How to Improve Your Hearing, Part 4 with Hope Lanter

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

The following is a podcast from a qualified senior care provider, hurt, on the answers for elders radio show. And Welcome back everyone to answers for elders radio network. And we are here again with the lead audiologist closing out our hour with Hope Lanter from Hear.com. It is been just such an eye opening journey for me and I you know, there’s oftentimes, now that I’m on the other side and I’m wearing hearing aids, I’m sitting there kicking myself. Why didn’t I do this earlier? And I think that’s probably a real common scenario with a lot of people because a lot of us, like me, we waited a long time. Tell us. I guess the question that I have, hope, is you know, obviously there’s a lot of individuals out there that have diabetes or or dementia or different sorts of conditions, and obviously hearing loss can be affected, you know, affect those conditions. Is that correct? It can and and and really somewhat of the bit of a back and forth relationship there. With diabetes, we know it’s due to the blood sugar being very low or very high or just not well controlled, essentially creating blood flow issues, you know, and honestly, with heart disease, that’s will we’re seeing there. That can create a major impact to the hearing nerve in terms of it not functioning generally. And so you know, obviously that’s the direction that’s going with. When we’re talking about Alzheimer’s, we’re talking about the brain stimulation there. We know that the brain is a use it or lose it place, and so if we stopped stimulating the brain with sound, even though we’ve talked about how, okay, yes, the brain can rewire itself to work with sound, if we leave it absent for too long, then we actually have the brain not really remember or learn again how to use that sound. You know, with with Alzheimer’s and dementia, we know that we see a dramatically faster progression of the both of those when we don’t put hearing it’s into someone’s ears when they need them. And so we see that it can, it can rapidly progress that, even with just mild hearing loss, two times faster. But you know, we know that that it gets more and more than more degree of hearing loss. We see sometimes we’ll see a mistake of Alzheimer’s dementia when it is just hearing loss. I’ve had a patient before that came in. His family said, oh, he’s got dementia, we know it. He had a caregiver that was with him all the time. She said, I don’t think that’s what this is. I really do think this is hearing loss, and it was interesting to see that as soon as you put hearing it’s on, it changed everything. He was responding and everything like that. So you know, it’s kind of like a I told you yesterday that we were going to the doctor tomorrow. If you never heard it, it oftentimes looks like you didn’t remember something. So it’s a kind of a tricky thing there. Yeah, but we do know that because the brain is basically it’s a it’s a bit something that needs exercise, it needs stimulation, and then we take away one of the senses like hearing, it makes a major impact. So with something like Alzheimer’s and dementia that, when you add in that also that sound deprivation factor, there we see that things can get moving along much quicker than we would want them to. But it’s something that can be at least helping in the prevention perspective there well, and the other thing that when you’re saying you know, how many times did my husband? Has My husband said things to me in the years, over the years that he would say, I told you this last week, and I would look at him completely with the blank steer and I may have heard, like you said, I may have heard him say something, but I didn’t hear it correctly. Right. So I didn’t necessarily know that. But I think the other side of it is so our quality of our relationship. You know, he used to say you never listen to me and and it wasn’t. It wasn’t intentional, it was just the fact that I couldn’t hear. And I think the other thing is is when you check out of conversations. I know for me, you know, there was this switch just just it was almost autopilot with me. If I got into a crowd are, you know, a group of people and there was background noise, there’s no way I could hear and so I would just sit there and just smile and not even pick up what was going on. So my quality of life. On the other thing is I talked really louder, much louder, you know, then I needed to because I was trying to get people to talk louder. It’s so I think that’s part of it too, isn’t it? Yeah, it’s not being able to monitor yourself. But it’s really good that you brought that up, because that’s exactly why people do it. Is is that’s how people get into fights, if they start talking loudly, and it goes and goes and goes. But nonetheless it is it’s a coping mechanism to it, and so a lot of people really are trying to okay, I how can I navigate this without actually doing something about it? So you know, that can be a big part of it. But yeah, I mean it’s there’s so many elements here that I can tell you that we never hear somebody say I wish I’d waited to do this. That’s not not the not the factor there. So so it’s interesting that, you know, we see seven years or so before people are going in and it really is something that can be taken care of much sooner. Yeah, another thing that I think is important to point out is there’s no downside to wearing a hearing aid as early as you need it. It does not cause additional hearing loss. This is not something where you have to worry about. Oh well, you know, if I had waited, it wouldn’t have gotten to this point. It actually is preventive in the way that it does keep the brain active, healthy, stimulated, and that will help to give you usable hearing the rest of your life. What I can tell you is that hearing loss is sort of it’s going to happen. You know, if it’s going to happen, it will be there, regardless of putting a hearing it in your ear or not. Yeah, but then, as I say, if you stimulate the brain, then it says, okay, I know how to use this sound because it never really missed missed out on it. So that can make a big impact. But the people who sometimes do struggle a bit more with hearing aids are ones who wait a really long time. It’s okay now, I’m ready, and I’ve actually personally seen some of those patients as well, where they will say, okay, the best result with your hearing it won’t be perfect because we are in a situation where we’ve waited so long that we don’t get those best results. Well, and the other thing I’m going to talk about is strain factor stress and strain factor. I obviously talk for living, right, I interview people, and so when I don’t hear well, I’m I’m stressing myself out more, right and what I am finding is that I’m I’m not as stressed anymore when I’m when I’m you know, at the end of the day, I don’t feel as exhausted when I’ve been trying to listen to a guest on my show and when I’ve been recording sometimes for, you know, three four hours and in a spot, you know, in a long stretch, and those are the things I think that if you’re in a profession where you need to talk to people and hear people, the hearing aids, I am finding much less. I’m more rejuvenated at the end. I don’t feel like I’ve worn out like I did before. So it’s a hundred percent proven. Yeah, I mean that. You know, that is something that a lot of people don’t ever think about in the way, if I get a hearing it I’ll feel I won’t I’ll have more energy at the end of the day. Nobody is ever really putting that out there too much, but I totally very true, very true, and so I’ve compared that to almost like if you had your computer. If you think about, okay, if my computer can run a certain amount of information at one time, that I have one program that is taking up all the energy there of it. I’m you know, of the sort of the memory going or working memory there. Okay, so if that’s happening, that means everything else is slowed down. Sure, and that’s what’s really happening, is you have hearing taking up so much of your energy and your capacity everything else goes away. And also we know that hearing loss can often times make you feel like you’re one step behind. So now I missed that one word, but this person’s continuing to talk. Oh my gosh, I missed the topic. And maybe they’re talking about us buying new shoes or something. And now they keep saying read, but I don’t know what we’re talking about. And you’re in this mode of just like this back and forth of can I even catch up? And Science gets up. So that’s exhausting. It is exhausting. And and you know, how many times do I sit back and I say, you know, Susan, you could have made it so much easier. Head. You face this before, and but it took me a while and and I sit back and I think what was I afraid of, and I think what a number one I didn’t know what to expect. I was afraid of what, you know, was going to come out, I think. But the other thing, it was my vanity. It was the fact that I didn’t want to be, quote unquote old, I didn’t want to face aging. But you know, really what it was doing is I was getting old not hearing. I was, you know, striving to hear and speaking up louder than I needed to and all those things. So, realistically, that’s just kind of the comical part, because now my quality of life is so much better. It’s amazing. Exactly is. It’s one of those things that, you know, my personal motto in life is not one more thing. You know, it is like I void adding one more thing just for this year, knowing a like, not knowing how much impact it will make in terms of will it be more stressful? It not. You, and that’s what I can tell you, is your providers there to be the one who helps handhold this. You know, the entire concept of herecom is that we have a consultant helping you on our end. That walk you through every step of the way and you have a provider on the other end. They are to help you once you’re through the door and then we help you know throughout the process thereafter. But it’s something that the goal is that you don’t have to really worry about it, and that’s what I’ve always told all my patients was, you know what, let me do the heavy lifting here in terms of the helping you learn this, helping you understand it. You just need to put it in your ear every day and then, you know what, the rest of it will take care of itself. And that’s a big part of it. And you know, when I first got the hearing aids, I didn’t wear them the full day. You know, that was and that was okay. I had to adjust to my brain, you know, adjusting. Now I wear them. I put them on first thing in the morning and I don’t take them off till late at night. And they’re easy. They’re rechargeable. I don’t have batteries that I have to deal with. I just put them in the little case and I closed the LID. And you know, I have a cat, I have dogs. They don’t get into them, which they hearing aids tend to be kind of a magnet for for animals to want to play with. But what I’ve found is just that it’s there, it’s so easy, it’s the most, probably easiest thing, and I so just underestimated the quality of life that I had because I didn’t realize. It’s just like when you first have to wear glasses, you know, you don’t realize how blind you are until they put those, you know, those frames, you know, the glasses on your eyes. It’s the same situation and I know for me I’m so grateful to you guys. You have been so helpful, and to all of our listeners out there. I hope that you’ll consider at least going to hearcom and and I promise you you know that we only feature the cream of the crop on our program and I am so impressed with Herecom and looking forward to doing that. And of course, herecom is national. So those of you that are listening on podcast or have you know loved ones that have hearing loss in other parts in the United States, they can help them to. You guys are connected pretty much through all fifty states, are you not? Absolutely yes, we are in every state, so easy to connect with someone here there. We do also offer tell audiology services if you have a loved one who maybe has mobility issues or is just simply very far from you, from providers and you in terms of being out in rural areas. So you know, with that we can pretty much match up whatever, whatever makes the most sense for that person. But you know, all and all, you know it’s really about starting the conversation and this, you know, going to, you know, our website herecom, you know, and then basically that starts everything and that starts the process of really figuring out, you know what it’s the right direction and right step for you. Yeah, and and there’s no financial obligation even get your hearing check. So there’s no downside. So hope. Thank you so much for being on the show with us today. I am so appreciated. And again to everyone, check out herecom, that’s h EA Arcom. Right now. There’s a free trial right now. Forty five days to check it out. So so find out if it’s for you. And thank you so much for being on the show today. All right, thank you for having us. We certainly appreciate the opportunity and always the opportunity to help more people wonderful and for those of you again I’ve told my story every time. We’re always happy anybody that’s wanting to know a little bit more about my experience. You’re all welcome to reach out to us, and answers for elders in in the meantime this week, remember one thing, be good to each other. Talk to you next week. Answers for elders radio show with Suzanne Newman hopes you found this podcast useful in your journey of navigating senior care. Check out more podcasts like this to help you find qualified senior care experts and areas of financial, legal, health and wellness and living options. Learn about our radio show, receive promotional discounts and meet our experts by clicking on the banner to join the Senior Advocate Network at answers for elders RADIOCOM. Now there is one place to find the answers for elders