your hearing in a variety of environments. Make sure to speak to your hearing specialist about all the features that may be beneficial to you.

5. Maintain Your Hearing Aids

Finally, you’ll want to make sure that you maintain your hearing aids. This means daily cleaning, proper storage, and managing your battery supply. Your hearing specialist will help you combine hearing aid maintenance and care into your daily routine so that it becomes automatic and effortless.

You’ll also want to get your hearing aids professionally cleaned and examined one or two times annually to ensure proper functioning for many years.

We’d love to hear from you: if you currently have hearing aids, tell us about your experience! Let us know how you adapted to your hearing aids and any advice you’d give to those just getting started.

You’ve most likely seen the commercials. The ones promoting PSAPs, or personal sound amplification products, promising a boost to hearing for as little as 20 dollars. It appears to be a excellent deal—particularly in comparison to the significant selling price of a hearing aid.

The truth is, it’s not so much a great deal as it is shrewd marketing. The ads do their best to obscure some vital information while emphasizing carefully selected talking points.

But the question remains: why would you choose to shell out more money on a hearing aid when less expensive PSAPs are readily available? Here are five reasons.

1. PSAPs are not medical devices regulated by the FDA

Listen carefully to the PSAP advertisements. You’ll hear all about “boosts” to hearing but never about treating hearing loss. The reason: PSAPs are not FDA-regulated medical devices and can not be used to treat any medical condition, including hearing loss. PSAPs are merely recreational products intended to produce benefits to people who can already hear normally.

Making use of a PSAP to manage hearing loss is like wearing a pair of reading glasses to treat near and far-sighted vision impairment. Hearing aids, on the other hand, are FDA-regulated medical devices that can proficiently treat hearing loss.

2. PSAPs are not customizable

Hearing aids may not look very impressive on the outside, but inside they include state-of-the-art digital technology that can slice up, save, adjust, and control any type of sound. Hearing aids can also create adjustments for pitch and volume so that amplification complements the patient’s hearing loss exactly.

A PSAP, in contrast, is a one-size-fits-all electronic gadget that amplifies soft sounds. Since everyone’s hearing loss is a little different, PSAPs won’t amplify the correct frequencies. Rather, PSAPs will amplify all sound, producing distortion in noisy settings.

3. PSAPs can’t enhance speech

Speech sounds are special in that they are predominantly represented in the higher frequencies, particularly in comparison to background noises. Because digital hearing aids can identify variations in sound frequency, hearing aids can amplify speech while curbing background noise. PSAPs, for the most part, are lacking this capability.

4. PSAPs could cost you more in the long-run

Firstly, hearing loss is occasionally brought about by factors that do not require hearing amplification whatsoever. If, for instance, earwax accumulation is triggering your hearing loss, a straightforward professional cleaning can restore your hearing within a few minutes—and without a dime spent on any amplification devices.

Second, sometimes more serious medical conditions can cause hearing loss, so you’ll want a professional assessment to rule this out. Because you can buy a PSAP without any communication with any healthcare specialists, you could be putting yourself in danger.

Third, if you do have noise-induced or age-related hearing loss, a PSAP will not work the way you want it to. You’ll most likely invest in a hearing aid at some point anyway, so you might as well skip the additional expense of the PSAP.

And last, unlike hearing aids, there is no mandatory trial period for PSAPs. If you buy one and it doesn’t get the job done, there’s no legal guarantee that you’ll recoup your money.

5. PSAPs lack the functionality of a hearing aid

PSAPs, like we stated, are simple amplification gadgets stripped of any advanced functionality. Hearing aids, on the other hand, can enhance speech, minimize background noise, and accommodate to different environments. Several hearing aid models can even stream phone calls and music wirelessly, and some can be regulated with smartphones and watches.

The choice is yours

PSAPs do have their uses. If you have normal hearing, PSAPs are perfect for things like bird watching and eavesdropping on conversations, if that’s your sort of thing.

But for hearing loss, don’t settle for less than you deserve. Your hearing, and the relationships that count on it, are too valuable.

Researchers are looking at ways to apply new signal processing strategies to the design of hearing aids. Signal processing is the method used to modify normal sound waves into amplified sound that is the best possible match to the remaining hearing for a hearing aid user. NIDCD-funded researchers also are studying how hearing aids can enhance speech signals to improve understanding.

In addition, researchers are investigating the use of computer-aided technology to design and manufacture better hearing aids. Researchers also are seeking ways to improve sound transmission and to reduce noise interference, feedback, and the occlusion effect. Additional studies focus on the best ways to select and fit hearing aids in children and other groups whose hearing ability is hard to test.

From the Research Lab

Another promising research focus is to use lessons learned from animal models to design better microphones for hearing aids. NIDCD-supported scientists are studying the tiny fly Ormia ochracea because its ear structure allows the fly to determine the source of a sound easily.

Scientists are using the fly’s ear structure as a model for designing miniature directional microphones for hearing aids. These microphones amplify the sound coming from a particular direction (usually the direction a person is facing), but not the sounds that arrive from other directions.

Directional microphones hold great promise for making it easier for people to hear a single conversation, even when surrounded by other noises and voices.

Discover how to clear the way for better hearing.

Hearing begins when soundwaves enter the outer ear (the visible portion of the ear located on the outside of the head) and are channeled down the auditory canal, a tube-like passageway lined with tiny hairs and small glands that produce ear wax. [Read More]