http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Around 17 million people in Germany suffer from impaired hearing. For many of them, their hearing is so damaged that a standard hearing aid is no longer enough. A new device will improve patients' hearing and can be implanted during outpatient surgery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-regaining-proper.html Medical research Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:53:50 EST news284108021 Researchers at the University of Essex have developed a free mobile app that turns an iPhone or iPod into a hearing aid that could revolutionise the future for people with hearing loss. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-mobile-app-iphone-biologically-aid.html Health Fri, 29 Mar 2013 07:58:12 EST news283762679 New research is aiming to produce hearing aids which can distinguish better between speech and background noise and benefit the lives of the six million people in the UK with hearing impairments. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-aids-brain-inspired-speech.html Medical research Thu, 07 Mar 2013 10:56:07 EST news281876160 Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a group of progenitor cells in the inner ear that can become the sensory hair cells and adjacent supporting cells that enable hearing. Studying these progenitor cells could someday lead to discoveries that help millions of Americans suffering from hearing loss due to damaged or impaired sensory hair cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-forerunners-inner-ear-cells-enable.html Medical research Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:35:17 EST news281090108 Children with hearing loss struggle to hear in noisy school classrooms, even with the help of hearing aids and other devices to amplify their teacher's voice. Training the brain to filter out background noise and thus understand spoken words could help the academic performance and quality of life for children who struggle to hear, but there's been little evidence that such noise training works in youngsters. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-noisy-classroom-simulation-aids-comprehension.html Health Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:57:05 EST news279809819 UT Dallas researchers are recruiting patients for a new study aimed at determining a connection between hearing deficits and the likelihood of falls. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-aids-falls.html Health Wed, 06 Feb 2013 11:50:02 EST news279373080 Hearing loss is a significant public health problem affecting close to 50 million people in the United States alone. Sensorineural hearing loss is the most common form and is caused by the loss of sensory hair cells in the cochlea. Hair cell loss results from a variety of factors including noise exposure, aging, toxins, infections, and certain antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs. Although hearing aids and cochlear implants can ameliorate the symptoms somewhat, there are no known treatments to restore hearing, because auditory hair cells in mammals, unlike those in birds or fish, do not regenerate once lost. Auditory hair cell replacement holds great promise as a treatment that could restore hearing after loss of hair cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-sensory-hair-cells-regenerated-mammal.html Neuroscience Wed, 09 Jan 2013 12:00:07 EST news276953524 Current special education laws are geared towards integrating special-needs children into the general classroom environment from a young age, starting as early as preschool. Prof. Tova Most of Tel Aviv University's Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education and the Department of Communications Disorders at the Stanley Steyer School of Health Professions says that these laws present a unique set of challenges for children with hearing loss, and that a sense of isolation may inhibit a successful education. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-skills-crucial-impaired-children-classroom.html Health Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:11:15 EST news274972269 After years of basic research, scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) are increasingly able to understand the mechanisms underlying the human Usher syndrome and are coming ever closer to finding a successful treatment approach. The scientists in the Usher research group of Professor Dr. Uwe Wolfrum are evaluating two different strategies. These involve either the repair of mutated genes or the deactivation of the genetic defects using agents. Based on results obtained to date, both options seem promising. Usher syndrome is a congenital disorder that causes the loss of both hearing and vision. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-biologists-read-through-mutations-responsible-usher.html Genetics Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:44:48 EST news273840275 A new software product developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge could greatly improve sound perception for users of hearing aids. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-cambridge-software-quality-aid-users.html Other Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:07:40 EST news271602424 A new free online program which aims to provide an alternative to hearing aids for people living with acquired hearing loss has been developed from research at The Australian National University. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-tool-loss.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 12 Sep 2012 08:04:36 EST news266655859 (HealthDay)—As the use of small button batteries has become more widespread to power devices such as toys, watches and hearing aids, more young children have swallowed them, resulting in choking and even deaths, a new U.S. report says. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-tiny-batteries-pose-threat-kids.html Health Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:10:01 EST news265563628 The University of Southampton has developed a new hearing screening test which could help the estimated 100 million people suffering from hearing loss in China. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-screening-people-loss-china.html Health Wed, 27 Jun 2012 10:45:50 EST news260012726 (Medical Xpress) -- The main barriers to hearing aid use are being addressed by experts in Nottingham as part of an innovative research project. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-how-to-video-tutorials-boost-aid.html Health Thu, 24 May 2012 09:06:00 EST news257068934 A new clinical trial is to test whether a pocket-sized device that uses sound simulation to reboot faulty 'wiring' in the brain could cure people with the debilitating hearing disorder tinnitus. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-tinnitus-treatment.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:41:47 EST news251458893 New research is hoping to understand how the human brain hears sound to help develop improved hearing aids and automatic speech recognition systems. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-speech-recognition-technology.html Neuroscience Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:26:58 EST news246018405 (Medical Xpress) -- Evidence is mounting of an aggressive campaign by private providers to push hearing aids onto people who are not psychologically ready for them, according to an Australian National University sociology expert. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-aids.html Health Thu, 27 Oct 2011 09:13:06 EST news238925575 (AP) -- A bit of creativity never hurts, especially when it comes to solving health problems in developing countries. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-devices-motorcycle-ambulances-poor.html Health Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:29:17 EST news235042139 A new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows that declines in hearing ability may accelerate gray mater atrophy in auditory areas of the brain and increase the listening effort necessary for older adults to successfully comprehend speech. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-mild-loss-linked-brain-atrophy.html Neuroscience Wed, 31 Aug 2011 09:51:19 EST news234003069 Usher syndrome is the most common form of combined congenital deaf-blindness in humans and affects 1 in 6,000 of the population. It is a recessive inherited disease that is both clinically and genetically heterogeneous. In the most severe cases, patients are born deaf and begin to suffer from a degeneration of the retina in puberty, ultimately resulting in complete blindness. These patients experience major problems in their day-to-day life. While hearing loss can be compensated for with hearing aids and cochlea implants, it has not proven possible to develop a treatment for the associated sight loss to date. Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany have now developed a new treatment approach to this disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-treatment-approach-human-usher-syndrome.html Genetics Fri, 01 Jul 2011 07:18:28 EST news228723456 New software 'hearing dummies' are part of cutting-edge research that promises to revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of hearing impairments. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-software-dummies-pave-tailor-made-aids.html Other Mon, 13 Jun 2011 09:25:30 EST news227175917 Melbourne researchers have invented a small, smart, self-managed hearing aid that outperforms most conventional hearing aids for less than half the price. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-aid.html Health Tue, 17 May 2011 10:06:24 EST news224845552 Engineers investigating "listener fatigue"-- the discomfort and pain some people experience while using in-ear headphones, hearing aids, and other devices that seal the ear canal from external sound -- have found not only what they believe is the cause, but also a potential solution. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-device-roots-dangers-personal-devices.html Medical research Fri, 13 May 2011 03:52:02 EST news224477500 Lowering the cost of hearing aids isn't enough to motivate adults with mild hearing loss to purchase a device at a younger age or before their hearing worsens, according to researchers at Henry Ford Hospital. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-lowering-doesnt-aid.html Health Tue, 10 May 2011 12:03:02 EST news224247762 (Medical Xpress) -- People with hearing problems living in the developing world may have a solution on the horizon, thanks to an innovative University of Alberta professor in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-app.html Other Mon, 02 May 2011 11:21:27 EST news223554057