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3 Celebrities and Their Hearing Loss Stories
If you are dealing with hearing loss, you are in company with people of every age across the world, including many celebrities. Since a common phenomenon is that those with hearing loss don’t seek the help of an audiologist, it may help to know what a common issue hearing loss is. Age is one of a multitude of reasons people suffer hearing loss, and not wanting to look old is a top reason help isn’t sought.
Another is the mistaken belief that current hearing devices are more awful than they are awesome. The following celebrity stories may help to put these hearing aid stigmas in their places.
Daymond John
Daymond John is famous for his clothing line FUBU and for his role as a star of Shark Tank. He has also authored several bestselling books. What many people don’t realize is that he wears hearing aids. He needed them for a long while before he got them. He was invited to an event at the Starkey Hearing Foundation, where everyone was asked to try on high-tech hearing devices. John discovered that the hearing loss he suffered, probably due to music that was too loud, was more serious than he realized. He swears by Halo 2 hearing devices, which are pretty amazing. You can interact with controls of the device through an Apple iPhone. The discreet hearing aids plus control via the iPhone changed his life, he openly shares.
Leslie Nielsen
Beloved actor and funny man Leslie Nielsen was an advocate for hearing aid technology before he died in late 2010. He invested quite a bit of his time to raising awareness about how hearing aids help to improve life for people who have suffered hearing loss. Nielsen stressed health effects resulting from loss of hearing. For instance, even with mild hearing loss, people can be twice as likely to develop dementia. There is an accelerated rate of cognitive decline at 30% to 40% among those who have lost some of their ability to hear.
Jane Lynch
When popular actress Jane Lynch was 7 years old, it was discovered that she had gone deaf in her right hear. It’s believed that her impairment was caused by a high fever during her infancy. The story of how she found out about her hearing loss is an easy segue leading to teaching about protecting the hearing function. Lynch had been listening to a transistor radio through earbuds when she found out her right ear was deaf. The use of headphones and earbuds can cause permanent hearing loss. A 60/60 rule can protect you from hearing loss: Listen to devices at 60% volume for no more than 60 minutes at a time.
These are just a few of many stories about celebrities who’ve suffered hearing loss. Their stories remind us that loss of hearing happens at all ages and for a wide range of reasons. A particularly important lesson is that modern hearing aid devices are far superior to aids of the past.
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