Subject: Re: Affordable hearing aids extant? From: Barbara Reynolds <br_auditory(at)HOTMAIL.COM> Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 18:47:48 -0600<html><div style='background-color:'><DIV class=RTE> <P>Allen, N.H.; et.al.: The effects of improving hearing in dementia. Age Aging 2003;32: 189-193<BR></P> <P>This article is the most recent. Dementia patients were fit with one hearing aid (should have been two.) After 24 weeks of wearing the aids, 30% showed no further cognitive decline and 40% showed cognitive improvement. Those who wore their aids for 8 hours or more per day were seen by caregivers to have significantly improved compared to those who wore them less.</P> <P>You can put in a search for an article that is on my updated list that states even mild hearing losses can cause verbal memory problems. This may be due to a weakening of synaptic density and other neurophysiological changes to those neurons that respond to sound in the hippocampus and other regions implicated in working memory.</P> <P>On Monday, if you would like, I wrote an article that I'm attempting to get publish that describes the effect of Alzheimer's disease on the auditory system. Let me know if you would like a copy of this article in the format that I have it right now. It will probably need to be edited, but there has been interest in a shortened version of the article. It is referenced.</P> <P>Please let me know.</P> <P>Barb<BR><BR></P></DIV> <DIV></DIV>>From: "Ward Drennan" <wdrennan(at)umich.edu> <DIV></DIV>>Reply-To: wdrennan(at)umich.edu <DIV></DIV>>To: "Barbara Reynolds" <br_auditory(at)hotmail.com> <DIV></DIV>>Subject: Re: Affordable hearing aids extant? <DIV></DIV>>Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 23:38:57 -0500 (EST) <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Barbara, <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>I've found you comments quite interesting and I think there's a lot of <DIV></DIV>>good ideas in them. It's apparent that you've done lots of reading. I <DIV></DIV>>ceratinly could learn much more about these topics. I wrote some <DIV></DIV>>questions, comments and citations requests within your writing (see <DIV></DIV>>attached document). These requests should be quite specific--- I'm trying <DIV></DIV>>to point to the main or most significant points that should be addressed <DIV></DIV>>(by someone at least). If this information is true and is to be widely <DIV></DIV>>disseminated and accepted, we would need to be in some tractable form <DIV></DIV>>accessable to scientists and clinicians i.e. a few well-written and <DIV></DIV>>thorough reviews or research studies to verify the accuracy of the <DIV></DIV>>statements. I'm not sure for example what research has been established <DIV></DIV>>and what reserach still needs to be done. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>If some of your statements can be or have been shown to be true, then by <DIV></DIV>>golly it should be public knowledge. "Wear hearing aids or you'll lose <DIV></DIV>>your mind" sounds like a pretty good motivation, but then how much do we <DIV></DIV>>(the research and clinical community) really know about that? <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>I have done a number of medline searches, but just haven't yet been able <DIV></DIV>>to find much on hearing loss and cogntnitive degeneration independent of <DIV></DIV>>ageing. <DIV></DIV>> > <DIV></DIV>> > I'll try to run a filter on my database for the references. They'll be <DIV></DIV>> > without the titles, but the author and the reference. I'll try to limit <DIV></DIV>> > it to the last five years. Another way would be to search on <DIV></DIV>> > www.pubmed.com anything you might be interested in. I search journals <DIV></DIV>> > from Journal of Neuroscience to Nature Neuroscience, NeuroReport, <DIV></DIV>> > Perceptual and Motor Skills, Dementia and Geriatric Cogntivie Disorders, <DIV></DIV>> > Age and Ageing, Neurotoxopharmacology, Neuroscience Nursing, PNAS, etc. <DIV></DIV>> > This accumulation has been over 6 1/2 years. Every 6 months I go to the <DIV></DIV>> > libraries at McGill (not that I'm in Canada) and the Montreal Neurological <DIV></DIV>> > Institute. I usually come back with anywhere between 250 to 350 journal <DIV></DIV>> > articles that either directly test the auditory system, or use the <DIV></DIV>> > auditory system to test a disease state such as Alzheimer's or <DIV></DIV>> > Parkinson's, Dyslexia or emotional prosody deficits, stroke, etc. As! <DIV></DIV>> > an audiologist, if it uses the auditory system to test a disease state, <DIV></DIV>> > it's still a test of the auditory system as well. And since my patients <DIV></DIV>> > are at risk for some of these conditions (including alcoholism, drug <DIV></DIV>> > abuse, nutritional deficiencies, etc), I should know if it will affect <DIV></DIV>> > their perception and recovery through the use of hearing aids. <DIV></DIV>> > By using this information, 1) you'll definitely become a better clinician <DIV></DIV>> > and 2) your patients will try harder to become more compliant with the use <DIV></DIV>> > of hearing aids because they trust that you know what you're doing and 3) <DIV></DIV>> > by considering all these conditions (diabetes, MS, etc) you'll be able to <DIV></DIV>> > counsel the patients more effectively on the benefits and limitations of <DIV></DIV>> > amplifications. <DIV></DIV>> > I was at a conference of a manufacturer several years ago and one of the <DIV></DIV>> > representatives actually said "If you fix the hearing aid, you'll fix the <DIV></DIV>> > hearing loss". I about had a cow. You cannot fix Alzheimer's or stroke <DIV></DIV>> > damage through a new digital algorithm. No matter what we do, we are <DIV></DIV>> > still sending information through an impaired system that may or may not <DIV></DIV>> > recover significantly depending on how severe the loss is and how we <DIV></DIV>> > counsel the patients. <DIV></DIV>> > I will try to see what I can do though in regards to references. I have a <DIV></DIV>> > list I used for my Alzheimer's presentation in Vancouver that I can send <DIV></DIV>> > an attachment when I get back to work. <DIV></DIV>> > Barb <DIV></DIV>> > wdrennan(at)umich.edubr_auditory(at)HOTMAIL.COM Check out MSN PC Safety & <DIV></DIV>> > Security to help ensure your PC is protected and safe. <DIV></DIV>> > <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Ward R. Drennan, Ph. D. <DIV></DIV>>Kresge Hearing Research Institute <DIV></DIV>>Ann Arbor, MI 48109 <DIV></DIV>>Phone: (734)763-5159 <DIV></DIV>>Fax: (734)764-0014 <DIV></DIV>><< CommentsandcitationrequestonBRswriting.doc >> <DIV></DIV></div><br clear=all><hr> <a href="http://g.msn.com/8HMBENUS/2746??PS=">All the action. All the drama. Get NCAA hoops coverage at MSN Sports by ESPN.</a> </html>