More than 110 years ago

Here is a bit of history. The paragraph below as published in the June 1907 issue of Scientific American magazine—more than 110 years ago:

The loss of the sense of hearing should not necessarily mean deprivation of the power of speech. Is it only within recent years that we have come to realize this fact, and in up-to-date institutions the old –fashioned finger alphabet is now unknown. Every child is taught to speak in the natural way by means of the vocal organs. The four or five years of the primary course are devoted almost exclusively to the acquirement of language and numbers.

How Biotech is Trying to fix Hearing Loss

"At least half a dozen biotechs are working on potential breakthroughs in the way hearing loss is treated. But it’s unclear if the drugs they’re developing will be ready in time to help hearing-impaired boomers, some of whom are in their 70s," the Boston Glove Reports. David Lucchino, chief executive of Frequency, told the paper:

“There’s a fundamental transformation happening in hearing regeneration. We’re figuring out how to hot-wire the hair cells in the inner ear that die off during a lifetime of being exposed to noise.”

Read the full article here.

Gene-editing restores hearing loss in mice

Scientists say a gene-editing technique that has successfully restored the hearing of animals could be used in humans. The CRISPR injection causes damaged hair cells to grow back. The tool only works with genetic form of deafness. Details of the study are in the journal Nature. The LA Times has an article about the research here.

A drug to reverse hearing loss?

MIT researcher Bob Langer and Harvard Medical School’s Jeff Karp say they have developed a drug that could address hearing loss by using chemical compounds to multiply and create new hair cells in the inner ear. Their company is called Frequency Therapeutics. You can read their press release about the drug here. Frequency Therapeutics published a research paper about their approach in the journal Cell Reports. Read more about Frequency in The Week. "Another Boston biotech," reports Xconomy named "Decibel launched in October 2015 to develop drugs that combat some of the biological reasons for hearing issues."

Life After Hearing Loss

An article on how "the brain adjusts to sensory impairments, no matter how minor" in Medical Daily reports:

Most of us are familiar with stories “heightened senses” in those with sensory impairments, such as the superhuman hearing of the blind superhero “Daredevil.” While the ability may have been glamorized in pop culture, it’s actually a common phenomenon found, perhaps to a lesser degree, in real humans. A recent University of Colorado study, which will be presented at the 169th meeting Acoustical Society of America May 18-22th, found that these heightened sensory abilities caused by sound deprivation did not only exist in those who were profoundly deaf but was present in adult patients with only a mild degree of hearing loss.

Read the full story of what Medical Daily says are common effects of hearing loss here.

Age-Related Hearing Loss

About one-out-of-three Americans over the age of 60 have age-related hearing loss. The condition is known medically as prebycusis. It happens naturally with age. It can be caused by changes in the inner ear, auditory nerve, middle ear or outer ear. Some of its causes are aging, loud noise, heredity, head injury, infection, illness, certain prescription drugs, and circulation problems such as high blood pressure. Studies indicate it is probably inherited.

Dress Loud Day

Canadian school students are "dressing loud" today to raise awareness about hearing loss. This is Speech and Hearing Awareness Month in Canada. A group called VOICE started the Dress Loud Day movement. The advocacy group suggested elementary and high school students put on the loudest, wildest, wackiest clothing they could find. VOICE has been supporting parents of children with hearing loss in Canada for a half century. Find out more here.

Children and hearing loss

A representative from the parent advocacy group ParentMap’s talks about how excess noise can cause hearing loss in kids with Seattle's KING-TV in the video below.

Oral history and hearing loss

Oral histories can be made more accessible to those with hearing loss through a series of simple steps, according to an essay written by Michigan State University professor Brad Rakerd. One is to "make a video of an interviewee available for viewing in synchrony with the audio so that a listener can have access to lip reading cues. Another example is to allow the pace of an oral history presentation to be adjustable so that it can match the information processing preference of an individual listener." Read an interview with Rakerd at the Oxford University Press blog here or you can see Rakerd's entire essay can be read in the most recent issue of The Oral History Review here.

The Real Sounds Of Hearing Loss

To give hearing people a sample of how distorted hearing loss can can be, a hearing and speech researcher created several audio clips using the same spoken sentence, distorted in a different way. Find out more at NPR here.

The secrets of zebra fish

A researcher in Washington State thinks the study of miniature zebra fish could lead to the development of drugs that could prevent hearing loss. The fish use sound to communicate and their outer sensory cells are similar to cells found in the human ear. Allison Coffin assistant professor of neuroscience at Washington State University Vancouver is watching how the zebra fish cells die and how they might be protected. Here's a video of Coffin explaining her work.

NY: Turn down the volume

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is launching a new health initiative called the Hearing Loss Prevention Media Campaign. It's designed to inform New Yorkers about the risks of listening to loud music and will target young music listeners through social media. The campaign will cost a quarter of a million dollars and is being paid for through a grant from the Fund for Public Health. An information page on the website said the campaign would primarily target young digital music consumers through social media. Read more at the website of the Fund for NY Public Health here.

Program wins award

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the National Hearing Conservation Association is giving its Safe-in-Sound Innovation in Hearing Loss Prevention Award to the hearing loss program at the University of Northern Colorado. UNC’s Dangerous Decibels program is a collaborative effort with Portland State University, Oregon Health and Science University, and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. The goal is teaching young people how to protect their hearing, which is often damaged through loud music played through ear buds, loud concerts or by noise at sporting events. Dangerous Decibels encourages youth to do three things to protect themselves from loud noise: walk away, turn it down and cover up. The program has students researching way people can protect their hearing.

Hearing Loss affects Memory, Thinking

If you are losing your hearing as you grow older, you might also lose your ability to remember and your mental sharpness. That's the finding of a new study. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University say those with hearing loss lose as much as 40 percent on their thinking abilities over time, compared to their counterparts with no hearing loss. Lead author of the study, Dr. Frank R. Lin, published findings a couple of years ago linking hearing loss with dementia. Details are published in JAMA Archives of Internal Medicine.

Reversing Hearing Loss

A drug treatment is showing promise for reversing hearing loss from loud noises. Harvard Medical School researcher Albert Edge says LY411575 will partially restore hearing in mice and could grow hair cells in humans. You'll find details of the study in the journal Neuron.

Man says he's hearing music for the first time

The Reddit community has given a man with hearing loss more than 14,000 suggestions and messages of support since he posted that he was able to hear music for the first time with a new set of hearing aids. What did he listen to first? - Mozart’s Lacrimosa (which is posted here). Austin says he is 23 years old. All the buzz started back in August with this post here.

Break the Silence on Hearing Loss

Its a silent problem on college campuses. Read the story about hearing loss among university faculty here.

Mysterious Hearing Loss

Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSHL) should be treated as an emergency within the first two weeks. That can make a big difference as to how much hearing is retained since the hair cells in the inner ear (or cochlea) die in this condition. The early regiment is usually a round of steroids. Symptoms include a sudden loss of hearing, sometimes accompanied by a popping sound, ringing in the ear and dizziness. The worst problem is that these symptom are similar and often mistaken for a viral infection which will typically clear up on its own over the course of a couple of weeks.

Most of the time, the cause of SSHL is unknown. In cases where doctors know the causes, they say it includes head injuries, loud noises as well as meningitis, measles, and mumps. A build-up of pressure in the inner ear can rupture an inner membrane. In the unknown cases, most physicians would point to a virus or obstruction as the most likely culprit. SSHL hits some 6000 people every year in the US.

Suit over Hearing Loss

A Houston woman is suing Avaya Inc, owner of Nortel Networks, for letting her go. Esther McHenry says it has to do with her hearing loss. McHenry also claims she was mistreated before being let go.

Study: ibuprofen, acetaminophen tied to hearing loss

A study linking ibuprofen and acetaminophen to hearing loss among women may be only one piece of a much larger puzzle. Watch a video report from KARE-TV in Minneapolis. Or read the story here.