May is Better Hearing and Speech Month

The month of May is designated as Better Hearing and Speech Month in North America.
Hearing loss is the third most common chronic condition in older adults, and the most widespread disability. Statistics Canada* estimates that 54% of Canadians aged 40 to 79 years
(over eight million) have at least mild hearing loss in the high-frequency range. And 53% of adult Canadian men and 46% of women have some hearing loss.
Patients with moderate to severe hearing loss are three to five times more likely to suffer dementia, and patients with untreated hearing loss experience a 30-40% faster decline in their cognitive abilities.
Social and health consequences associated with diminished hearing include embarrassment, fatigue, anxiety, depression, social isolation, falls, cognitive decline and even dementia – overall, a reduced quality of life. The challenges and consequences associated with hearing loss can also extend beyond the afflicted individual to their family members.
Some common but underappreciated signs of age-related high frequency hearing loss are:
 Difficulty hearing conversations well in noisy or crowded rooms
 Other people seeming to mumble or speak too softly
 Having to often ask people to repeat themselves
 Difficulty understanding a person talking from another room or floor at home
 Finding oneself having to lip-read to understand conversation
 Having to turn up the volume of the TV or radio
Hearing loss tends to happen gradually as we age – sometimes so slowly that the person with hearing loss may not even realize how much they are missing. Often, it’s family members who first to notice the signs and communication challenges on the rest of the family.
The first step to treating hearing loss is a hearing test. If you recognize any of the above signs of possible hearing loss, and would like to book a free hearing test for yourself or a loved one,
please call us at 905-681-HEAR (4327), or email us at [email protected].

Sunday, May 12 is also Mother’s Day in Canada. Hearing Well Matters is offering complimentary hearing tests and special discounts to mothers and grandmothers through the month of May.
Getting them to have a free hearing test could be a very thoughtful Mother’s Day gift for your wife, mother or grandmother!

* Statistics Canada Health Reports, August 2019, Ramage-Morin L., Banks R., Pineault D., Atrach M.,
https://www.doi.org/10.25318/82-003-x201900800002-eng