Single Sided Hearing Loss

@nla4625 @dwi and Others.... I saw this in a AARP post.. the Artificial Intelligence (AI) is creeping into the latest hearing aids..Livio AI is made by Starkey.. I get Starkey HAs at the Veterans Administration.. I do not have these AI advantages ..
They have many new advantages..

Remote Adjustment.. Eliminate trips to the Hearing Aid Provider.. it even includes a chat ability.. and one amazing thing .. you can have the Hearing Aid find your Phone..

Fall Detection and Notification..
People with hearing loss have a 300 percent increased risk of falling, says Tom Wiffler, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Specialty Benefits. “Now there are hearing aids that can detect and chirp when a fall is about to happen,” he says. The technology — found in the Livio AI device, made by Starkey — can't stop someone from falling, but it can automatically notify up to three emergency contacts to alert them that a fall has occurred and pinpoint where the person is.
Language translation
The Livio AI also offers translation in 27 languages, including French, Japanese, and Arabic. As someone is speaking, the device translates into English in real time.
To Text..
The Hearing aid can write text to your phone in real time ...

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@earscan In my previous post I forgot to ask you what you mean by "degreed and licensed"???

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@earscan - Gina, it is absolutely terrific what you are doing to try to help here. Although this has nothing to do with any kind of help that I need at this time, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your readiness to so effectively help in some of these situations.

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Once they release the AI for language translation, I will be first in line. I use my iPhone now which really helps.

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@dwi Starkey's new Livio AI hearing aid translates 27 languages in real-time and also doubles as a hands-free earpiece. Today, Starkey Hearing Technologies unveiled an AI-powered hearing aid that fits snugly into your ear, automatically translates foreign languages, and tracks both your physical and mental health. Aug 27, 2018

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@dwi Starkey's new Livio AI hearing aid translates 27 languages in real-time and also doubles as a hands-free earpiece. Today, Starkey Hearing Technologies unveiled an AI-powered hearing aid that fits snugly into your ear, automatically translates foreign languages, and tracks both your physical and mental health. Aug 27, 2018

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I fully agree with your statement on knowing the words and statements in the hearing tests can skew the test results. Were you tested with the series of nonsense sentences? It's not like "The dog chased the cat and the boy hit the ball". They don't make sense, so are pretty hard to memorize. The SPIN (SPeech in Noise) test is also a must. It starts out with sentences spoken in quiet, and gradually increases the noise. Needless to say it's a test that is a bit stressful. Were you tested at a cochlear implant center? New research literature on cochlear implants suggests that people who would benefit from them are not being referred as they should be.

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Enough about falling, i.e., imbalance! Everyone should learn to do some vestibular exercises as they age, because our inner ears age just like everything else. Many inner ear diseases offer imbalance as an added "treat." It's well worth it to locate a VRT (vestibular rehab specialist), even if they're not near you, schedule at least a couple of appts., and DO THE WORK! The great thing is that you can practice vestibular exercises while you're walking or moving about; they aren't something where you need to set aside a certain amount of time to do them.

BASICS: You have three balance systems. Your inner ear is your primary balance system, but, when it doesn't work well, you automatically begin to attempt to use your second balance system: VISION. This is really bad, because you'll lose your focal point every time you move or even move your head. Trying to use vision for balance causes falls, nausea, vomiting...a whole list of bad stuff. So, you need to learn to use your third balance system, PROPRIOCEPTION. Simply put, if you're standing on a headland with the wind blowing, proprioception tells you just how much you need to lean into the wind. Prtoprioception is the combination of what all the parts of your body tell you about where you are in space, especially your feet. You may think they're just stupid, but that's not the case. The simplest VRT exercise is simply thinking about what your feet tell you as you walk: check for obstacles ahead of you, then walk without looking at the ground or floor. Dead simple! You'll also be amazed at all the things there are to see! You can do this even while hiking in rough country. The other thing you need to do is to quit walking with your feet further apart (to attempt to balance). There are exercises where you stand, eyes closed and feet close beside each other, and see how long you can avoid wobbling. Then you start to walk short distances in safe places like halls or with someone beside you with your eyes closed. I guarantee you that your balance will improve, plus you'll have better eye/hand coordination in less than a month--and it will get even better after that. I've done some VRT work every single day for nearly 40 years and, in spite of bilateral Meniere's, I've only fallen twice, right after I went bilateral after decades of being unilateral.

Again, you need to find someone experienced with VRT, not just basic PT. When Meniere's became a serious daily problem for me nearly 40 years ago, there were only a handful of VRT specialists in the entire country; it was a new thing back then. So, when I went bilateral a couple of years ago, as soon as I got the monster under control I went to see a VRT specialist at the balance center in Portland, OR two hours away. Because I already knew a fair amount about VRT, I only needed four appts. to get a refresher course. After all, I had learned VRT all those years ago via e-mail!

So, please, everyone whether you think you have a balance problem or not, please try some simple VRT. Hearing and balance are closely tied; the nerves are often intertwined. One of the worst things older folks can do is rely on night lights. Instead, make certain that the path from bed to bath is clear before you retire and, when you need to make that "during the night" visit, do it in the dark until you reach the bath. When you get ready for bed, walk to your bedroom AFTER you've turned out all the lights. VRT really, really works! I'm 78 and still do very difficult instream (wading) data collection for our state fisheries agency. I've now volunteered in the same little river that runs through a very steep canyon on Oregon's north coast for nearly 30 years, and I don't intend to "retire" any time soon. My part of the river involves hiking/wading 3.5 miles upstream and includes crossing the main stem and scrambling up above a waterfall to place and retrieve a temperature monitor every spring and fall. I couldn't do this if I didn't work on VRT all the time. Because I'm all alone in a place that's miles from phone reception, I am excessively careful about wading. You will also learn that challenging your vestibular system by doing something that's a bit difficult will result in improved balance for 3-4 days, a side benefit for me of the ugly job of cleaning gutters.

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@joyces Hi Joyce, I've been meaning to write you ever since you described in long, wonderful detail all that you went through to master your balance issues. First I should say, I have you to thank for getting myself to VRT. After reading what you had to say, I called my internist and asked her to write me a prescription and then I found a VRT - so I consider myself not really doctor-referred to VRT but self referred - or I could say, "Joyce-referred"! (:-) )! So my note here is a response to that and my own experience with doing VRT, which is notably different from yours. I have been going, on average 2/week for my VRT! I have been religious about doing the exercises my VRT has prescribed which are geared to developing muscles in the hip area (and perhaps more, I'm not sure). So I do clamshells, hydrants, leg lifts for 1/2 hour every day. The kind of exercises you mention I do with my VRT. They are very challenging for me. My head gets tired - and maybe a little dizzy doing them. (I hope that makes some sense to you.) After weeks of seemingly no progress, I asked my VRT about his expectations. Bottom line: (if I understood correctly, he doesn't expect noticeable improvement but rather sees the exercises as preventative of further balance issues! At this point I have had 60 sessions with him and until last week, I was aware of no sign of improvement at all when walking about town (big city). Also, when I asked him about what could be the cause of my very bad balance, in addition to a damaged balance nerve because of benign tumor removal from acoustic nerve, he simply said he couldn't know because there are so many possibilities. As for one day last week when I seemingly, suddenly, had a significantly improved experience, I am wondering whether that was a onetime thing or whether, after so much time has elapsed, there actually is improvement! The winter snow storm has made it difficult to test that out and I had to cancel my VRT app'ts since I cannot risk a fall. I wanted to believe your insistence that exercises will make a difference but until last week, had come to think that progress partially depends on the nature of the cause of the balance problem and thus your optimism could not be valid for all but now, after the one good experience, I'm in a wait and see mode, to see if what I experienced last week was not a fluke!

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