The vital component of most of our programs at Comox Valley Senior Support Society are volunteers! While staff coordinate the pieces to make programs work, it is our incredible volunteers who venture into the community and provide the supports many of our clients depend upon. Volunteering at Comox Valley Senior Support can range from a weekly phone call or in person visit to grocery shopping or assisting seniors to fill out forms and find resources. Volunteers are provided with training and support and opportunities for ongoing education. As our volunteers retire, we need to replace them! If you have an interest in supporting seniors in your community, please contact the office at [email protected] or 250-871-5940 to find out more.

1. Make the most of your daily opportunities to socialize. 2. Practice a random act of kindness. It could be as small as smiling at someone else passing by – paying your happiness forward will not only brighten someone else’s day, but yours as well! 3. Find time to volunteer. Whether it’s participating in service clubs or joining a hobby group, you’ll find that there are many healthy benefits to volunteering. It can build self-esteem and confidence, and expand your network of social support.
4. Combine social interaction with an activity. It could be a physical activity like walking together or a fitness class, or it could be something like a book club or a play. Ask someone to try a brain-challenging game together. Enjoy yourself while you positively impact your brain health. 5. Maintain old friendships and make new ones. Stay social through work, volunteer activities, travel, hobbies, family and friends. Be open to new experiences – accept invitations and extend a few of your own. Keep up your old and new friendships through talking on the phone, chatting online via email or Facebook or even writing a letter.

1. Start where you can and set reasonable goals. If you feel you have little opportunity to exercise, start by adding a bit of physical activity into your daily routine.
2. Think of it as “activity”, not “exercise”. Choose activities and sports that you enjoy, and physical activity won’t seem like a chore or task to tick off. 3. Once you get going, aim for at least 1 ½ hours of moderate-to-vigourous physical activity per week. 4. Consider aerobic activities. Aerobic activities, such as walking, swimming, hiking and dancing, can help maintain general fitness.
5. Plan out your physical activity with someone you know. That way, you are more likely to keep active while you also gain the brain-healthy benefits of social interaction.

Hearing aids are able to help make tinnitus more manageable in a couple of ways. To find out if it can help you, it helps to know what tinnitus is, the specific way that you experience tinnitus and the techniques used by hearing aids to provide relief from tinnitus. Read on to find out more about how hearing aids are able to help manage tinnitus.

What is tinnitus?

Tinnitus is usually described as a ringing sound experienced in the ears, though the actual sound differs for different people, ranging from buzzing or whistling to clicking sounds. The noise does not go away entirely, though it does become more noticeable after hearing loud sounds. If the symptoms continue for over three months, it is known as chronic tinnitus.

Tinnitus is not a medical condition itself. Instead, it is a symptom of another condition, though the specific causes of tinnitus are not well-known. The leading causes of tinnitus are related to age and extended exposure to loud sounds. Hearing loss from damaged hair cells in the cochlea, which is involved in hearing as part of the inner ear, is a common cause of tinnitus.

Since hearing loss reduces the amount of external sounds that can reach your brain, it changes the way that your brain processes sound frequencies. As a result, to compensate for the insufficient external sounds, the brain overcompensates and interprets sounds internally.

The sounds from tinnitus can be annoying and can make communication difficult. If you believe that you have tinnitus, it would be best to visit a hearing health professional to have an evaluation and discuss possible
treatments.

Can a hearing aid stop tinnitus?

Currently, tinnitus cannot be completely cured, but in many cases, hearing aids can make the symptoms of tinnitus less severe. Though hearing aids cannot stop tinnitus entirely, they can still help with daily functioning.

One way that hearing aids can help with tinnitus is that they can enhance external sounds so that the inner sounds from tinnitus are not as noticeable. As this would improve your ability to hear external sounds and distract you from the inner sounds, it makes communication possible.

Another way that hearing aids can provide tinnitus relief is tinnitus masking, which is the use of white noise to hide the sounds of tinnitus. As the tinnitus sound cannot be distinguished amongst the white noise, your brain is able to focus on external sounds.

An increasing number of hearing aids have tinnitus masking nowadays. Tinnitus masking is built in as a feature in some hearing aids or exists as a function that can be programmed in other hearing aids. A hearing care professional will be able to help program your hearing aid to best suit your individual needs.

How can I use hearing aids to effectively manage tinnitus?

To get the most benefit from using hearing aids for tinnitus relief, it’s best if you are able to wear the hearing aid as often as possible. If hearing aids are used often enough, it trains your brain to focus on the external sounds and treat tinnitus sounds as not important. This process is known as habituation.

By using your hearing aid often, it also helps you preserve your ability to perceive external sounds. Hearing external sounds provides stimulation to keep your auditory system active, which prevents atrophy in your auditory nerves. As a result, you will be better able to maintain your ability to process language.

Are hearing aids able to help everybody with tinnitus?

As tinnitus is a symptom resulting from a wide range of conditions, hearing aids are not able to provide relief in all cases. Hearing aids are most successful in tinnitus masking for those with hearing loss.

Even if you experience hearing loss, hearing aids are less effective for higher frequencies of tinnitus. If your tinnitus has more of a hissing or buzzing sound or has a pitch above 6 kHz, which can be determined by an audiologist, hearing aids are less likely to provide relief for your tinnitus.

Who is most likely to benefit from using a hearing aid for tinnitus?

Hearing aids are most helpful for younger individuals who experience tinnitus as a result of hearing loss. The use of hearing aids is also more effective for people who have not had tinnitus for a long time as their auditory system has not become accustomed to the reduced external stimulation.

Even if you do not fall into the groups of people who benefit the most from hearing aids for managing tinnitus, the use of hearing aids are still often worth a try. If you use the hearing aid consistently every day over a longer period of time, the relief from your tinnitus will be easier to detect.

To get the most impact from the use of hearing aids for tinnitus, visiting a hearing professional would help. Not only would they be able to determine the pitch or intensity of your tinnitus, but they could also help you select and program a hearing aid that best meets your needs.

For the expert services of an audiologist or hearing professional to determine if they can help you manage your tinnitus, the team at NexGen Hearing is here to support you.

Sources

https://www.healthline.com/health/hearing-aid-for-tinnitus

https://www.ata.org/managing-your-tinnitus/treatment-options/hearing-aids

https://canadianaudiologist.ca/tackling-tinnitus-the-time-is-now/

As we age, we are often at a higher risk for vision problems. While some age-related vision changes can be inevitable, others may be prevented or delayed by eating a nutritious diet. Foods that may help protect eye health as we age include: 1) Berries, currants and grapes – contain anthocyanins, a powerful antioxidant. 2) Orange and red fruits and veggies – contain beta-carotene. 3) Fatty fish, nuts/seeds and plant oils – contain omega-3 fatty acids. 4) Citrus fruits, strawberries and red peppers – contain vitamin C. 5) Leafy greens, squash, eggs, kiwi and grapes – contain the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin.

Nutrition plays a major role in dental health, helping to ensure gums, teeth and tissue are healthy and free from tooth decay, gum disease and other issues. It’s important to eat a healthy, balanced diet for dental health, which includes enough protein, calcium, iron, zinc, phosphorus, folate, and omega-3 fats. Vitamins A, B, C, and D are also important, as are antioxidants. Some great things to include in your dental diet are probiotics from fermented foods, cranberries, soy products, CoQ10, echinacea, garlic, ginger, ginseng, arginine, and green tea. It’s best to avoid heavily processed foods, especially ones high in sugar.