Thanks Leslie Nielsen for being a long time BHI supporter. I am happy we took the effort to convert those old dusty Beta PSA tapes of celebrities like you with hearing loss into windows compatible files for generations of people to see on our website at: http://www.betterhearing.org/about/psa.cfm. Your message of hope to people with hearing loss is the same today as it was 20 years ago.As soon as you passed within 24 hours I viewed the movie Airplane again for probably the 20th times and it made me laugh just much as when I saw it for the first time. I think you probably believe the words spoken in your 1994 movie Naked Gun 33 1/3: "Cheer up, Ed. This is not goodbye. It's just I won't ever see you again." But we will always remember how you made us laugh and we will continue to laugh when we view your immortal works.

A common assumption about hearing loss is there are three causes: age, genetics and noise exposure; when in fact there are many other causes persons are not aware of.

Recent research reported this month in the American Journal of Kidney Disease found persons suffering from moderate chronic kidney disease (CKD) are likely to have hearing loss and should receive regular screenings. Specifically the study found 54.4 of all the patients in the study with moderate CKD had some degree of hearing loss.

Kidney disease is not alone in contributing to hearing loss. Other health conditions that can cause hearing loss include  diabetes and cardiovascular disease.  Numerous studies have linked both of these conditions to an increase risk for developing hearing loss. 

To learn more about how these health conditions contribute to the risk of hearing loss, read: Reasons for Hearing Loss: Chronic Kidney Disease for more information at HealthyHearing.com.

Sure, you sometimes have to ask people to repeat themselves, and the volume knob on the car stereo is set much farther to the right than it used to be. But you can't be experiencing hearing loss - you're not a senior citizen. Hearing loss only affects the old, right?

Not necessarily. Only 40 percent of people with hearing loss are older than 64. The largest age group with hearing loss is people between 18 and 64 - about 19 million people compared to 14 million at retirement age. More than 1 million school-age children have hearing problems, as well.

Read more...