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"The HUM", a persistent Low Frequency Noise
Hearing Loss | Last Active: Oct 23 6:07am | Replies (164)Comment receiving replies
I have hyperacusis and know exactly what you mean. I also have tinnitus and hearing loss as well as musical ear condition. I never know when to use ear plugs. I want to block some noise to protect from pain and further noise related hearing loss. On the other hand the ears should be allowed to put up with a little increased noise to re build tolerance to a reasonable degree of noise. Hearing aids are another problem because they amplify noise so that we can hear. I must say that my hyperacusis has improved by reducing the use of ear plugs, allowing my ears to experience sounds that are tolerable but at the top level of my comfort zone, and increasing this over time. As well getting used to hearing aids on a low setting eventually helped my hyperacusis. I also use masking which helps tinnitus and may also help hyperacusis. Wouldn’t it be nice if medical science had a better solution to these hearing problems.
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Yes, it would be nice if medical science had better solutions to issues related to the ear and hearing. Unfortunately, it's a relatively 'new' science. Until the mid 80s, the prevailing scientific/medical view was that hearing loss killed the auditory nerve. People were told, upon medical examination that that nerve was dead. We had nerve deafness and nothing could be done to help us.
It started to change when the national organization 'Self Help for Hard of Hearing People, Inc.' was founded in 1980. SHHH is now known as The Hearing Loss Assn. of America (HLAA). People with hearing loss pushed for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish the National Institute on Deafness & Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) in 1988. From that time, grant money was targeted for research in this area. Cochlear implants, which were laughed at by the medical field because they were 'impossible', piqued the interest of many people with severe/profound hearing loss. Those people agreed to be test subjects, and change began to happen.
Most important, medical science learned that the auditory nerve had not died in most instances. It was not being stimulated by the inner hair cells in the cochlea (inner ear). The brain was not getting the message!
By bypassing the damaged inner ear, an implanted device was able to connect with the brain. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been changed dramatically by cochlear implants. Many more people could benefit from them.
I've been involved in SHHH/HLAA since 1983. It's been an incredible experience to watch things changed. I will be ever grateful for the changes I've experienced due to medical research. I was implanted in 2005. My sensorineural hearing loss had progressed to the profound level. It started in my early 20s. Needless to say, I feel blessed to have benifitted from the advocacy 'the people' did through this wonderful organization known as HLAA.