Modern Research and What it Means for the Future of Hearing Healthcare

Stress Factors that Impact Auditory Processing

Can experiencing stress early in life impact the way children interpret what they hear? A grant of $2.3 million was awarded by the U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders at the National Institutes of Health, which will be used by Northeast Ohio Medical University to research this subject.   

Included in the study will be an examination of how stress that occurs early in life, impacts auditory processing. It would also focus on children with conductive hearing loss. This research will help analysts concentrate on potential experiments to determine the best way to reduce these emotional issues in children.

On Hearing Loss and Tinnitus

There are some chemotherapy drugs that can save a patient’s life, but they can also damage the ears. A U.S. National Cancer Institute grant of $5.7 million will be used to investigate and research this topic. The study will focus on surveying “long-term health outcomes for cancer patients who receive platinum-based chemotherapies”. This will help determine whether certain cancer treatments cause or worsen hearing loss or tinnitus. Not only will identifying the potential risks be determined but how to reduce those risks will also be determined.

Hearing Health and Effects from COVID-19

There have been more and more reports of possible connections between COVID-19 and hearing loss. The University of Manchester in the U.K. is doing a more thorough study on this. The school’s Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness is analyzing the long-term impact of COVID on an adult’s hearing abilities. Over 10% of test subjects who were treated for COVID-19 had reported tinnitus or worsened hearing in a previous study by the same analysts. The conclusion to these studies has yet to be made public, but they will hopefully offer better solutions for protecting and preserving hearing health.  

If you or a loved one are having trouble with hearing or experience tinnitus, please get in touch with us at Pure Sound Hearing for a solution.     

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