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After Huey Lewis learned that a syndrome of the inner ear called Ménière’s disease had caused him significant hearing loss and left him unable to play or hear music, he faced the difficult task of having to tell his friends and peers..... Lewis had already halted his performing career before he went public with his diagnosis in 2020. But while his relationship to his art has fundamentally changed, he has continued to work on a new Broadway musical, “The Heart of Rock and Roll,” which is built around many of the songs he made famous with Huey Lewis and the...

A person’s hearing can be damaged by loud noise, aging and even certain medications, with little recourse beyond a hearing aid or cochlear implant. But now, UCSF scientists have achieved a breakthrough in understanding what is happening in the inner ear during hearing loss, laying the groundwork for preventing deafness. The research, published on Dec. 22, 2023, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight, links animal studies on hearing loss with a rare type of inherited deafness in humans. In both cases, mutations to the TMTC4 gene trigger a molecular domino effect known as the unfolded protein response (UPR), leading...

Worldwide, more than 750 million people have tinnitus. More than 50 million Americans suffer from the condition. Tinnitus is a common condition characterized by the perception of noise or ringing in the ears without an external sound source. Typically experienced as ringing, buzzing, hissing, or clicking, it can stem from various causes, such as age-related hearing loss, loud noise exposure, ear infections, or head injuries. Although tinnitus is often regarded as a symptom rather than a disease, it can significantly impact a person’s quality of life. Not a week goes by when I don’t see someone in my clinic complaining...

A new treatment for tinnitus using vibrations created by synthesised music, improved symptoms in almost all patients during its first trial. The sonic brain reprogramming treatment, based on sound vibrations that pass through a bone behind the ear, helped eight out of ten of the patients who had twice-weekly sessions of the therapy. Its inventors, who are planning larger trials, say the technology could be a real breakthrough for the one in ten people who suffer with the debilitating condition at some time. Tinnitus is the sensation of a sound in the ear, usually a hissing, whooshing or ringing noise....

Though it's not clear how diabetes may be related to hearing loss, many people experience both conditions simultaneously. About 37 million Americans have diabetes, estimates the American Diabetes Association. Meanwhile, about 34.5 million of them also have some type of hearing loss. Experiencing hearing loss is twice as common in people with diabetes as it is in those who don't have the condition, according to a recent study. Even for the 133 million people with prediabetes, the rate of hearing loss is 30% higher than in those with normal blood sugar. The reason may be that high blood sugar levels...

Based on my penname "Deaf and Delirious", most readers will probably - and correctly - assume I am hearing impaired. I've been wearing hearing aids since my teenage years. My hearing loss ranges between 80 - 90 dB bilaterally (both ears) and described as "severe hearing loss" level. At this level, without my hearing aids, I cannot hear speech at all when a person is talking to me at a normal level (60 B). But I can hear some loud sounds, like my lawn mower (90 dB) or my circular saw (100 dB). I also experience tinnitus daily. When someone...

Frequency Therapeutics bases its scientific approach to treating disorders on harnessing the body’s own biological repair mechanisms to repair or reverse the damage caused by degenerative diseases, including hearing loss. Overstimulation of the cochlear hair cell receptors by noise or chemical exposure, or other insults, leads to their apoptosis. Several non-mammalian species, such as birds and reptiles, are able to spontaneously regenerate these hair cells after damage by the asymmetric division of progenitor stem cells, to form a hair cell and replace the original progenitor. “The system is there, it can be turned on in other species, and we also...

Hair Cells Nuclei, Cellular Regeneration These images show cellular regeneration, in pink, in a preclinical model of sensorineural hearing loss. The control is on the left and the right has been treated. Credit: Hinton AS, Yang-Hood A, Schrader AD, Loose C, Ohlemiller KK, McLean WJ. ***************************************************************************************************************** MIT spinout Frequency Therapeutics’ drug candidate stimulates the growth of hair cells in the inner ear. The biotechnology company Frequency Therapeutics is seeking to reverse hearing loss — not with hearing aids or implants, but with a new kind of regenerative therapy. The company uses small molecules to program progenitor cells, a descendant of...

Since COVID-19 mask mandates and social distancing, my mother has lost much of her ability to navigate through the hearing world, decreasing her independence and confidence. My mother is a very independent and somewhat private person, and at 94 still lives in her own home, helps care for my father, and drives (cautiously). So I was surprised during my last visit when she asked me to go with her to her doctor. The doctor’s office had just started offering face-to-face appointments again and she hadn’t been feeling well. We wore our masks and sat in the socially distanced chairs in...

It's a fact aircrews know well. Service members who work in and around aircraft are more likely to suffer hearing deficits. But new VA research on the effects of jet propulsion fuel-8, commonly known as JP-8, suggests the problem may be more complex than previously thought. Dr. O'neil Guthrie, a research scientist and clinical audiologist with the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System in California, says it's not just the noise that is harmful. It can also be the fuel itself. "JP-8 is one part of a larger class of hydrocarbon chemicals," says Guthrie. "What we're seeing is that even at...

On Monday, my wife woke up with a total loss of hearing in her left ear. Looking online, it said to treat this as an emergency so she went to the ER. They admitted her to the hospital and she got a CAT scan and MRI to rule out a stroke or tumors. Apparently, it was caused by virus. She finally got an appointment with an audiologist toady who, after tested, said she has zero response in her left ear. She was given a referral to an ENT doctor on Monday for possible steroid injections directly into the middle ear....

The US pulled the bulk of its diplomats from Cuba in September, blaming attacks on its staff that caused hearing loss and concussions. Cuba has denied any involvement, and now it is offering a counter-explanation: The alleged “sonic attacks” are coming from cicadas and crickets.

The two-year-old U.S. diplomatic relationship with Cuba was roiled Wednesday by what U.S. officials say was a string of bizarre incidents that left a group of American diplomats in Havana with severe hearing loss attributed to a covert sonic device. In the fall of 2016, a series of U.S. diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation into the case. Several of the diplomats were recent arrivals at the embassy, which reopened in 2015 as part of former President Barack Obama’s re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba. Some of the diplomats’ symptoms were...

Brian Johnson’s hearing loss may not be as bad as initial reports suggested — but AC/DC might be moving on without him anyway. Word of Johnson’s reportedly tenuous future comes courtesy of comedian Jim Breuer, a friend of the singer who discussed their latest visit during an episode of his The Metal in Me podcast, which you can stream below. According to Breuer, whose commentary was earlier reported by the Canton Repository, Johnson has essentially been “kicked to the curb” by group leader Angus Young after fronting AC/DC for 36 years. UPDATE: Breuer has since posted a series of follow-up...

NEW YORK (AP) -- There were times by the end of his shift that firefighter Joseph Nardone's head would be pounding, his eyes crossing from the noise of the siren on his truck. "The siren was so loud inside the cab that it actually physically hurt," said the former New York City fire battalion chief. Even though he's been retired for over a decade, he said, the effects of the sirens linger in hearing loss that has left him unable to understand rapid conversation or follow along in church.

<p>Mayor Bloomberg - who has already cracked down on smoking, trans fats, salt and super-sized drinks - is embarking on a new crusade: preventing New Yorkers from going deaf.</p> <p>Hizzoner's health officials are planning a social-media campaign to warn young people about the risk of losing their hearing from listening to music at high volume on personal MP3 players, The Post has learned.</p>

Cocaine, marijuana, tobacco, alcohol -- the usual drugs and their dangers are familiar to most children and parents alike. Is sound an equally dangerous "gateway drug"? As preposterous as that idea sounds, it's precisely what the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics claims. They are warning parents of a dangerous new drug -- binaural sound. > Oklahoma officials are convinced, though, that it's just the latest way for kids to get high. They call it "i-dosing" and claim that "digital dealers" are selling children the aural equivalent of crack in their eyes. Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs spokesman Mark Woodward...

According to the Mayo Clinic, gradual hearing loss that occurs as you age (presbycusis) is common. According to the National Institutes of Health, an estimated one-third of Americans between the ages of 65 and 75 and close to one-half of those older than 75 have some degree of hearing loss. Doctors believe that heredity and chronic exposure to loud noises are the main factors that contribute to hearing loss over time. Other factors, such as earwax blockage, can prevent your ears from conducting sounds as well as they should. You can't reverse hearing loss. However, you don't have to live...

SAN FRANCISCO - An aging U.S. population faces a looming crisis in hearing loss, researchers said Saturday. Some research holds promise, but much is in the early stages. By 2050, there could be as many as 50 million people in the United States with impaired hearing, Steven Greenberg of Silicon Speech in Santa Venetia, Calif., told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Hearing loss results in social and psychological isolation, "which makes their life hell," Greenberg said. Thanks to loud music and a generally noisy environment, young people have a rate of impaired hearing...

I have just landed a plum of a job as an assistant news editor for one of the biggest names in industrial news reporting. The problem is my ears. I was medically discharged from the Navy 18 years ago with bilateral hearing loss and have been using a relatively good Rionet (Japanese brand) Hearing Aid for many years. Unfortunately, its not cutting the mustard in my new office and my new boss has pretty much given me an ultimatum. Get an effective hearing instrument that will allow you to work in an office environment professionally – including telephone and conference...