By Mary Alice Murphy
Dr. Jonni McClure, Au.D, an audiologist with Mimbres Valley Medical Group, said she spent 21 years in Deming growing her practice and working with Dr. Twana Sparks. "Now I have joined the Mimbres Valley Medical Group."
"Hearing is important," McClure began. "It's important to me because it has provided me with a livelihood. Today I'm asking: 'How does hearing loss affect your business?'"
She said every business can be affected. "Our ability over other primates is that we can talk to each other. The ability to communicate affects our lives and that of others."
"When you hire an employee, you have to be able to hear what they have to say," McClure said. "If you're married, you got married because of what came out of your spouse's mouth. Politicians are elected based on what they say. Words express emotions, such as love or hate. Every day about 10,000 people turn 65 years old-for the next 19 years."
She said she recently attended an audiology conference, and a speaker asked: "How do you prepare for that?" Her answer was: "As an audiologist, you maintain a pulse, because the older people become the more trouble they have hearing. Some hearing loss is genetic, and some, especially for baby boomers, is because of their toys-motorcycles, ATVs, anything that makes a loud noise. They cause hearing damage. OSHA didn't come up with hearing protection guidelines until 1971. In the 1960s people had been working for years in loud jobs without hearing protection. Then the hearing protection was not enforced until they started fining organizations. Boomers went to loud concerts. Let's say you didn't go to loud concerts, you got good hearing genetics, you were a librarian, you will still have some hearing loss."
"I'm seeing younger and younger people with hearing loss," McClure said. "I saw a 17-year-old recently with hearing loss. If you take out hearing with noise, it doesn't come back. When a loud car goes by with boom a boom, I give them a thumbs up. I want to treat them later. Or I chase them with a business card."
She gave a brief overview of the very complicated hearing process. "Blah, blah, you hear talking, it turns into sound waves in different frequencies as it goes into the ear. It vibrates the eardrum and moves fluid in the cochlea, which releases a chain reaction sending electrical signals, which travel up the nerve to the brain. It's incredibly complicated. Now we wonder why it's so difficult to make people hear better? We are supposed to interpret those sounds as words or thoughts."
"Hearing loss is invisible," McClure said. "People will pay thousands of dollars for a hearing aid that doesn't show. When you see a person in a wheelchair, you know they can't walk, but you can't tell when a person can't hear well. What happens when you say something that a person misunderstands. You laugh or think they have a mental deficiency. We are not very sympathetic historically to a deaf person. For many years, they were thought to be retarded and put in institutions. Now they test every baby at birth. If you wear glasses, nobody cares. We do not appreciate aging in this country.
"What happens to you with hearing loss?" she continued. "Isolation is what happens. You think or say: 'Everybody mumbles.' The typical progression for hearing loss is seven years on average before a person admits it. At first, it's denial, but it continues to get worse, then the person gets mad, then 'Fine, I'll go see someone.'"
She said: "Let's create a fictional patient-Atticus Finch, a lawyer, a community action leader, a volunteer at church, a chamber member, a Little League coach. When he answers the phone, he can't really hear the person, so he starts getting his secretary to answer. During a game, he can't hear the umpire, so he gets an assistant and then finally quits coaching. He doesn't go to the Blue Festival, because it's just noise. He doesn't go to church anymore. He gets depressed, embarrassed, and isolated. It's very common."
"It's a huge economic impact," McClure said. "When he quits his job, he has a loss of income and resources, with no disposable income to go out to eat or travel. He's not working, not volunteering, not going to public events. It's a lack of mobility. He doesn't go anywhere without his wife. It brings increased health care needs. If you own a restaurant, they are gone. They don't need two cars anymore. It's a smaller world for the man. More and more it will affect everyone."
New research is showing that hearing loss leads to dementia. "I wasn't sure I believed it, but take your left arm and tie it behind your back," McClure said. "You're not using it anymore. It's seven years until you're aware and sometimes another five years, before you seek help. The brain no longer knows how to control that arm. In hearing, you haven't heard the difference between s and f, so your brain is not getting the full input. Keep the arm, the eyes, the ears engaged. It will keep them healthier."
"What can you do?" McClure asked. "The most important part is to train yourselves and your employees how to communicate with those with hearing loss. If you have a restaurant, have a quieter place for them. You don't have...to… talk …like… this. Speaking a bit slower and in a lower register helps. Don't let your voice get higher, because it's the higher frequencies that go first. If you talk more slowly, they are trying to fill in the sounds. If you had a customer in Walgreen's in a wheelchair ask where the aspirin was, you wouldn't say - on the top shelf. If an employee doesn't make someone comfortable, that customer won't be back."
She said trying to serve the community and employees better will be better for the economy.
"The ability to talk makes us human," McClure said. "Teach your employees to be more understanding of those with hearing loss. They want to be heard as much as you want to be heard."
Scott Terry, chamber director, noted: "If someone else is buying, I'll go to Wrangler's, but on my own, I won't because it's really loud in there. Can you do something about ringing ears?"
"If someone comes up with a treatment for tinnitus, ringing in the ears, it will be bigger than Viagra," McClure replied. "Tinnitus is not in the ear. It's in the brain. It's a lack of stimulation of frequencies in hearing loss. The experience is the same as a phantom pain in a limb that has been amputated. The brain doesn't like the lack of stimulation, so it makes something up."
An attendee said the Legislature had looked at reducing the cost of hearing aids.
"Get Medicare to pay for them," McClure said. "It's older people who most need them. If you sold only as many TVs as you sell hearing aids, how much would the TVs cost? Thousands. The more TVs you sell, the cheaper they are. I talked to a hearing aid manufacturer once. He said a new upgrade came in and they were charging $200 above the old price. I thought: 'You're killing me. How can I sell something that costs another $200?' If we come up with a new receiver and go to Texas Instruments and say: 'Hey, we've got a new receiver and we'd like you to make it for us.' They would say: 'Great. That's a million dollars. How many do you want? We can tool it for you. If you want one, it's a million dollars. If you want a million, it's $1 each, but still a million dollars.' The more hearing aids we can get out to the public, the cost will go down."
She said Bose has come up with HearPhones, that are controlled by a smartphone and cost $500 each. "They really work. You've heard of Bose, so you're likely to buy them. But there's a caveat. I spend an hour and a half per patient explaining how to put the hearing aid into the ear, how to replace the batteries. There are so many things I have to set up. Patients can't remember how to open the battery compartment, much less how to operate a cell phone. Maybe Boomers are more tech savvy and that's excellent. I'd love for all hearing aids to cost $500. But with the smartphone, how many channels will you have to fix? It's complicated."
A woman said she is very sensitive to loud noises like motorcycles. "I have no TV or internet because they are too loud. Does that go with hearing loss that I'm sensitive to sound?"
"With normal hearing, you can hear soft sounds and tolerate loud sounds," McClure said. "As you lose hearing, you can't hear the soft ones and cannot tolerate the loud noises. Now hearing aids have to fit this range of life. Aids track what you can hear."
A man said his grandson has always been sensitive to loud noises, like fireworks. "Is it a cause for concern?"
McClure said it may be "recruitment, an abnormal growth of loudness in the cochlea. Nothing can be done about it. He'll have to learn to live with it or wear earplugs."
"I've been telling younger patients who wear earphones all the time and are texting to get a paper route and start saving their money, because they are going to need hearing aids," McClure continued.
"Have you ever had a family member say she woke up this morning and couldn't hear out of one ear?" McClure asked. "That's sensory neural loss. It can be a serious condition that we have to see within 24 hours or it could become permanent."
Chamber Board President Derek Ratliff said the next chamber luncheon would take place April 5.
Tom Vaughan of FeVa Fotos announced the opening reception that afternoon for the Birds of the Southwest show at Bear Mountain Lodge, with the show to be up during March.
Dawn Starotska of Big Brothers, Big Sisters said the annual bowling fundraiser in Grant County the "Disco Bowl," was coming up. "Form a team. We would love the support."
Annette Toney of Girl Scouts of the Desert Southwest said 10 days left to get Girl Scout cookies and send some to the troops.
Bruce Ashburn of PNM said the company foundation is beginning its annual round of grants. "We will have five at $50,000; 10 at $25,000; and 25 at $10,000. Any 501c3 non-profit is eligible. The only thing I can guarantee is if you don't apply, you won't get a grant. Find out more at PNM.com."
Terry said a ribbon cutting would take place April 25 at the new electric vehicle charging station at the Visitor Center.
Ratliff invited anyone interested in the chamber to talk to him or any of the board members, who stood and were recognized.