More boomers are facing choice of purchasing hearing aids

Star Tribune ^ | 08/12/03 | Donna Halvorsen

[bedolido]

As baby boomers head into their 40s and 50s, the bill for their glory days is coming due.

Musicians and their fans are discovering that their ears don't work as well as they used to, and the loud rock music they reveled in is at least partly to blame.

It's a frightening prospect. Once you've battered some of the thousands of inner-ear hair cells that transmit sounds to the brain, they are lost forever. And the only remedy for most people is hearing aids.

Bill Clinton owned up to his rock 'n' roll past when he was fitted with hearing aids in 1997. Now other baby boomers face the prospect of purchasing an electronic gadget they never expected to need, and a pricey one at that.

Hearing aids generally cost from $600 to $2,400, although state-of-the-art digital aids can cost much more. Analog aids, using pre-digital technology, can cost as little as $300. In any case, the cost seldom is covered by health insurance. An analog model "would do the minimal job of a hearing aid, which is to make things louder," said Jane Gilbert, an audiologist at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. But busy people whose lives take them into a variety of settings need more flexibility and better sound than analog models can provide, she said.

Vanity, once an issue, shouldn't be one anymore. Today's custom-molded aids can be slipped into the ear canal where they can't be seen. Still, the prospect of wearing hearing aids is a big step, and many people procrastinate.

"The average person with a hearing loss will duck and hide for about seven years," said Bill Austin, president of Starkey Laboratories, a hearing aid company based in Eden Prairie.

[bedolido]

Tom Wallace Star Tribune

Published August 11, 2003

Have know idea why they say this is Tom Wallace...

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

What did you say?

BigMack

[dixiechick2000]

marking

[bedolido]

nice rack for an old boomer

[Billthedrill]

JUST BECAUSE I SPENT WHOLE NIGHTS LISTENING TO LED ZEPPELIN AND DEEP PURPLE DOESN'T MEAN THAT I HAVE A PROBLEM NOW. IT WAS A LONG TIME AGO. I DO NOT NEED A...A WHAT? A HEARING WHAT? SPEAK UP, DANG IT!

[The Brush]

YOU'RE SICK!!!!


I know because I was thinking the same thing and I'm sick

[bedolido]

lol... it's terminal

[bedolido]

JUST BECAUSE I SPENT WHOLE NIGHTS LISTENING...

I used to party in Hollywood, Calif nightclubs in the 60's (saw the Byrds, Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, etc.)... can't remember much about it... due to my head-state... but my hearing is close to shot (50% loss in both)

[IYAS9YAS]

Well, first it'll be the boomers, then their kids (me) for the hard rock in the 80s. Then this current generation for their thumping bass music and then their kids that they haul around in the carseat in the back. Time to invest in hearing aid battery companies...

[rellimpank]

--in the mid-70's, the mine I worked at in Colorado was rejecting some portion of young people as employees due to hearing loss attributed to loud music--guess they didn't get it back.

[Maria S]

From the article: "Musicians and their fans are discovering that their ears don't work as well as they used to, and the loud rock music they reveled in is at least partly to blame."

If the 40-year olds are losing their hearing due to the loud music they reveled in, what will the hearing of the current batch of teens be like when they hit their 40's? I honestly don't see how kids can stand being inside those cars that have the music turned up so loud! You can literally FEEL the drumbeat several blocks away! Just seems like it would hurt their ears.

[Old Professer]

Hearing aids are worthless for people who have noise-induced hearing loss.

Amplify the phone, turn up the T.V. and asking people to speak slowly and clearly is the only thing that works.

[bedolido]

Hearing aids are worthless for people who have noise-induced hearing loss.

WHAT???

Sorry old joke. My loss is more of a ringing sound that overpowers other sounds.

[Old Professer]

Oddly, the over-amped subwoofer doesn't do permanent ear damage, there is a school of thought that it affects underlying cardiovascular conditions adversly.

[Old Professer]

I've been dealing with that for over 50 years; I was on a rifle team in the Army National Guard for two years with no hearing protection devices.

[Old Professer]

Adversely.

[Richard Kimball]

I wouldn't date any woman old enough to be seen with me.

I never went in for the loud concerts. It hurt my ears. At 49, I have a slight mid-range loss, most likely from riding next to diesel engines on the fire truck. It's not even noticeable, and I wouldn't know I had it, except it shows up during frequency range hearing tests. The other people that are going to have hearing loss problems big time are the people at auto races.

[Phantom Lord]

Older women are the best.

[Phantom Lord]

How long before a "hearing aid benefit" is proposed by congress?

[bedolido]

I wouldn't date any woman old enough to be seen with me.

lmao