Hearing loss in adults can be hereditary or acquired from illness, ototoxic (ear-damaging) medications, exposure to loud noise, tumors, head injury, or most commonly due to aging. This loss may occur by itself or with tinnitus (ringing in the ears).
The following questions could help you determine if you should have your hearing evaluated by a medical professional. If you answered "yes" to three or more of these questions, you may want to see an otolaryngologist (an ear, nose, and throat specialist) or an audiologist for a hearing evaluation.
- Do you have a problem hearing over the telephone?
- Do you have trouble following the conversation when two or more people are talking at the same time?
- Do people complain that you turn the TV volume up too high?
- Do you have to strain to understand conversation?
- Do you have trouble hearing in a noisy background?
- Do you find yourself asking people to repeat themselves?
- Do many people that you interact with seem to mumble ?
- Do you misunderstand what others are saying and respond inappropriately?
- Do you have trouble understanding the speech of women and children?
- Do people get annoyed because you misunderstand what they say?
*Deafness Research Foundation, RNID, American Speech, Language & Hearing Association
I am fortunate enough to have been awarded a charity place in the 2011 London Marathon sponsored by Virgin. The charity that I will be running for is RNID: Action on Hearing Loss (RNID is the Royal National Institute for the Deaf). Participating in this event has been one of my ambitions: it is one of the largest fundraising events in the world and takes place in my favorite city! I thank RNID for providing this opportunity.
I am also fortunate enough to have normal hearing. Not so for thirty six million people in the United States (17%) and 9 million people in the UK (15%) who suffer from hearing loss. Your hearing should be screened regularly just like eyesight, dental health and blood pressure, and yet it is generally something that people do not like to talk about-I hope to help change that.
My fundraising target is £1750 GBP (about $2600). I am not really a fan of blogs so it will be a real challenge for me to keep this going. My intention is to use this site as a vehicle to share information on RNID and hearing loss, and share a bit about the challenges of training for a marathon in the Scottish winter, which has arrived early and with a vengeance! I hope you enjoy my posts: I will try to keep them brief!
If this is your first time visiting my site, please consider making a donation using the link to my Virgin Money Giving site.
My training is under way, albeit a bit late. Sinuses acted up all through November and I recovered just in time for a 2 foot snowfall that stuck around for over 2 weeks. I have been learning to enjoy the treadmill, or at least to accept the treadmill as a training tool. Having done an 8 mile long run and a 9 mile run the following week, the anticipation of 10 miles on it this weekend makes me thankful that Santa brought me an ipod shuffle last Christmas!
