Activities to Help Improve Your Hearing Worried about your hearing loss worsening? Not sure if you’re experiencing hearing loss? Here are a few types of exercises you can do to help boost your hearing abilities. The brain plays a major role in processing the sound information our ear receives. Research has shown there are links between hearing loss and mental conditions such as anxiety and depression. This could be a result of brain atrophy, which is when brain cells and connections shrink or are damaged. Like muscles, your brain needs a good workout to stay strong and continue pumping. Solving a variety of puzzles like crossword puzzles and word searches throughout the day or during the wee

In last month’s issue, we covered the onset of misophonia, which literally means “hatred of sound”. People with misophonia have specific symptoms and triggers, and are sensitive to only certain sounds, and are occasionally sensitive to visual triggers as well. These problematic sounds are usually in the background but any sound or noise can become a problem to a person with misophonia. In this issue we’ll discuss some of the various treatments available so those suffering from this disorder so they can begin to make progress on regaining some degree of normalcy in their lives. According to the experts and editors of the website misophoinia.com, a resource dedicated to providing updated infor

You can lose your hearing for lots of reasons: age, genetics — and all those blaring rock concerts you attended in your youth. More than 26.7 million Americans 50 years of age or older now have trouble hearing. For many people, auditory loss happens so gradually they barely realize it. Others find that their ears seem to be working fine one day, and not so well the next. Here are three types of hearing problems and what you can to about them: 1. You have trouble hearing others in a noisy restaurant Why it happens: As you age — especially if you’ve been exposed to frequent loud noises — you might have presbycusis, a type of gradual hearing loss caused by the death of hair cells in the cochlea

The act of listening is not the same as hearing. When someone is communicating with you, they want to feel like they’re talking to you, rather than at you, and that can only be done with a set of good listening skills and an understanding of the principles of effective communication. Here’s one way to learn how to become an empathetic, attentive, and active listener with a listening skills exercise that originated from a game you may have heard of as a child, but that has recently become popular for those wishing to sharpen their listening. A Game of “Phones” Telephone might be considered a child’s game, but it’s actually a very useful exercise in communication for those working to improve t

If you feel disgusted to the point of rage when you hear the sound of chewing, swallowing, breathing, throat-clearing and other common “people” noises, you’re not alone. You’re also not crazy. Misophonia is a sound sensitivity disorder, which makes certain noises intolerable to the sufferer. Although this condition is primarily neurological, the experience of these sounds can cause psychological distress. The term misophonia was developed by Pawel and Margaret Jastreboff, American neuroscientists. Literally translated, it means “hatred of sounds.” Onset of Misophonia This condition usually develops when a child is just entering into his or her tween years, although it can develop earlier in