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Hearing Aids Can Help Dementia Patients
As Published in the Chicago Tribune
By Malcolm Garcia, Special to the Tribune
September 21, 2011
Hearing aids might help increase memory, reduce anxiety and increase social interaction among dementia patients, local health experts say.
"Whether you have dementia or not, you need to hear," said Ronna Fisher, audiologist and founder and president of Hearing Health Center in Chicago and three suburbs. "It's not normal not to hear. Hearing is what makes us happy in our relationships. If you can't hear, you stop talking."
Improved sensory perception won't stop the progression of dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease, experts said, but increasing the ability to hear will help reduce a patient's loneliness and confusion.
The staff at Smith Village, a continuing-care retirement community in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood, said it has noticed increased participation among residents who address their hearing problems.
"Getting hearing aids does help them," said Diane Morgan, memory support coordinator. "When their hearing is down, they experience paranoia or anxiety because they can't hear what's being said to them."
Fisher, whose father suffered hearing loss at an early age, said she began noticing in 2008 that when her dementia patients were fitted with hearing aids –– especially deep-insert hearing devices that remain in the ear for three months at a time –– they socialized more and their memories improved.
In a study released this year, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the National Institute on Aging found that seniors suffering from hearing loss were more likely to develop dementia over time than those who retain their hearing. Among other things, the research suggests that hearing loss could lead to social isolation, a risk factor for dementia.
The research should offer hope to physicians treating dementia patients, said Dr. Marsel Mesulam, director of the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern's medical school.
"Doctors and health care providers treating elderly patients should not throw up their hands treating dementia," Mesulam said. "They can look at other factors that are treatable, like hearing loss or vision."
Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, a term used to describe the common symptoms of memory loss and declining cognitive abilities that interfere with daily life, according to the Alzheimer's Association. The disease accounts for 50 to 80 percent of dementia cases. Other causes of dementia include brain injuries, infections and tumors, and vascular, Parkinson's and other diseases that affect neurological function.
Nancy Rainwater, a spokeswoman for the Greater Illinois Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, said that at the very least, a person's hearing loss might cause caregivers to assume there is dementia when there is not.
"Each patient is different," Rainwater said. "Get a formal diagnosis."
Naperville resident Debby Berger began taking her 86-year-old mother to Hearing Health Center last year. At the time, her mother's memory had declined. Since she has been fitted with deep-insert hearing devices, her memory has improved.
"Now that she can hear, if you tell her something, she remembers it," Berger said
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Hearing Aids Help Battle Alzheimer's
May 25, 2011 - When Lisle resident Angela Perrozzi, 85, started forgetting things and tuning out conversations, her daughter took her to a doctor — and then got her fitted for new hearing aids.
Studies have shown hearing loss can increase a person’s risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
Perrozzi had hearing loss before she was diagnosed with mild dementia. But her arthritis made it difficult to keep taking the over-the-ear hearing aids in and out, said her daughter, Debby Berger, a Naperville resident and registered nurse. So Perosi started wearing “invisible” hearing aids that fit inside the ear canal and can be worn for months at a time.
“She’s more into the conversation at the dinner table,” Berger said. “(Before,) she just sort of sat there. I thought maybe this will help. The way to help her dementia is to get mental stimulation, and way to get mental stimulation is to hear.”
Over the last two years, doctors at the Hearing Health Center in Naperville have fitted 11 patients with the completely-inside-the-canal hearing aids. Audiologist Ronna Fisher, founder and president of the Hearing Health Center, said eight of those patients have experienced significant improvements in memory, mood and social interaction.
“I’ve been impressed, but not surprised,” Fisher said in a statement. “Studies show even mild hearing loss impairs patients’ relationships, incomes and emotional states. I’d always suspected it impairs their memories as well.”
In a recent National Institutes of Health study, researchers who followed 639 adults for 12 years found the worse the subjects’ initial hearing, the greater their likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s. The risk doubled with mild hearing loss, tripled with moderate loss and went up five times for those with severe hearing loss.
The researchers theorized hearing loss may cause Alzheimer’s disease by creating cognitive stress or social isolation. Whether hearing devices affect cognitive decline and dementia will require further study.
Berger has noticed the link between hearing loss and memory loss with both of her parents. Her father, who died two years ago, lived with Alzheimer’s for 15 years. He also had hearing loss.
As a result, she’s consciously keeping her own mind — and ears — alert. When she took her mom to the Hearing Health Center, the doctor invited Berger to get a hearing test as well. It turns out she has high-frequency hearing loss from going to loud concerts when she was younger.
“I do not require any hearing aids as of yet,” Berger said. “But I do crossword puzzles every day, trust me.”
Article Courtesy of Naperville Sun, A Chicago Sun-Times Publication
Hearing Health Center is proud to be Healthy Hearing's Center of the Week
Reprinted Courtesy of HealthyHearing.com
January 6, 2011
Founded in 1984 after watching her own father struggle with hearing loss, Dr. Ronna Fisher has been nationally recognized numerous times for her contributions and dedication to the field of audiology.
In fact, Dr. Fisher so deeply believes in her life mission to help those with hearing loss, she even created a foundation: The Fisher Foundation for Hearing Health. This foundation diligently strives to educate doctors, health professionals, and the surrounding communities about how critical their sense of hearing is in everyday life.
Driving her passion for hearing is the gratitude she gets from patients she has helped: “At least once a week, I receive a letter or a phone call of gratitude from a patient or someone close to them. The daughter of an Alzheimer’s patient called to tell me her mother’s memory and depression improved immediately after getting hearing aids. . A mother heard her kids in the back seat of the car - for the first time since they were born!” Dr. Fisher joyfully tells us.
New At This Year's Air And Water Show...Free Ear Plugs!
"Millions of hearing hair cells are dying, "says Chicago audiologist Dr. Ronna Fisher Au.D. "If you're lucky the ringing will stop and your hair cells will recover."
But studies suggest some spectators at this year's Chicago Air and Water Show won't be lucky. A Blue Angel F-18 Hornet 500 feet up exposes a spectator to 105-130 decibels of noise.
"That's more than enough to cause hearing damage," says Dr. Fisher.
The government says exposure to 15 minutes of noise above 100 decibels is unsafe. Average noise levels at air shows are 92 decibels[1] (like being next to a power drill or diesel truck). What's more Chicagoans will be exposed to those levels for up to five hours!
Hearing Aids Help Improve Relationships and Love Life on WGN, April 22, 2010
Hearing Aids May Help Alzheimer's and Dementia Patients on Fox News, January 8, 2010
Read the whole story at Fox News >>
Lyric on Good Morning America
Lyric® is the world?s first and only 100% invisible extended wear hearing device. Lyric was featured on July 6, 2009 on Good Morning America.
Migraine Without Headache Leaves a Dizzying Diagnosis
By Marc Davis
A migraine without a headache seemed like a contradiction to Sharon Gruszka when she was recently diagnosed.
But audiologist Dr. Ronna Fisher told Gruszka that she was suffering from a syndrome called migraine-associated vertigo.
Teaching the Brain to Listen
By Sandy Illian Bosch | STAFF WRITER
Plenty of people have trouble hearing, but for some, what is perceived as a problem with the ears might actually be trouble in the brain.
"It's not that the hearing instrument doesn't work in a noisy place, it's the brain," said Ronna Fisher, founder of Hearing Health Center in Chicago, Naperville and Elmhurst.
Gains in Migraine Treatment
Advances in headache medicine help dizziness, back pain
August 14, 2007
By KATIE FOUTZ Staff writer
For Sharon Gruszka, the room was spinning. For Bernard Kryszak, the pain was constant.
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