Make hearing test part of annual health check up

This article from the Chicago Tribune discusses the importance of regular hearing testing:

The Hearing Rehabilitation Center has been selected as the Best Hearing Clinic by Daily Southtown readers for the second year in a row.

Dr. Peter Sotiropoulos, president of The Hearing Rehabilitation Center, says “thank you for our second selection as Southland’s ‘Best Hearing Clinic.’ In my 30th year of practice, 10 years in the Chicago’s Southland, it is with pleasure I can provide quality and ethical hearing, balance and tinnitus health care, with a human touch, at our offices in Kankakee and Steger.”

Sotiropoulos is a strong advocate for regular hearing testing, protection of hearing from noise exposure, and treatment of hearing impairment for a better quality of life. He states that there are at least five motivators for getting a hearing test:

  1. Your hearing may say something about your heart.
  2. Hearing loss is twice as common in people with diabetes.
  3. Addressing hearing loss may benefit cognitive function.
  4. Hearing loss is tied to sleep apnea.
  5. Hearing loss is tied to depression.

Hearing health affects so many aspects of one’s life that routine hearing tests should be part of a healthy lifestyle to safeguard one’s well-being and quality of life.

So schedule your hearing test today.

Hearing loss brings with it cascading medical, emotional and social side effects.

Hearing loss affects communication, so it is not surprising that several medical studies, and medical professionals, point to a strong association between hearing loss and depression.

Dr. Lin’s study at the John’s Hopkins School of Medicine found that older adults with hearing loss experienced higher rates of hospitalizations for other serious illnesses than those without. According to Lin, hearing loss has a greater impact on quality of life than diabetes, heart disease, coronary artery disease or hypertension.

Two independent studies in the U.S. show that a 25-decibel shift in the speech frequency pure-tone average was equal to nearly seven years of aging on cognitive scores in older adults. Sometimes the changes that affect the well-being of our loved ones come about so slowly that we don’t understand what’s happening.

Brandeis University Professor, Dr. Arthur Wingfield, has been studying cognitive aging and the relationship between memory and hearing acuity.

“Unaddressed hearing loss not only affects the listener’s ability to ‘hear’ the sound accurately but it also affects higher-level cognitive functioning,” he says.

Specifically, it interferes with the listener’s ability to accurately process the auditory information and make sense of it.

“Even if you have just a mild hearing loss that is not being treated, cognitive load increases significantly,” Wingfield says. “You have to put in so much effort just to perceive and understand what is being said that you divert resources away from storing what you have heard into your memory.” As people move through middle age and their later years, Wingfield suggested, it is reasonable for them to get their hearing tested annually. If there is a hearing loss, it is best to take it seriously and treat it. There is a strong relationship between quality hearing health care, benefit, and quality of life improvements.

Sotiropoulos states that 85 percent of patients report at least one area of their life was improved by wearing hearing aids. Eight out of 10 hearing aid users are satisfied with the changes that have occurred in their lives due to hearing aids, and nine out of 10 patients are projected to experience significant improvements in their quality of life once they experience a 70 percent reduction in their hearing handicap. “Come in and hear the quality difference,” Sotiropoulos says.

The Hearing Rehabilitation Center is located at 29 W. 34th St. in Steger; or 1455 W. Court St., in Kankakee. For more information call us or visit facebook.com/hearingrehabctr.

The site information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. To receive personalized advice or treatment, schedule an appointment.
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