Less than a third of people in the UK who could benefit from wearing a hearing aid actually use one, with people waiting an average of 10 years before getting help for hearing loss. Although the efficiency of our ears does naturally decrease as we get older, keeping track of our hearing and seeking any necessary healthcare is an important part of looking after our long-term cognitive health.
At eargym, we are taking an innovative new approach to helping you maintain your hearing by developing a selection of diverse auditory training games designed to and target and train the 5 key hearing skills as identified by the World Health Organisation.
Although auditory training is a relatively new idea when it comes to addressing both age-related and noise-induced hearing loss, the key concept to it is improving the brain’s capability to focus and adapt to your hearing ability by practising your hearing skills in realistic-sounding, and progressively challenging, conditions. The correlation between your brain and hearing skills is still being researched but brain scans have already shown that hearing loss may contribute to a faster rate of atrophy in the brain.
Maintain your hearing with hearing aids
Hearing aids are wonderful pieces of technology helping to improve millions of lives. Whilst they can’t cure hearing loss, they will make sounds clearer and louder; helping you identify everyday sounds, understand speech in noise, and make it easier to follow along to conversations.
One new app to try is HeardThat, which helps by turning your smartphone into a speech-enhancement device. Working to separate speech from noise, this app is designed to keep you connected and engaged in conversations.
If you think you could benefit from a hearing aid, or are having problems with your hearing, make an appointment with your GP. They will be able to refer you directly to a hearing specialist to carry out an assessment to see if you’re eligible for a hearing aid. Please bear in mind that unfortunately, the NHS isn’t able to provide hearing aids for everyone and they are expensive if you don’t qualify.
It’s completely normal to take a bit of time to adjust to your hearing aid. Once you have your hearing aid fitted you will then be booked in for a follow up appointment to see how they are going. But if you do have any trouble beforehand you can always speak to your audiologist who will be able to help you.
Our mission
At eargym, we want to raise awareness to helping people love their hearing for longer. It’s so easy to get caught up in our busy world and forget to stop and pay attention to the sounds we all love to hear. We encourage you to take the time to not only look after your hearing but also to truly enjoy it, whether that’s by listening to your favourite record, enjoying a conversation with friends and family, or exploring the beautiful sounds nature has to offer.
Hearing is a wonderful and powerful sense, help look after it so that you can enjoy it to its full potential.
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