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Now is the right time to get a set of good digital hearing instruments, there are no more obstacles blocking you from good hearing! Now you can reconnect with everyone in your life that you may have had a hard time hearing in the past! 

 Hear all the important people in your life again! Family, children, co-workers! there is nothing holding you back now!

Call or come in to see us now for a FREE hearing test do determine the state of your hearing, we also offer a Tinnitus assessment on  site, to set up an appointment call us at 905-273-7717 or visit www.Metro-Hearing-Tinnitus.com

Answers to your questions pt.1

In today’s article we want to answer the questions you have sent to us, regarding many different issues relating to hearing. These are the most common questions that we are asked during tests and consultations at our clinics. So we invite you to take a look at the questions and answers to our most commonly asked questions (arranged by the most popular).

1/ Can hearing aids fix my hearing?

Yes, in the sense of enhancing the work of hearing centers in the brain, improving the way they work and process hearing information. Physically the state of your ears will remain unchanged, but with hearing aids you will hear and understand audible sounds much better, you will notice a dramatic difference, especially with more advanced digital hearing aids.

2/ Am I making the right choice buying high-end hearing aids?

The difference between hearing aid types will be a deciding factor in our understanding of speech and aid with recognition as well as providing our brain with adequate levels of sound, and hindering the amount of distortion and noise signals for clearer and more pronounced understanding. Higher end hearing aids will also stimulate our brain, improving it’s overall efficiency, and will also cooperate with rehabilitation programs, used to aid in sharpening the mind and improving speech recognition. This may also soften the effects of debilitating diseases associated with aging such as dementia.

3/ Is it true that hearing aids are used in therapeutic programs designed to improve mental clarity and stability?

Yes, technologically advanced hearing aids have been successfully used in many therapeutic and rehabilitation programs, even in the case of a stroke, with the help of hearing aids speech recognition and understanding as well as the ability to speak has returned, not to mention the improvement in cognitive function. Hearing aids help with the creation of new links through the creation of neurons in the brain, through which our mind is able to take over the function of damaged areas, which may aid in reducing the effects of degenerative diseases like dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Research has been conducted in the last few years, proving the effectiveness of this method, especially when it came to technically advanced hearing aids.

4/ If I buy modern hearing aids will I be able to hear more and understand people?

You will definitely understand people better. This is where the difference starts, based on how different hearing aid clinics approach the matter. Unfortunately people buying hearing aids will not always get everything explained to them properly.

Not wearing hearing aids we lose the ability to understand speech (up to 20% yearly). Only wearing high quality hearing aids can stop and reverse this process. That’s why there are so many government programs in place to help people get hearing aids not to mention private insurance (and benefits) often covering up to 100% of the cost.

Even paying for the hearing aids yourself you need to remember that you are not just paying for the hearing aids but for the ability to hear and understand people again, engage in conversations and improve our speech and hearing recognition, the initial sum spent is not as important as the joy of being able to hear your family and friends every day clearly and loudly without noise.

Metro Hearing Clinic 905 273 7717 e-mail; metrohearing@gmail.com

Hearing Loss Linked to Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

On April 7, 1989, in the 261 volume of The Journal of the American Medical Association, five American scientists published a paper “Relationship of Hearing Impairment to Dementia and Cognitive Dysfunction in Older Adults“. The authors demonstrated an association between hearing impairment and dementia. Since then, more research in this area has been conducted at numerous leading US and world universities. More recently, the relationship between a hearing impairment and Alzheimer's disease has been confirmed. The February 14, 2011 bulletin by the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) carried the article by Elizabeth Agnvall “Hearing Loss Linked to Dementia. Even a mild hearing loss doubles the risk “. Excerpt reads:

“Adults with hearing loss are significantly more likely than adults with normal hearing to develop dementia, according to a new study out today from researchers at John's Hopkins and the National Institute on Aging. The study -- which finds the greater the hearing loss, the higher the risk – may open a new avenue of research into dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Man and woman in the study who experienced severe hearing loss were five times more likely to develop dementia than those with normal hearing. But even mild hearing loss doubled the risk of dementia.”

A new study published in the February 2011 issue of ARCHIVES OF NEUROLOGY (Vol. 68) confirmed what a lot of physicians who deal with hearing loss and dementia had suspected before: adults with hearing loss have a greater chance of developing dementia, and this risk increases as their hearing impairment worsens.

“This work suggests that there is a strong predictive association between hearing loss as an adult and the likelihood of developing cognitive decline with aging.”

According to study lead author Dr. Luigi Ferrucci, Chief of the U.S. National Institute on Aging Longitudinal Studies Section. The “COMMENT“ part of this paper states as follows:

“In this study, hearing loss was independently associated with all-cause dementia after adjustment for sex, age, race, education, diabetes, smoking, and hypertension, and our findings were robust to multiple sensitivity analyses. The risk of all-cause dementia increased log linearly with hearing loss severity, and for individuals older than 60 years in our cohort, more than one third of the risk of incident all cause dementia was associated with hearing loss.”

“According to several major studies, older adults with hearing loss are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and dementia, compared to those with normal hearing. Further, the risk escalates, as person's hearing loss grows worse. Those with mild hearing impairment are nearly twice as likely to develop dementia compared to those with normal hearing. The risk increases three-fold for those with moderate hearing loss, and five-fold for those with severe impairment.“

And also:

“In response to these findings, further studies found that hearing aids can delay, or prevent, dementia and Alzheimer's disease by improving patients' hearing. Further, treating hearing loss with hearing aids can reduce many Alzheimer's symptoms for people with the disease.”

Should you require more information, we will be happy to provide people interested in this area of research with copies of the papers, articles, used for this issue of our newsletter as well as any new studies results published.

Alicja and Janusz Tobola from Metro Hearing Clinic Mississauga and Scarborough

 905 273 7717

New Article!!!

I have such good hearing that even loud noises bother me...

Not necessarily, this can be a lowered tolerance for sound, meaning: hyperacusis, mishophonia, phonophobia and even a combination of them all!!!

Reading this you will probably say you've had enough... first we wrote about hearing, then about caring for your hearing, after that we wrote about caring for the health of your brain as it relates to dealing with speech understanding, and now we are writing about tinnitus (which is a ringing or noise in the ears that is always there). But that's not the end of our journey through what we might encounter with hearing disorders and problems. In this article we are going to cover HYPERACUSIS, which is a condition or disorder caused by changes in the way our brain works and interprets sounds, the changes are essentially over stimulation at the neural level initiated by hearing stimuli. The term basically means a hearing condition characterized by a lowered tolerance for sound, the effect of which is hyperacusis and misophonia – two of the more common hearing disorders.

People affected by hyperacusis will also usually have misphonia, which is the second main component of a lowered tolerance for sounds and noises. The third may be (appearing quite often) phonophobia. The mechanics of these ailments are somewhat different. Studies show that quite a large amount of people suffering from Tinnitus also have a lowered tolerance for sound (hyperacusis.

It is also worth mentioning that the so called 'recruitment' (occurrence based on picking up a minor change in volume, in a non-proportional manner exaggerated by our perception, in comparison to actual change) refers to a person with 'sensorineural hearing loss' and does not include those with hearing loss outlined in this article. Regarding the phenomena of 'recruitment' we will bring it up in another article titled 'Sensorineural Hearing Loss'.

Cases of lowered tolerance for sound affects many people that believe they have such amazing hearing that they can hear a pin drop from a table to a floor – they do however have a problem with loud sounds, especially with certain types of loud sounds at different frequencies (this is very specific to the person), they feel a sharp pain and have a pronounced reaction when they experience this. Standard testing of hearing in these people will often show very good hearing with minimal loss or deficiency, even being able to pick up faint sounds and whispers in the tests. They are however unable to live and function regularly due to their hearing sensitivity.

Treating hyperacusis, misophonia or phonophobia, as with. tinnitus is a highly specialized field. Fortunately for sufferers it is quick and easy to make an appointment, a referral from a family doctor is not required. Hyperacusis like many other ailments related to hearing can also appear as a symptom of a much more serious condition and other health problems. It is very important to get checked for this condition by a trained specialist so that further problems and medical complications can be avoided.

Just wanted to tell everyone that we will be starting to post weekly and bi-weekly articles, with the initial one being posted tomorrow! These will be articles and hearing health and maintenance and Tinnitus health and maintenance, tips, things to try, ideas, suggestions and etc. these articles will be very informative for anyone interested in learning more about hearing , hearing loss and how everything works together, we will also be posting clinic specials and sales on here and on our facebook page, available at http://www.facebook.com/MetroHearingClinic

We just want to share with everybody that we are one of only a few certified clinics in Ontario offering Professor Pawel Jastreboff', Ph.D., Sc.D., M.B.A.. Professor Department of Otolaryngology Emory University School Of Medicine Atlanta, Georgia. Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) the very same used by thousands of celebrities and musician's as it is considered the best Tinnitus solution in the world. Our specialists have trained with Professor Pawel Jastreboff and his team at the prestigious University of London in London, England and at  the University of Maryland in Baltimore, USA.

So if you are suffering from ringing, noise or wheezing sounds in your ears or head, please do not hesitate to make an appointment for a tinnitus assessment, there are solutions available that have only recently been developed and refined that you may not have heard about, let us give you all the information and show you the range of options available to you.

Welcome to our blog!

We are a Canadian company based in Toronto and Mississauga whose focus is to help the hard of hearing and tinnitus sufferers. We have been in the business of hearing for over 30 years (since 1982) , the reason for the creation of this blog is to share our tips and experiences for what those suffering from hearing loss and/or tinnitus can do to improve their lives and regain the quality and comfort they had in the past. A big part of our strategy is publishing helpful articles incorporating experience we have gained and observations we have made over the last 30 years. Hearing and Audiology is an ever changing field as technology improves and aids become smaller, more powerful and more discrete, many people are completely unaware that the latest digital hearing aids are invisible once put inside the ear. Most people these days cannot tell if you are wearing hearing aids or not, the field is not as it was 20 years ago when it was obvious to everyone that a person was wearing a set of hearing aids. Technology in tinnitus treatment has finally evolved to the point where a difference can be made for those suffering from this unfortunate problem, again thanks in part to advanced technology and better microprocessors tinnitus maskers can better neutralize the ever present noise that only you are hearing, stay tuned for one of our informative articles coming early in the next week!