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Woman with hearing aid outrunning her husband on the track.

Hearing aids, as with lots of other devices, are getting smarter, more inconspicuous and more stylish all the time, and just in time. The average American is older, reports The Us Census Department, as the whole population gets older, and loss of hearing is, sadly, extremely common, particularly in older adults. Roughly 37.5 million American adults say they have some amount of hearing loss, and these numbers are climbing.

Fortunately hearing technology has had some exciting advancements recently that will offer more solutions for treating loss of hearing. Here are just a few of the developments that are now available.

Hearing Aids That Keep Track of Your Overall Health

Hearing aids are as good if not better than a fitness tracker at tracking several vital signs. Not only can it track step count, how many calories were burned, the total number of steps you took and heart rate, it also checks the time between heartbeats to help detect any cardiovascular concerns. They are even developing technology that can determine blood pressure, oxygenation of the blood and other relevant vital signs. There are other possible benefits that come with hearing aids, including the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will help your overall hearing so that your social life will get better as well. Actually, social engagement is another metric we should pay attention to because it has been linked to your overall health. Since hearing aids can now also sync with your smartphone so you can listen to your tunes, who needs a smartwatch or fitness device?

Streaming Made Easier And More Intelligent

Being connected to your virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa is getting to be more important as people get more attached to these features. Even if talking to these assistants is not your thing, hearing aids that have Bluetooth offer key advantages including streaming music directly from a smart device like your phone or even streaming directly from a smart TV. Just think of the benefits: You can avoid getting yelled at for having the Volume too high while watching this year’s Super Bowl in a room full of loud friends. You will be capable of managing your loss of hearing more inconspicuously and also appreciate your shows, phone calls, and music more by hearing them directly in your ears.

Automatic Adjustments

Have you noticed that you get ads from Goodreads and they seem to already know what kind of books you like to read? Or how Amazon seems to know which items to suggest? This is the power of artificial intelligence and big data. Modern hearing aids can also make adjustments automatically based on your responses in the past. It will notice how you prefer to turn down the volume when you enter the train station and do that automatically the next time it recognizes you’ve entered the station (or any other circumstance with to much background noise). They are expanding this technology to include crowdsourcing as well, allowing information from other people to notify your hearing aids that you’re entering a loud zone. Over time you will be able to adjust quickly to variations in the hearing environment because your hearing aid will make suggestions based on all the information it has gathered.

No More Little Batteries to Replace.

Who wants to constantly struggle with hearing aid batteries? You can now get rechargeable hearing aids. Even though you can do a lot to help increase the life of your hearing aids’ batteries, let’s face it…it’s still pricey and irritating. Even better, technology to recharge your hearing aids while they are still in your ears is being developed.

The site information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. To receive personalized advice or treatment, schedule an appointment.