Zounds Hearing designs, manufactures and retails high-performance hearing aids for use with mild, moderate, severe and profound hearing impairments. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, the company’s technology enables breakthroughs in product, performance, selection and value. Zounds utilizes internally developed research and 57 exclusive patents. For more information, please visit www.zoundsnyc.com.

Contact:     Robyn Barsky,

May 2014: National Better Hearing Month – Celebrating Hearing Loss Prevention

This May we celebrate National Better Hearing Month! Focusing on how to better care for our hearing is important, as it is easy to take it for granted…until we lose it. Zounds Hearing is passionate about educating the public on hearing loss, its causes, and how to prevent it. We are also pleased to serve as a hearing health resource within our community.

Hearing loss prevention begins with understanding the causes of hearing loss. New studies have shown that hearing loss is not just a factor of age, but of noise exposure. While we can’t stop the clock on aging, we can control the level of noise in our environment. According to The Hearing Health Foundation, we experience loud sounds in our everyday life that normally do not adversely affect our hearing. However, when we are exposed to harmful noise, sounds that are too loud or loud sounds that last a long time, sensitive structures in our inner ear can be damaged, causing noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). These sensitive structures, called hair cells, are small sensory cells in the inner ear that convert sound energy into electrical signals that travel to the brain. Once damaged, our hair cells cannot grow back and hearing loss is inevitable. “It’s not unusual for many people to be unaware of their hearing loss,” said Robyn Barsky, Zounds Hearing New York. “Turning up the volume on their conversations, TV or radio is their most common response to it. However, increasing the volume can further damage healthy hair cells which only exacerbates the problem.”

Music Induced Hearing Loss (MIHL) is a prime example of prolonged exposure to loud sound. Our youth and young adults spend hours listening to loud music with earplugs, and many are unaware of the damage done to their hearing as a result. Sam Thomasson, Founder and CEO of Zounds Hearing, Inc., is concerned about the increase of hearing loss in our youth. “The average age of hearing aid wearers is decreasing rapidly, partially due to listening to loud music with earplugs,” said Thomasson. “The rule of thumb is, if you are standing next to a person wearing earplugs and can hear the music they’re listening to, it’s too loud. For their sake, ask those you care about to turn it down.” Exposure to sounds between ninety and one hundred decibels for prolonged periods of time has been shown to cause hearing loss.

Noise pollution has become a hazard to hearing health, and in order to combat it and the eventual effects of continued exposure to it, we need to educate ourselves and change our lifestyles. Every day, we experience sound in our environment, sounds that we don’t associate with potential hearing loss. We get used to tolerating loud television and radio, household appliances, construction and traffic noise, but do we protect ourselves from it?

Combating the early onset of hearing loss is possible through proper education, caution, and prudent use of protective gear. The fact is, Noise Induced Hearing Loss can easily be prevented by reducing volume levels and using protective headphones or earplugs regularly. While some will avoid using ear safety products due to discomfort and embarrassment, these concerns are far outweighed by the possibility of hearing loss in the long term. Comfortable, convenient products are widely available on the market.

For those who do suffer from hearing loss, one matter of concern is that denial can overshadow the need for a proper hearing test. Since most hearing loss occurs over an extended period of time, we naturally compensate for it and may not realize that we have incurred a significant loss. This is why we wait on average 5-7 years to seek needed professional help. Perhaps someone who cares about you have suggested that you might have a hearing loss and need to have your hearing tested? Or you sometimes feel irritation that others around you seem to mumble, making conversations difficult? A hearing evaluation will help determine if you have a hearing loss, or if there is another underlying cause, such as occlusion (excessive wax in the canal) or a medical condition in need of attention.

Zounds Hearing is pleased to offer complimentary hearing tests to individuals concerned about their hearing. For further information on how to prevent hearing loss, or to schedule a free hearing exam, call our hearing center at (212) 879-2329 or visit our website at www.zoundsnyc.com

National Better Hearing Month is dedicated to bringing timely developments, new research and studies to better assist and advise the public on good hearing health.

Zounds Hearing Opens 100^th Store