The Hearing Knowledge Hub

  • Articles,  The Hearing Clinic

    Listen up! Are those headphones safe for your kids?

    If you’re lucky this Christmas Day you might be opening a new iPad, gaming console or mobile phone. If that’s the case, or if a child or young person in your life, will be receiving new tech as a present, please ensure you – and they – enjoy using these presents at safe listening levels.  Headphones, earphones and earbuds – known as ‘hearables’ – are increasingly used by all of us to listen to our favourite music, films, programmes and podcasts while we’re on the go or even when we’re at home. This obviously introduces the potential for exposure to excessive noise – and therefore hearing damage – if volumes…

  • Articles

    Can PQQ be the protection we need against hearing loss?

    Sensorineural hearing loss – which is caused by damage to the sensitive hair cells that line the inner ear – is one of the most common sensory disorders in humans. It can be the result of wear and tear from age, or it can be noise induced.  Unfortunately the hair cells of the inner ear don’t recover once they’re damaged or lost, and there’s currently no effective treatment to recover hearing loss. For years scientists have been searching for a medical breakthrough that will protect against hearing damage or enhance the recovery of damaged hearing, including blood flow-promoting drugs and antioxidants. A new study, published in the journal ‘Nature’ has…

  • Articles

    A toothy alternative to hearing aids

    Apparently prosthetic teeth could make great hearing aids. Vibrations applied to replacements for lost teeth travel well through jawbones to the inner ear, according to research published by the Acoustical Society of America.  Researchers want to turn tooth implants into hearing aids by building the electronics that impart sound vibrations into the portion of a false tooth anchored into the jawbone. Researchers applied sound tones to implants, natural teeth and mastoid bones of 38 people with hearing loss and a single dental implant. And for a wide range of frequencies, the volunteers could hear sounds through implants as well as, or better than, through natural teeth or mastoid bones. Front-tooth…

  • The Hearing Clinic

    Dual Sensory Impairment?

    Dual sensory impairment? Recent studies show that when people have both vision and hearing impairment, what’s known as dual sensory impairment (DSI), their risk for dementia increases significantly over having one impairment alone. In fact, a person with DSI has an eight-fold increased risk of dementia, according to a May 2022 study in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease Reports. An unknown link The cause of the link between sensory impairments and dementia is still unknown. It’s possible that an underlying problem, such as a problem affecting blood flow to both a person’s brain and ears, might lead to sensory and cognitive impairments. It could also be related to cognitive decline,…

  • The Hearing Clinic

    Barbie gets hearing aids!

    Mattel, makers of Barbie dolls, recently launched the first Barbie doll with hearing aids. The Barbie, which was launched earlier this year in the ‘Fashionista’ range, has hot pink behind-the-ear hearing aids on both ears.  Rose Ayling-Ellis, of Strictly Come Dancing fame, worked with the company in the production of the doll. She says, “It’s so cute. Barbie used to be my favourite doll ever, and I used to draw hearing aids on my dolls to make them look like me. So now we’ve got a doll that has a hearing aid. If I’d got given this Barbie when I was a child, I probably would have screamed and got…

  • Articles

    The power of newborn babies

    Newborn babies do nothing but eat, sleep and cry, right? Well, wrong. New research published in Nature Human Behavior has shown that they start tuning into language the moment they’re born.  In the study, newborns were played recordings of spoken vowels played backwards and forwards while non-invasive neuroimaging measured changes in their brains.  After five hours of exposure the imaging showed that the newborns’ brains started distinguishing between the two sounds, and after two more hours (when the babies mainly slept) the exposure to the vowel contrast triggered a significant brain activity surge. Many expectant parents are told the ‘urban myth’ that babies who are played classical music and poetry in the…

  • The Hearing Clinic

    Let’s learn British Sign Language

      British Sign Language (or BSL) is used by over 150,000 thousand people in the UK, of whom some 87,000 are deaf. However, there are only around 1,000 registered sign language interpreters in this country.  Whether you’re looking for a change of career, would like to learn a new skill, or have a friend who uses BSL and you’re keen to learn, there are many online courses you can explore. Did you know there are also various apps to help you get started too? We found this useful list on the National Deaf Children’s Society’s website. Sign BSL: The British Sign Language dictionary where you can learn the basics from a…

  • Articles

    Moth wings and sound absorbtion

    First it was owls. Now it’s moths. It seems that, when we want to find ways to make the human world quieter, we only need look to animals. Aeroplane and engine designers put serrated edges on the back of engines and wings to make jets quieter. This emulates the serrated shape of the feathers in owls’ wings which smooth air flow, reducing turbulence and sound. Now scientists at Bristol University have found that moth wings have incredible sound-absorbing qualities, which could lead to a step change in human technologies for soundproofing buildings and transportation. The scientists have discovered that moths’ wings absorb the sounds emitted by bats, one of their main…

  • Articles

    British Sign Language available for emergency services

    British Sign Language (BSL) users can now communicate more easily with the emergency services following the June launch of the 999BSL video relay service.  The free-to-use nationwide service can be found online at 999bsl.co.uk or downloaded as an app and enables a BSL user to connect to a BSL interpreter video call in an emergency. The interpreter then calls 999 using a landline to relay the conversation to the emergency services operator. The new service is a lifeline for people who only communicate using BSL. Now they can independently contact emergency services if they need to. The service is available 24/7, 365 days a year and there’s no need to register.…

  • Articles

    New nanogel -protecting the hearing of young cancer patients

    A new nano-gel, created by researchers from Curtin University in Perth, Australia, may lead to a breakthrough in the prevention of hearing loss in children receiving chemotherapy. Chemotherapy destroys cancer tissues but can also kill other healthy tissues, such as those in the inner ear, resulting in hearing loss. In fact, around half of all children who survive cancer will experience some degree of permanent hearing loss due to the toxic effects of the drugs.  The Australian researchers are in the process of testing a new nano-gel they’ve developed from human bile, which, when injected into the ear, is hoped will protect children from this common side effect of chemotherapy…

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