A seated Tai Chi practice can have both physical and emotional health benefits.
Interview with Ralph Somack, PhD — Tai Chi Instructor
Tai Chi instructor, Ralph Somack, has taught tai chi to seniors, people with dementia, stroke survivors, people using wheelchairs and this week begins to teach a seated tai class to people who are blind or visually impaired. Somack, an octogenarian, continues to take on new challenges of modifying tai practices such as qigong, bagua, and Xing Yi for those who want to alleviate stress. In addition, Somack has seen his students benefit from increased self-esteem, ambidexterity, an Increased awareness of themselves as well as others, and a sense of where they are in time and space. To register for Somack’s online classes sponsored by BORP, visit this webpage for the Tuesday 10 am Pacific Seated Tai Chi class or here for the new Tai Chi class for Blind and Visually Impaired Participants on Wednesdaya at 10:30 am Pacific. You can watch videos of Somack’s classes. Here is an earlier Glass Half Full podcast episode about qigong and a short video about qigong.
An episode to catch everyone up on what’s been going on in the life of someone in their early 60s with a progressive health condition. Waning energy prohibits many of us from reaching all of the goals we’d like to achieve. It takes time to acclimate to a new normal and reassess which goals are most important and how best to achieve them dealing with new limitations. Foremost for someone with myotonic dystrophy, like myself, is getting enough sleep so I have energy to maintain a regular movement practice even with shifting mobility.
The annual May Movement Challenge I’ve produced for the last three years will change. To stay current, join the Movement Challenge Facebook group. If you live near the north coast of California, or plan to visit, check out a new local program – Leslie’s Accessible Walks.
I don’t know who coined the term movement is medicine, but it resonates for me. My early experiences with exercise were not joyful; grade school physical education was bad medicine. But once I started dancing with friends in high school – before carding and ID checks were mandatory – I experienced movement in a positive way. Shortly after college I started a yoga practice which was medicine for my body and mind.
In this podcast episode I tell my story of what led up to the 2021 launch of the May Movement Challenge — a month of free online movement classes that are meant to be accessible and adaptive for anyone and everyone.
You’ll also hear from Natalie Graniela – one of the several movement instructors participating in the annual May Movement Challenge. Natalie talks about her gyrokinesis movement practice and working with seniors as well as people with different bodies and abilities.
If you don’t know my story, the short version is that I discovered, I have a rare genetic condition called myotonic dystrophy when I was 36 years old. Discovered because my family – on my mother’s side – didn’t realize that the reason several of the 9 offspring of Albert and Victoria Tarallo died from sudden heart failure in their 50s was due to a condition originally called Steinert’s disease – after some German scientist who identified the genetics – and at some point was inaccurately re-named myotonic dystrophy because of the what most of us consider to be one of the minor symptoms of a multi-systemic disorder. The more major symptoms are debilitating weakness and fatigue which eventually progresses to respiratory problems, heart electrical problems, GI problems, and the use of mobility devices.
Right now, there is no treatment for the overall condition but there’s the use of a plethora of drugs to treat some of the symptoms. I’ve chosen to limit my pharmaceutical intake and have for much of the last 25 years relied on lifestyle choices – things that are within my control – to mitigate my symptoms. Those lifestyle choices include my diet, my exercise, and my attitude.
Just for the record, I use a nebulizer daily with albuterol to help my respiratory system. But that’s it for western modalities of medicine.
My early experiences with EXERCISE, were not joyful. Physical education in elementary school was torture. I grew up in South Florida where I never quite acclimated to the subtropical climate. The PE Teacher – Mr. Stockweather – may have been a Marine although he did drive a mustard-colored VW van so maybe he had a little hippy dippy in him. Everything seemed very competitive, and I was often one of the last kids chosen to be on a team. I was chubby until 4th grade when I went on a self-imposed diet of cottage cheese and yogurt and gave up my love for Chips Ahoy.
We had Mr. Stockweather from 1st to 6th grade. There were lots of running around a track field, box ball, volleyball, climbing ropes, high jump, long jump, and other modified Olympics events but I don’t think the potato sack racing originated in ancient Greece. The only PE class I enjoyed was the square dancing…and even Mr. Stockweather seemed to enjoy it with his straw hat making the calls…dotsey doe and swing that girl around…
PE classes didn’t improve in middle school with the horrific gym clothes requirement of a white polyester one-piece jumper and having to undress in a crowded locker room. I grew hip to the trick of saying I was having a bad period that lasted for days just to avoid the misery of being out in the hot sun playing softball. None of it was joyful.
Coming out as gay in high school was hard but the silver lining was getting into discos in the 70s and dancing with friends. Oh my God…it was fun. No one cared how you danced, and it was so good to move to fun music and feel joy. I continued a steady diet of dancing with friends in college and shortly after I graduated, I was introduced to yoga.
I was maybe 23 years old and took a yoga class at night at a local school. I wasn’t immediately captured but over the years I kept returning to different yoga classes and eventually yoga workshops and conferences. Maybe 15 or so years ago I was in a longitudinal research study at the U of Rochester Neurology department and the Physical Therapist was impressed that my range of movement was remaining steady during my visits over the four years. it was due to my yoga practice. I started telling…anyone who would listen…that yoga was my main treatment modality. Up until COVID, yoga and walking were my main forms of movement. I tried other types of movement too. I worked with a Pilates trainer for a few years, and I remember a tai chi class I tried for a few months but found the arm movement and balance a bit too challenging to derive much enjoyment.
Gradually my yoga practice had changed. It was challenging to go from a standing pose to reclining on the mat. One teacher made a practice of bringing a chair into the studio for me to use. I wasn’t necessarily embarrassed, but I was starting to realize that even gentle yoga classes were no longer appropriate for me.
In 2017 I attended my first Accessible Yoga conference and then another one the following year. And then in early 2019, much to my surprise, I took the Accessible Yoga Teacher Training and was delighted to learn all types of modifications for most of the yoga poses I had been able to do earlier in my life. several of the class participants also had some type of health condition that precluded them from regular yoga classes.
At the time COVID hit I was attending 2 or 3 in-person movement classes each week. I loved these for the physical and emotional benefits as well as for the sense of community they provided for me. Not having access to them was devastating to me because I knew my physical and emotional homeostasis depended on these movement practices.
I can’t recall which came first but the organization BORP – Bay Area Outreach for Recreational Programs – jumped to the internet with classes like Rumba with Tinaor Strength Training with Raye Kahn. Through other class participants I was introduced to Dance for all bodies and the Wheelchair Dancers Organization – all three organizations providing accessible and adaptive online movement classes taught by differently-abled instructors. It was incredible and made COVID bearable.
One of my annual traditions had been attending the Abilities Expo in Northern California – which is a national event showcasing vendors and resources of interest to the disability community. I saw that they were going virtual, so I pitched the idea of a presentation about my exercise journey. You can view that presentation. The Expo organizers told me the recorded presentation was well-received and viewed by many. From that experience was the genesis for the May Movement Challenge in 2021.
What is the May Movement Challenge, you ask? It’s a month of free online movement classes that are meant to be accessible and adaptive for anyone and everyone. Many of the instructors are familiar with teaching students with varying levels of abilities while some are new to our community.
I have a few goals with this project – (1) introduce fun movement practices to people who might not otherwise know about adaptive exercise programs; (2) help instructors who are teaching online find a new audience; and (3) expose movement instructors to ways of providing modifications to their movement instructions so that others may benefit as well.
I’ve been impressed with what organizations like BORP, WDO, and Dance for all bodies has done. I know there are other organizations like them but are they online, are they marketing to the larger community outside of their city, region, or country? With Zoom you can adjust the language in the scrolling captions and this feature has really improved through COVID. Although instructors will speak English – since it’s the only language I speak – their words can be simultaneously translated on the screen for any user. That is cool!
I forgot to mention…I intentionally use the word MOVEMENT rather than exercise. Maybe it’s semantics…but…I had a negative experience with exercise in my youth. Movement encompasses more than exercise. Working in your garden, using the vacuum in your home, folding the laundry…these are all types of movement…and they’re all good for you.
Early on in COVID I was introduced to a movement practice called Gyrokinesis. In an email from the Alameda Senior Center there was an announcement for a free gyrokinesis class. I registered, loved the class, and was surprised to find out the instructor, Natalie Graniela, lives in New York City. Who knew how long COVID would last and how the whole idea of online movement classes would continue? I’m grateful that the major scourge has dissipated but thrilled that online movement classes are here to stay. And I continue taking weekly gyrokinesis classes with Natalie.
Natalie participated in the first two May Movement Challenges and I recently met her in person for the second time. Natalie was a professional dancer with the Erich Hawkins Dance Company and is a trainer in gyrokinesis and gyrotonics. She also has years of experience teaching balance, postural therapy, and exercise workshops for the Arthritis Foundation, NYC dept for the Aging, and a variety of senior centers. Here is our conversation:
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
Are you ready to participate in this year’s May Movement Challenge? You can register as a participant, or fill out a form to be an instructor, at the website.
As a participant you’re registering to attend Saturday sessions. When the weekly class schedule is ready, you’ll receive it through email. Both the Saturday sessions and weekly classes are free; just register with your name and email address.
Movement classes will cover a wide range employing all types of exercise – flexibility, balance, strength, and endurance, or cardiovascular. Each class is 45-minutes long.
Saturday sessions are one hour and include an interactive presentation by a movement instructor on a specific topic, sharing of someone’s personal journey with movement and how it’s helped them physically or emotionally or both. And there will be a random drawing for a prize. In the past prizes have included tickets to online comedy shows, gift certificate with a movement trainer, and a food package from Daily Harvest. You must be present to win.
I hope you’ll spread the word about the May Movement Challenge, join our Facebook group, and move with us through the month of May.
When to stop driving a moving vehicle? That is the question to ponder; is it a toss up between being a responsible adult or maintaining a sense of independence? For many people, this is a difficult choice. If you live in an urban or suburban location you may have many options available if you give up driving. For others, a car may be a necessity — one needed to get to gainful employment, purchase groceries, or use to transport family members more disabled than yourself.
Podcast Host Preparing to Be Responsible and Less Independent
In this academic paper, physicians discuss health conditions that predispose patients for difficulties with tasks required for driving a car safely. People with Alzheimer dementia, epilepsy, visual impairments, sleep apnea syndrome, cardiac dysrhythmias, substance dependency, and neurological disorders with a cognitive component are at risk.
In this MDA Engage recorded webinar, the presenter shares this factoid — For every mile driven there are 20 decisions that need to be made and less than ½ second to react.
This podcast episode explores the decision-making process for podcast host, Leslie Krongold, as well as for guest, Keisha Greaves. Both chose to give up driving before a doctor told them to.
If you, or a loved one, are concerned about your current driving skills, take this online assessment to gauge whether or not you should explore driving options.
Each U.S. state has unique laws regarding senior and/or drivers with specific disabilities; check what your state has on the books.
If you’re a caregiver in search of advice for your loved one, check out this U.S. Dept of Transportation website.
Maybe you were part of last year’s inaugural May Movement Challenge? Here’s a video showing the highlights from a month-long array of free, accessible online movement classes.
This year we have several of the same movement instructors as well as new instructors — all offering their time and talents to help you get excited about a movement practice. Check out this webpage for class schedules and registration information.
New this year are Nature Sundays. In the Movement ChallengeFacebook Group you’ll be introduced to movement practice out in nature, such as Forest Therapy. If you’re on Facebook, just join the group for further details.
This month we have both Earth Day and Arbor Day so it’s high time to be amongst the trees. Even if you are hunkered down in the safety of your home during the pandemic, you can still derive healing benefits from gazing out of your window at nature’s bounty. If your window faces man-made materials, there is science proving that a photograph of trees can impact you in a positive physical and emotional way.
welcome to glass half full with leslie krongold she shares her stories experiences and knowledge of living and coping with a chronic health condition learn about tools and resources and hear inspirational interviews that help you to live a life filled with quality and dignity with two decades of support group leadership leslie’s ready to help you make lemonade out of life’s lemons are you ready are you ready yesterday was earth day and tomorrow is armor day did you realize that arbor day is a holiday when people are encouraged to plant trees it started in 1872 with a man named j sterling morton in nebraska when he proposed the tree planting holidays and i guess it took off my love of trees has grown over the last few years i had my first forest bathing experience i virtually met verla fortier who wrote a book about the healing benefits of trees i started practicing bhagwa meditation which involves walking around a tree and the past six weeks the trees around my neighborhood represent the greater world outside of my home on our daily walks i’ve grown to really love a few specific trees and i’m motivated to learn more about different types of trees last month human furla in the podcast episode coping with coronavirus trees yoga and essential oils today you learn more about her journey to wellness brother brother lives in canada and spent her professional career as a nurse i asked her what led her to become a nurse probably started when my i was in high school my dad was diagnosed with ms and quite quickly moved from one cane to two canes to then a wheelchair and he was just such a lovely guy that i wanted to be around him and help him my mom taught me how to transfer him you know from the back uh you know things like that and uh you know i would get him up and then brace his knees against mine and push his knees back so he could stand up and then get him into the chair and then we’d laugh and i remember him just swallowing taking some time and then saying you know you did a great job there good for you and then giving me a big smile and that that was so nice and that happened so often whenever i helped him with anything and uh was such a positive sort of it was a natural for me to go into nursing and my mom was the same way so there was three of us girls the whole family we all we all did very well with with his ms and with and we were happy to have him um like a little hot shot i started out in the hospitals and the technical side of things in intensive care and all that and then quite soon became well i went over to india and found out that healthcare was more about you know public health and shelter and food and water so when i came i was much more interested in primary care so i don’t know how things are set up but in canada the government pays for the health care so all the money goes to hospitals and then they’re very well funded and then the rest of it goes to uh doctor’s offices so my interest was in getting more of that money and resources back into the community where we all are and sort of enriching that brother moved up the corporate ladder in her career and also taught at a university i asked her when her health took a downward turn to tell you the truth i was not really aware of how i was feeling uh for a very very very long time i i remember that we were this happy little family um you know this nuclear family mom dad and two little boys in large home in suburbia and then one day my ex-husband walked out the door and i had two little kids and i knew that i needed to keep them in their home and in their community so i walked over next door to the university and picked up a an additional full-time position there so i was i loved it i mean i loved i loved all the work and looking after the kids but i was just looking after everybody else’s needs for 10 or 15 years i think and if i had symptoms i just only just i didn’t do anything but work and look after the kids and sleep and it really wasn’t until they were university age that i just felt profoundly tired and i just thought you know i was 63 i thought i’m just aging and i found it difficult to walk but i always had but when i went to the gym that worked that you know that helped and um but i had i was i wasn’t able i was 63 so i really wasn’t able to do my work anymore at the university i just felt too tired and so i thought i think i’ll just go home to my to my town so i retired early and i thought oh i just can’t wait to get there you know i was thinking of all these uh things i would do swim in the lake and lie in the warm white sand and walk in the woods and you know i was really looking forward to it um yeah and then then that’s when i got my uh diagnosis i was diagnosed with uh systemic lupus and on the my blood work showed that i was on the you know the serious side of that and and when i saw my doctor i was just going in for a routine i had this rash on my face and uh but then she long time and she kept finding more rashes that i’d ignored and then she found big bald patches that i’d been covering up and ignoring too on the top of my head and then she asked me how was my joints and nerve pain and i guess yes i had that and and then she reached for my hands and she said we’ll do biopsy blood work but we’re looking at systemic lupus and um and she said and stay out of the sun because that could symptoms so at that moment i was just um i felt like all my dreams were of retirement were shattered right yeah so i but go home yeah i did go home and then i stayed inside was diagnosed with systemic lupus and on the my blood work showed that i was on the um you know the serious side of that and and when i saw my doctor i was just going in for a routine i had this rash on my face and but then she long time and she kept finding more rashes that i’d ignored and then she found big bald patches that i’d been covering up and ignoring too on the top of my head and then she asked me how was my joints and nerve pain and i guess yes i had that and and then she reached for my hands and she said we’ll do biopsy blood work but we’re looking at systemic lupus and um and she said and stay out of the sun because that could symptoms so at that moment i was just um i felt like all my dreams were of retirement were shattered right yeah so i but go home yeah i did go home and then i stayed inside having read verla’s book i knew there was a happy ending i asked her how she came around to taking a chance and not following the doctor’s orders what convinced her that the outdoors had something healing to offer her remember the day leslie i was just lying in bed scrolling through i joined every online lupus support group i could and i was i’m so used to leading them that i wasn’t even used to being so i didn’t even comment or anything i just scrolled and uh people were talking this one day about how we were all inside feeling like vampires and we had to avoid the sun because they do tell lupus patients that and uh then there was this one healthy looking person pretty healthy who had lupus and she said ongoing outside so far so good i put on my hat and sunscreen and and i thought what and by this time i really didn’t care anymore i thought i don’t even care if i get it you know if i damage my dna or whatever it is i’m going to go so i just was angry it was high noon i grabbed my hat and slapped on a bit of sunscreen and headed out i didn’t care and
i was walking for about five minutes and i started to just feel this relief you know i tell the kids it was like a in the pac-man game where you die and you get a new life i was just like powered up powered up and i i mean it just didn’t even feel real and i thought what first of all i didn’t want to go in again and then when i finally got in i remembered i had a bunch of nursing research skills and what anything in the universities that’s peer-reviewed on on trees or whatever so that’s when i started doing that and i kept going out regularly and then i just devoured the research the first piece of research i came upon was gregory bratman at stanford university and they were defining their terms and they were saying we’re going to look at this particular kind of thinking and it’s this thing called negative rumination and it’s the kind of thinking that goes what if um what if i didn’t get this disease if only there weren’t an epidemic why is my body breaking down why is this pandemic happening why do i have to be inside those kinds of questions and a parent regular kind of thinking that’s just the brain going haywire and they were tracking this and they said they wanted to know what happened if you go outside so they got a group and they put them in built um settings along a city street with just you know traffic and cement and then they put another group outside in around grass trees and shrubs in an urban environment and they found the people that were in the grass trees and shrubs just looking out on the san francisco bay area that they they had they did not have that broken record thinking it did not go to that part of the brain that i call the heartbreak hotel part of the brain it just did not happen whereas the people that were outside in the city streets that broken record thinking which we all have to some extent right it what i liked as a nurse is that they measured that part of the the brain they measured the blood flow that went there and when that blood flow goes there that’s when the thinking is activated but it didn’t so that that i loved and then those same researchers took it further and they said if this is happening within their that when we go outside we pay attention differently we softly focus on all kinds of things our eyes wander and that gives us our brain a break and when it’s getting a break it’s it’s resting and that’s what we need so that we don’t get that cognitive decline if we’ve got that that those thoughts circling around in our heads all the time the brain gets no rest and that leads to loss of shortened long-term memory loss of ability to concentrate loss of ability to problem solve and i think we all know this like when we’re worried about stuff we forget you know we we’re not paying attention we and just by going outside this don’t have to meditate or anything this just happens and so what they showed in the restoration theory it’s a real thing and when we go outside our brain rests revives and it improves our short and long term memory our ability to concentrate problem solve and learn new things and so that to me was huge because i was worried about dementia my mom had it um and it’s that kind of thinking where you look back and you feel embarrassed and this was a gift a gift i encourage you to read brother’s book which you’ll find the link to on the glass half full webpage she did a lot more research about the healing benefits of trees and green space earlier this year i signed up for a class offered at our local parks and recreation center called bodhi meditation i’ve never heard of this type of meditation but it sounded intriguing the practice essentially includes a circular walking around a pine tree alternating hand gestures and then there’s a seated guided meditation it was both energizing and relaxing unfortunately the class stopped meeting in early march due to the coronavirus i contacted the instructor catherine chen to ask her a few questions the version of this meditation that catherine teaches is named bodhi meditation because the leader of the organization is called grand master jin modi yet the practice is called energy Bagua
actually Bagua is they all starting from Tao dal permited energy Bagua so and then chibagua and the regular bagua the same however and there’s some development they am differently for example energy Bagua has been benefit a lot of people to improve their health physical health and mental health in many ways around the world but a lot of a lot of different practices is aiming different because some people learning other practice they have a different goal for us our mission is to impart this body meditation technique and to help others to eventually improve their health and improve their happiness and so what is the role of trees in the practice of uh you know an energy bang or practice
when we practice energy Bagua it’s actually is the philosophy of Tao with the young you know is the energy that of energy in our life and it’s also not the energy itself only it’s also the compassion the compassion towards yourself compassion towards others so when you practice energy Bagua is that you are actually a practice that with the nature you are kind of connect with the future and then you uh through the practice that kind of create a peaceful and very calm mind and that would benefit yourself physically at the same time and so when we did it in class because the weather wasn’t good you would always bring a potted tree what was your intention have you ever done it without a tree indoors or do you always you know bring some sort of potted tree inside we can see if two different two different aspects for example whenever we whenever we go to the nature when ever we go outdoor we see screen we see is the tree we see the flower the ocean the mountain that make people feel energetic feel good and and that kind of atmosphere and also the element of the future the nature is help us so when we doing energy Bagua we are feeling that we are join the nature and we also have the sense of connection with the nature and we do have the uh the people in occasion for example they travel to other country they of course couldn’t have a good tree that they choose to practice so a lot of them might be able to just do a few gestures in the hotel room but in the way they practice with the guided meditation and then guided the the way like when when i was practicing with you guys yeah that possible occasion that people don’t have a tree but they can still practice it’s first of all is the the matter of the mind and the nature and how you practice because meditation energy Bagua is seen as walking meditation is a state of meditation so when you’re practicing it if you don’t have a tree uh you have another way to practice but have a tree is preferable i would put that way well it was it was definitely a nice addition to learn more about bodhi meditation there is a link to a youtube video on the glassful website and i’ve also listed a few smartphone apps related to trees many of which Verla mentions in her book although many of us are still staying home and taking all necessary health precautions we still may have the opportunity to walk in green space around our neighborhoods of course this may not be possible for everyone if you live in an apartment building maybe you want to avoid elevators and being around people but there are studies that just looking outside your window at nature or even a photograph of nature can have a dramatic impact on your physical and mental well-being i invite you to be more intentional to make the time for this thank you for listening to glass half full leslie invites you to leave a rating and review on itunes this helps spread the word to others dealing with chronic health issues for show notes updates and more visit the website glass half full dot online glass half full dot online
Registered Nurse and proud septuagenarian, Barbara Blaser, was the guest speaker at my Northern California myotonic dystrophy support group. With her healthcare background and deep knowledge of medicinal herbs, she spoke about the use of herbal tinctures, edibles, and lotions to help relieve muscle pain, anxiety, insomnia, gastrointestinal problems, and more.
Barbara’s nursing career was predominantly in the mental health field. But at some point in her 60s she had an esophagectomy and due to complications, she developed septicemia. She turned to natural herbal healing to help her pain, anxiety, and GI problems.
For other podcast episodes about medicinal herbs (medical cannabis), check out DIY Cannabis and Medical Cannabis.
Handouts that Barbara provided at the support group meeting are culled from this website.
In 2018, a research study found that at least 36% of Americans were sleeping less than seven hours each night. Inadequate sleep can lead to a number of physical and/or emotional conditions. Some common sleep disorders include insomnia, restless leg syndrome, central or obstructive sleep apnea, and sleepwalking.
Have you perfected your sleep hygiene behaviors to achieve optimal rest and sleep each night? If not, perhaps you’ll want to hear what sleep specialist, Dr. Catherine Darley, has to say.
In addition to Dr. Darley’s advice, as well as the sleep hygiene tips I offer at the end of this podcast episode, check out this blog post on Brain & Life‘s website.
Transcript
welcome to glass half full with leslie krongold she shares her stories experiences and knowledge of living and coping with a chronic health condition learn about tools and resources and hear inspirational interviews that help you to live a life filled with quality and dignity with two decades of support group leadership leslie’s ready to help you make lemonade out of life’s lemons are you ready are you ready hello and happy new year to you happy new decade i was going to close out 2019 with this episode on sleep hoping you could use some of the tips during the frenzied holidays but i got to frenzied so now you can add this to your new year resolutions heck i’m always looking for new advice or research to help my sleep and rest routines i’ve been scrutinizing my sleep for a while now i’ve made changes to my daily rituals all with the intention of improving my night’s sleep i know sleep issues are common amongst my patient community amongst my friends pretty much across the western world there are many books about improving your sleep i’ve read many of them in the glass half full facebook group i did an informal poll asking people about their sleep there were four options do you have trouble falling asleep staying asleep waking up or is your sleep perfect the way it is well no one responded to the last option the majority of the respondents had trouble staying asleep and that’s usually my problem though here and there i have nights where i just can’t fall asleep at the end of this episode i’ll share some of my sleep hygiene tips with you everyone’s different so i don’t know if they’ll help you but i think i found a great guest for this episode her name is catherine darley dr darley is a naturopathic doctor and these types of doctors are guided by principles that include the healing power of nature they first try treatments that are of a lower force and have fewer side effects like behavioral or dietary treatments this happens before prescribing any pharmaceuticals and that philosophy certainly appeals to me i met dr darley at a day-long class she taught about sleep and mental health it was geared toward therapists counselors and nurses i was incognito she travels around the country teaching people about sleep research you can check out her website the link is in the podcast notes on the glass full website what is a sleep specialist so a sleep specialist is a physician who has not only the training of primary care but has also gotten specialized training in sweden as a student and there is actually an academy of sleep medicine which is part of the american academy of medicine and is it is it like a subset of neurology or is it just completely its own special it’s entirely recognized in its own right sleep medicine is actually a relatively new discipline of medicine compared to some others like cardiology or respiratory medicine the sleep annual sleep meeting has only been happening for about 27 years so it’s a relatively new discipline in light of some of the longer history of other disciplines yeah okay yeah it’s interesting i wonder if it’s a comment on society or where is our sleep has it just become progressively worse yeah i don’t know i think that you know it sleeps interesting to me in um you know in our social standing because even though we all sleep and we all must sleep it seems like it’s been an area that really hasn’t gotten much focus until the last 30 years or so and uh and that’s kind of surprising considering how essential and how basic it is but did we know how important it was you know more than 30 years ago did we just take it for granted i think it is taken for granted although there was certainly research being done since the 1940s if not earlier looking at sleep and one of the first when i first started getting interested in sleep was about 1991 in college and so i was doing literature reviews and reading research papers and at that point we knew that at least animals would die without sufficient sleep so i think that’s a pretty good indication of how essential it is and uh you know early 90s that’s a long time ago and the research i was reading at that point had been you know conducted in the 10 or 15 years prior to that so we’ve certainly known for a long time how essential it is so what did bring you into this field of expertise was it those you know that original that research that sort of lit a fire for you i have always found sleep very just personally interesting to me i’ve always been a pretty good sleeper and i’ve really my parents my household that i grew up in prioritized getting sleep and i’ve prioritized getting enough sleep and so i’m really very aware of what happens to my experience personally when i don’t get enough sleep and so that’s part probably of what motivated me i also when i was a kid i slept walked uh into the neighbor’s house when i was 12 which was a pretty um wow noteworthy experience and i think speak to my interest yeah so oh wait so did that run in your family or was that an anomaly or did you have an issue with sleepwalking my i don’t believe that sleepwalking ran in my family but i was a little bit of a sleepwalker that was the most extreme case or example of my sleepwalking but there were a few other times that i would sleepwalk and the last time was when i was in college about age 21. so how it ended abruptly i mean did you cause it to end abruptly by no i didn’t do any treatment it’s sleepwalking is something that people often outgrow it kind of peaks when people are around seven to twelve years old although certainly adults there can be adults who sleepwalk regularly but i’m not one of them okay that’s good because you you you spend time in a lot of hotels with the work you’re doing i’m sure that would be a little scary yes and for people who are regular sleepwalkers adults it can be distressing but it seems every magazine i pick up it doesn’t matter what kind of magazine there’s something about sleep and i’ve read you know a lot of books on sleep i attended your workshop i mean i’m just so intrigued about it but it seems like perhaps a lot of america is intrigued about it so i was wondering if you could tell me you know some of the statistics about sleep or or lack of sleep that contribute to poor physical sure i can and i want to comment on your your observation about many magazines now will have articles about sleep and that it’s something that’s really captured the interest a huge uptick in the amount of media interest and attention and public interest years ago so i think that’s a really positive sign for us improving our sleep on the other hand there’s some new research that evaluated americans sleep up to 2018 and found that 36 of americans are sleeping seven hours or is not enough sleep for adults most adults seven hours or less so that’s a increase in the percentage percentage of americans not getting adequate sleep and i think about it impacting five domains leslie i think i talked about this briefly in the course that you’ve got your physical health and and our quality of life and our kind of non-diagnosable symptoms to full-blown diagnosable anxiety depression as i think of our physical performance and mental performance so many people in america operate cars right which is a form of is absolutely impaired when you’re sleep deprived then there’s this cognitive performance things from simple memory all the way up to complex problem solving are going to be worse your performance will be worse in those areas if you’re not getting adequate sleep and then the fifth dome appropriately to them which can cause disharmony in your relationships and your social functioning basically i asked dr darley to tell me about other common sleep disorders especially insomnia we definitely want to be treating obstructive sleep apnea and there are other sleep breathing disorders is insomnia and we think this person’s uh insomnia is chronic if they’ve had it for more than three months which you know three months can speed by right and someone’s acute insomnia due to maybe a life event a good insomnia continues after that other categories would be movement disorders things like restless leg syndrome other categories are circadian rhythm disorders and this is a category that’s getting a lot more attention now as we learn how pervasive our circadian systems are throughout our bodies one population that really struggles with circadian issues is shift workers about 20 of americans do shift work where they’re commuting to work or working at times they would naturally be sleeping that can cause a big problem and actually increase cancer risk other two categories of sleep disorders are hypersomnias like narcolepsy and then the last category is parasol it’s where we see those more abnormal sleep features such as the sleep walking sleep eating those types of conditions one is you know roughly how common is sleep apnea and i recently read just a short little blurb that there are different types of sleep apnea can you you know elaborate a little on that so we think it’s somewhere between five and ten percent of men have sleep apnea and slightly lower percentage in women but i’d like to make sure that your listeners know that when women get through menopause and their post-menopausal at that point the rates of um be equivalent to the rates in men and it’s because estrogen has a protective function keeping the airway toned and as women go through menopause and no longer have such high estrogen levels their airway is more easily obstructed like men of their age so that’s something to keep in mind for women as they get older and yes there are another type of apnea is called central sleep apnea and the physiology of obstructive versus central sleep apnea is quite quite different what happens with obstruction of sleep apnea the brain is still telling the body to breathe so you’ll still see the diaphragm the chest rising and falling as the person tries to breathe but they’ve got an obstruction in their upper airway kind of right at the back of the throat usually but in central sleep apnea there’s a problem with the brain respiratory drive and the brain is not giving a signal to breathe and so the diaphragm actually will be still during these apnic pauses and they’re not even trying to bend again it may panel even attempt at respiratory effort the obstruction of sleep apnea is more common in people who have high bmi high body mass index but it’s not exclusively true and i think that we generally think that women tend to be more missed diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea because they tend to be slimmer or smaller people and so we don’t want to just assume that someone who isn’t overweight doesn’t have obstructive sleep apnea because thin young women could have obstructed sleep apnea also it’s really not only is it the entire body habitus but it’s the shape of the airway so for people who have maybe a small or recessed jaw they’re going to be at increased risk people who may have a deviated septum and can’t breathe through their nose and so therefore they’re breathing through their mouth that increases their risk of obstructive sleep apnea or you know if they have a large tongue or enlarged tonsils making the airway more crowded it’s easier to obstruct you know we did you know year decades ago think of it more as a overweight person’s disease but now we know it’s really mostly impacted by the shape of the airway i asked for a bit of an elaboration on the circadian rhythm and how it impacts us so our circadian rhythm is several many systems in our body that help us stay entrained to the 24 hour a day that we’re seeing on our earth and it’s signaled mostly and it’s uh we’re entrained to the day uh environmental day by the time that we get bright light in the morning so you know sometimes people really focus on getting to bed at the same time and that that is the most important for sleep but i would suggest that actually getting up at the same time each morning and getting bright light as soon as you can helps in train your circadian rhythm and your sleep we want our circadian rhythm to be robust so that we are widely awake during the day and deeply asleep at night one of the things that is really confusing our bodies now in modern lifestyle is the amount of artificial bright light that we have available to us at night both on our electronics on the evening cell phones tablets computers tvs etc and then also just with the ambient lighting that we have in our homes and that is that actually causes a delay in our sleep hormone melatonin and it causes a shorter time of that root melatonin is being released each night so that can impact our sleep so in these uh winter months where you know we have less light and i often wake up here in northern california and i don’t have a clock in in the bedroom but i look and it you know i think oh my god it’s like 5 a.m but it turns out to be 8 a.m and there’s just you know like minimal sun and even you in seattle you know how do you how do you get that hit if it doesn’t exist naturally for some people they may choose to use a light box other people may choose to just get up you know even though it’s dark and maybe cold outside get up at the same time turn the lights on really actively start their day and then as soon as it’s light out a great practice is to go out for a walk 20 minutes of a walk with the bright outside light and for those of your listeners who are in seattle or other places that are known for being overcast and cloudy even on an overcast morning it’s going to be brighter outside than almost any indoor setting is going to be and that amount of light will really help clue to your body its day and switch into daytime physiology awake physiology and then i think the other corollary is to purposely be turning down the lights in your home and not only turning down the brightness of them but also switch to more historical types of light waveforms that people would historically be exposed to at in the evening which would be your yellow and think uh sunset or fire light or candlelight those kinds of hues of lighting so what i recommend is people set an alarm on their phone or something for an hour hour and a half before their bedtime and at that time they turn off all the lights in their home except for maybe one light which they’ve put kind of a yellowish hued relatively dim bulb in so they can still do their recreational wind down activities you know snuggling and talking with the family or reading a book or doing some gentle yoga or listening to a podcast or something but they’re not getting bright light they’re not getting blue light i was curious if jack and darling could give us more suggestions on how to improve our sleep hygiene nutrition and exercise have gotten a lot more media attention over the last 60 years than sleep has well if you just had the exercise and nutrition piece that’s not very stable is it you’ve got to have the sleep piece and then i think of some other some other pieces of a healthy foundation being positive social relationships loved ones that we can count on and that we and who have esteem for us and we have esteem for them another one would be joy having joy in our lives and then the sixth connection to nature and there’s lots of research coming out now about how nature improves our health and i know when i’ve been out nature or i exercise on a day my sleep my ability to sleep that evening is easier is enhanced so sleep hygiene is basically creating a lifestyle that promotes healthy sleep and a strong circadian rhythm uh and so there’s many many components of this if i was just going to choose out the top five components of sleep hygiene i would say i mentioned bright light in the morning for 20 minutes ideally in the first hour or two of getting up sooner the better after getting up the second one would be like i said earlier avoiding the blue light and the artificial light at night and replicating as best you can naturalistic historical lighting conditions which would be dim yellowish reddish spectrum of light would be deciding to give yourself enough hours of sleep because insufficient sleep syndrome is definitely the most common sleep problem that i see people having and it contributes to so many domains that can be negatively impacted the physical health the physical performance measures so the way that i think about this which i’m not sure that other people do is that if you are an eight hour sleeper and that’s the ideal amount of sleep for you that means you can have a 16-hour day and if you’re trying to have 17 or 18 hours of activity each day you’re not going to be getting the sleep you need and therefore you’re going to be having some domain and i encourage people to think about the question would you rather have a long day or would you like to have a good healthy day that’s shorter because you’re getting enough sleep and i’m not sure that people are thinking about it quite as explicitly or quite in those terms so that would be the third thing get enough sleep the fifth thing is your sleep hours to rest and sleep and don’t take your daytime rolls and responsibilities to bed with you i think that idea that we’ve probably all heard of leave a bet pad of paper and pencil at your bedside so if you have a good idea in the night you can jot it down i think actually that’s a horrible idea because it trains you to be on all the time instead of practicing some limit setting that it’s okay and it’s valid for me to stop taking care of my responsibilities and just rest and sleep and recover and be recharged for the next day when i can pick those up again so those are my recommendations and then the fifth one would be about probably exercise and just giving yourself enough wind down time between your active day or eating or exercise and turning lights out some people transition more quickly others need a little bit more time but you know kind of evaluating that for yourself and determining how much time you need to wind down so that you’re ready to sleep once you’re in bed regarding insomnia does this refer to something more than having difficulty falling asleep i asked dr darley about waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to fall back to sleep depending on what their problem is if they are aware of waking up gas with a gasp in the middle of the night or if a bed partner or someone sharing the room says that they’re snoring loudly or pausing in their breathing at night they definitely should be evaluated for a sleep breathing disorder if they’re having difficulty with intimates at the beginning of the night to fall asleep being awake in the middle of the night or waking up too early not refreshed not ready for their days insomnia can manifest at all those different points in the night that is something that should be addressed we know that the more episodes of acute insomnia that somebody has the greater their chances of having insomnia in the future so that would be important and then if they have restless leg syndrome where they’re feeling like they just have to move their legs in the evening and that movement uh or that sensation subsides when they move that would be an indication to go see a sleep specialist such high percentage of americans are not getting adequate sleep i would really encourage people to do an optimal sleep plan for two weeks where they’re really prioritizing getting the amount of sleep that they need and just then noticing how does it impact their health and their sense of well-being is it worth it to get more sleep does it really make a difference and how can you do that that’s what i would recommend and i think i ended with that leslie in our sleep class i’m wondering if you had the chance to do it and if so how did that work for you oh i know yeah the more i sleep the better i feel years ago i did my silver presentation i was doing for my patient in my disease community and i had you know impairment like maslow’s hierarchy of needs but it was based on my self-care routine and the foundation is sleep and getting a good night’s sleep is critical for my next day and a lot of what i do during the day is to lead to that optimal sleep experience so it’s based on exercise and winding down stimuli like lights and sounds i take a hot bath every night the only thing i do which is probably contrary to uh what sleep experts suggest is i i watch a little tv in bed i mean there’s you know there’s these recommendations that we make that are based on physiology but every person is an individual and has different success abilities i mean as we know we we’ve all got probably friends who can drink more and and handle it fine you know there’s you know we can give examples in any area of health where we see individual variability and so i encourage people to follow the rules and then if they find that they can break them in one area more power to you dr darley has certainly provided us with food for thought one thing i’ll definitely start doing is getting outside in the morning even if it’s overcast not mentioned in this podcast but we did talk about it during our conversation is starting a sleep journal or diary there are also online versions or apps to help with this dr darley believes it’s good to document and look for trends rather than relying on your subjectivity and another way to track sleep and include relevant data is to use a wearable device to sleep this wouldn’t be comfortable for me but my partner does it and can check to see how much sleep she got the previous night and at what time she may have awakened during the night i remember from my time receiving regular acupuncture treatments that when you wake up in the middle of the night i can point to issues related to different body organs this is all part of traditional chinese medicine so you might if you find that you’re waking up at a particular time every night you might want to consult an acupuncturist anyhow as i mentioned in my conversation with dr darley i am intentional during my day to create a fertile ground for restful sleep i exercise earlier in the day i eat frequent small meals with my last meal several hours before i’m gonna go to bed i do wind down and i limit stimuli such as lights and noise and i take a hot bath using essential oils like lavender which is known to have a relaxing effect and i also take a one to one thc a cbd tincture sublingually under my tongue about an hour before i anticipate falling asleep and this routine usually works but nothing is foolproof anxiety can still rear its ugly head and keep me awake or arouse me from asleep it’s all a work in progress so rest peacefully my friends and when you wake up well rested the next day turn one of your friends onto this podcast thanks for listening
thank you for listening to glass half full leslie invites you to leave a rating and review on itunes this helps spread the word to others dealing with chronic health issues for show notes updates and more visit the website glass half full dot online classful.org
End-of-life planning is a huge topic. In previous podcast episodes we’ve covered the donation of body tissue for scientific research and attending a life transitions retreat. With three fascinating guests you’ll learn about an annual symposium which brings together healthcare professionals, patients, caregivers and others all “committed to generating human-centered, interdisciplinary innovation for the end of life experience,” a yoga therapist who trains others to care for the dying with bedside yoga, and a death doula.
Bedside Yoga TrainingMolly works with yogiMolly at bedside
Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, founder of End Well, speaks about her motivation and the need for the annual event. Molly Lannon Kenny shares how a Life After Loss program evolved into Bedside Yoga. Sarah Miller talks about becoming an end-of-life doula and her work at AARP.
For more information about the death wellness movement, check out my article on Spirituality & Health magazine’s website.
Approximately 20% of Americans have hearing loss. This can be a result of any multitude of situations — a symptom of a health condition, tinnitus, viral infection, acoustic trauma, or side effect from a medication.
Dr. Lilach Saperstein, an audiologist with her own podcast, discusses issues related to the outer, middle, and inner ear. Learn how to best protect your hearing as well as communication strategies to use when there is hearing loss.
This podcast episode — as well as future and all previous episodes — will be available with captions at the Glass Half FullYouTube channel.
Transcript
welcome to glass half-full with Leslie cron goal she shares her stories experiences and knowledge of living and coping with a chronic health condition learn about tools and resources and hear inspirational interviews that help you to live a life filled with quality and dignity with two decades of support group leadership Leslie is ready to help you make lemonade out of life’s lemons are you ready
she’s a condition which has caused her progressive hearing loss I can’t remember the name of the condition but she reads lips and she also has this device that can be worn around the neck of someone she’s speaking with which enables her to hear better impact I have worn it when I talked her a couple of times anyhow we’ve been conversation for over three years about doing an episode on hearing loss together but she’s been hesitant and non-committal so I finally discovered someone to address these issues an audiologist who was even a fellow podcaster the other hearing related issue I’m thrilled to finally address is that beginning with this episode I will have a captioned version on YouTube people with hearing issues don’t listen to podcasts I’ve had a few requests for episode transcripts and I’m been investigating free automated services because you know transcribing an audio interview is time-consuming and onerous anyhow there is something called an audiogram which is the easiest way to go you using an online application that transcribes the audio track the main drawback for me is that it allows only one visual it seems like a video with a transcription of the dialogue running along the bottom of the screen but there’s no change in visuals and I would have all the glass half from pi episodes caption so I’ll now commit to this the anthem and journey and them will be audiograms I love to have visuals for all of them after all I did go to film school but it’s so time-consuming so I’ll do a selection of them you know in a real video style when I you know had some extra time but most of them will be audiograms back to my guest the audiologist dr. Lila Saperstein we met in a Facebook group for podcasters or rather I saw her post about her podcast and I realized she’d be the perfect guest and she is you’re going to learn a lot now about the ear which I suspect you have to of I knew anyhow she covers everything from good ear health hygiene to some of the more common hearing loss conditions dr. Saperstein is originally from New York but now lives in Haifa Israel she is currently working at the Rambam Medical Center on the cochlear implant team and she is very passionate about all things related to the ear by the way one acronym mentioned frequently in this conversation is ent that’s an ear nose and throat doctor they’re specialists and I actually saw one this last year Audiology is an incredible field a field of healthcare of medicine that deals with any disorders of the ear including hearing and balance so what a lot of people don’t know about audiologists is that audiologists do lots of different things not just hearing tests and maybe giving out hearing aids which is something that many audiologists do do but audiologists work with children and adults so people have throughout the lifespan from babies all the way through geriatrics and they can work in hospitals and ENT practices and private practices in schools and also part of industry with with some of the companies that make the devices that people are using lots of different things that audiologists can do you have audiologists in private practice and you have plenty of audiologists employed by hospitals and I think the different route how you would get to one or the other would be based on what what are the symptoms what are the presenting issues so if someone is having kind of a typical issue with their hearing as they age then they’ll probably find themselves at a private practice looking to get solutions for that maybe a hearing aid or some other communication device or they just want to get their hearing tested so they’ll find someone in the community whereas if someone else is experiencing the more medical issue they’re having otosclerosis or any kind of middle ear disorder or they have balance issues so those things that are more heavily medical then they’ll probably go through the ENT which may or may not be affiliated with a hospital and then they’ll see audiologists there I asked dr. Saperstein how common are hearing problems when we talk about babies is about two to three out of a thousand babies will be born with some level of hearing loss about one one in a thousand will be deaf so that’s when we’re talking about newborn babies but when you talk about the population overall one-third of people over age 65 will have hearing loss and when you get to seven age 75 you’re up to half so it’s really one of the most common conditions across you know across the lifespan and there are so many different causes so you know someone who is born with a hearing loss has something very different and a very different experience then than someone who develops it later in life and this is something I talk a lot about on my podcast that you need to be able to know what kind of hearing loss you have and what was the source of the hearing loss what age the hearing loss began to really know how to deal with it and so like sometimes you hear people say hearing aids don’t work because I know you know I’m a man who is 85 and and he doesn’t hear anything even with his hearing aids so so children shouldn’t use hearing aids it’s like two totally different cases different kinds of hearing loss different devices you know when people try to extrapolate from one anecdotal issue to everybody that drives me crazy but to answer your question there are a lot of things that can lead to hearing loss and one of the one of the easy ways to understand this is about how ents are ear nose and throat doctors and our eat ear nose and throat are all connected they’re all like one big system with our sinuses and with our throat so sometimes when there’s a general sinus issue that can lead to back up in the ears and cause like middle ear issues or there’s a lot of fluid or ear infections or things like that and if that’s if that goes untreated or if that becomes a chronic issue then that can cause permanent hearing loss in the middle ear and then there’s just other issues that happen to the permanent hearing loss in the cochlea in the inner ear and that can be from a head trauma like a car accident or any kind of thing like that it can also be from acoustic trauma which is like really loud noises gunshots blasts we see that a lot with veterans or people who work in the music industry and are always or in factories so there’s that cause of hearing loss and there’s also medications unfortunately a lot of medications especially medications given for cancer and things that are life-threatening they have a side effect of causing hearing loss so you have that in the population of people who survive a major health you know situation and then they survive that which is wonderful and amazing but then many times they have this side effect of the medication it’s fascinating I never heard that before those drugs that are for cancer are really destructive in many ways to the body so one of the things they are as odo toxic toxic to the ear or they can also be vestibulo-ocular toxic to the vestibular system our sense of balance yeah and you wanna of course you want to save the person’s life you want to help them you know get over this life-threatening illness and so hearing is not on the priorities but there is a lot of monitoring that goes on with people who are going through those kind of treatments where you can try and get the dose where it’s effective but not harmful you know so there were a few terms that I probably gleaned from listening to a couple of your podcast episodes and looking at your website can you describe conductive hearing loss sensory neural hearing loss and mixed hearing loss so to understand these terms just a tiny brief overview of how the ear works which is my favorite thing to talk about so so we have three parts of our ear the outer ear the middle ear and the inner ear the outer ear is the part you can see it’s the part we call our ear where you might have earrings or you could put your finger in your ear canal and that’s funneling the sounds in it’s bringing sounds in from your environment and sending them in to the eardrum and then the eardrum is where the middle ear starts the middle the eardrum vibrates to the sounds that are coming in and behind the eardrum there’s three little bones the smallest bones in the body ossicles and those little this chain of bones vibrates and then moves the sound conduct brings it moves it forward into the cochlea and then the cochlea is where inside of there there’s fluid that’s supposed to be there fluid that’s kind of going through this snail and all along that spiral there are these hair cells those hair cells are nerve endings that are then sending those signals up to the brain so when you have the outer ear the middle ear and the inner ear all working and all functioning properly and everything’s in place then you have good hearing and also the nerve needs to be working as well to send the messages from the ear up to the brain and then the brain needs to process it so really if the process is bigger than just the ear it includes the ear and then all the different parts of the brain that are processing the sounds so if there’s a problem with the outer ear or the middle ear that would lead to a conductive hearing loss because sounds are not being conducted properly they’re getting stuck so there could be a hole in the eardrum there could be tons and tons of wax so sounds can’t get in past the wax there could be ear infections or fluid in the middle ear space where those little bones are because if you have those little bones they need to move and they’re supposed to have an air around them they need to be in a cavity space but if that space fills up with gunk like fluid you know that’s a technical term right yeah like back up from the nose or ear infections or any of this like glue ear very very very common in childhood that’s like 75% of children will have an ear infection before age 2 so that’s one of those things that like is very very common in early childhood but adults get it too and it’s very painful and uncomfortable so anything that’s that’s obstructing sound from getting into the middle ear or the outer ear would be considered a conductive hearing loss there could also actually be problems with the little bones themselves they can break or they can become stiffened and hard so they’re not moving correctly all different things like that whereas the other kind of hearing loss which is sensory neural hearing loss is where there’s a problem with the cochlea with those sensory cells that are inside and they they float in the fluid so they need to be able to be mobile if they become immobile or if they die off then that will lead to a sensory neural hearing loss or if there’s an issue with the nerve so it’s like a delineation between which part of the ear it has the problem is it the conductive part or the sensory neural part and if somebody has elements of both of those issues then they would have a mixed hearing loss so it’s not part of your role is to sort of tease out what’s going on where you know the origin of the losses precisely that’s a major part of the diagnostic process when you do the hearing test in the booth in this little tiny room you’re raising your hand every time you hear the beep but actually more things are going on there and then just getting how loud you can hear the sounds because we can test just the cochlea by itself and then test everything from the whole pathway from outside the ear and then if those things are different then we can know that the where the problem is it’s the problem in the cochlea or is the problem on the way to the cochlea or in both so these diagnostic tests do you need to do them in person or is it like telemedicine does that has had impacted the field of Audiology that’s definitely on the horizon and it’s coming some of it has started but really to get a full diagnostic picture you need the equipment you need the sound treated room but most importantly you need the expertise of the person who’s who’s doing the testing because even if you had all the equipment and didn’t you know know what you were looking for like we just mentioned there’s some apps that you can kind of do a hearing test with and they they can be pretty accurate but they’re not gonna give you all that information and also know what to do with the information who to who to refer you to or what the treatment options are and there’s there’s a reason that you know audiology is a doctorate degree it’s a four-year degree not a medical degree but it is you know a clinical doctorate that requires all this background history you know you have to know how to ask the question so you get the information you need and how it fits in with all other diagnoses and things like that what could you recommend as preventive behaviors for your health auditory health yes okay so one of the major things that we can do is to protect our hearing from very loud noises and very loud environments that will go on for a long time so what that means is if someone goes to concerts or very loud events and that’s one time that they’re doing that you know once a year okay so they should go enjoy the concert but if they’re the kind of person who’s going you know every weekend or you know every the whole summer every weekend in the summer they have something going on or that they themselves are in an industry where they’re exposed to this we see a lot of music engineers and DJs and people who work in catering or things like that where they’re at events at weddings all the time and things like that and that’s one of the the preventable kind of hearing loss is a noise induced hearing loss because someone was exposed to loud levels of noise for a long amount of time we can definitely use ear protection earplugs and earmuffs you know people also people who are using really extensive machinery even for a hobby like jet skiing or mowing the lawn and you know gardeners and things like that so people should be using those earmuffs and ear plugs because they really do bring the noise down those those leaf blowers oh maybe yes they’re horrible yeah they’re annoying you when you’re in your house and they’re doing the neighbor’s yard so can you imagine if you’re the one holding that leaf blower how loud it is to your how proximity yeah sure it’s quite damaging yeah I always pass by the gardener’s and make sure they’re working they’re here I keep an eye on them in my neighborhood that was the first thing of protecting the hearing but the second thing is that getting a hearing test I would say pretty much when you turn around fifty is a good time to go and get a hearing test just to have one on file even if you don’t think that you’re having any problems with your hearing it’s a good idea because if there’s a little bit and if you could monitor it and then you go five years later and you see was there a change you know so if you’re getting that if you have the data and you just have a hearing test on file for you that’s very good preventative kind of medicine just like you go to the dentist every year I’d say around middle age is a good time to start getting annuals and for sure if you’re having any issues with your hearing or you feel like you’re saying what all the time you’re having trouble on the phone it’s a great idea to do the hearing test as soon as you feel like there’s anything going on and especially if someone else tells you that you’re having the problem because that’s usually what happens right the spouse or children or co-workers will say why are you not hearing me and you don’t know what you’re missing if you’re missing it so if someone notices some hearing loss whether it’s someone you know telling you or you just are able to be aware and mindful that yes you do have some hearing loss what should they do should they just talk to their doctor first you can you can talk to your doctor but you can also make a appointment with an audiologist right away and just go in for the the hearing test because sometimes doctors actually are not as proactive as we would like them to be physicians sometimes look at things like quality of life kind of things if you’re not suffering you’re communicating fine with me everything’s fine right so I think this comes into also a personality what kind of person you are in general with with your health but if there’s if you’re noticing a change and you’re asking the question that’s enough that’s enough to get a hearing test because our our testing doesn’t just say you know look at how the hearing is it’s also looking at the health of the ear if there’s a difference between ears that’s a red flag why are your ears different they’re the same age and you eat the same thing with you know your whole system there’s no reason why your ears should be different or if someone has a chronic issue with with fluid they don’t get that looked at that can , can turn into something permanent whereas if they would have gotten help and treated it then it would have resolved with medication there’s there’s just so many things that it’s not like well this is what it is and nothing can be done sometimes things can be done so go and find out what it is in something that’s incredibly dramatic that many people don’t know about is that there are some viruses that people can just have a cold upper respiratory infection and that that can have an effect on someone’s hearing this is it’s pretty rare it’s called sudden sensorineural hearing loss and it’s exactly that it’s just sudden usually after a viral infection and if it’s caught within the first 48 hours and someone is getting steroid treatment to counteract what the virus is doing then they can save some of the hearing but if they miss that window then that’s pretty much the end of the of that ear very very unfortunate we see that a lot that people come in with that issue and then they went to the doctor maybe they did maybe they didn’t and no no major drama was made about it was like oh you’re hearing when went down dramatically over one day let’s just wait till tomorrow and see how it goes you know instead of going to an ENT instead of going immediately to get your hearing tested like that’s an emergency there’s not a lot of emergencies and hearing in audiology but that’s one of them so I will put that out there just in case anyone needs to know that and tinnitus is extremely common especially with people who have hearing loss sometimes it’s one of the common the the common reasons that people come in is because they have tinnitus and then they discover that they have hearing loss and when people have ringing in the ears it could be their brain producing the sounds that are not coming in like how come I’m not getting new sounds I’m gonna produce them myself then they drive people close they could be very very difficult hard to sleep hard to focus those are the you know extreme cases everyone gets a little tinnitus once in a while when if you haven’t slept well if you’re very tired or if you’ve you were in a loud environment and then you came out of that environment sometimes have all sorts of thoughts like am i hearing things that I hear this figure that but if someone has a chronic loud obnoxious tinnitus it could really interfere with their life so then again we have different different things to do different maskers where you can like put in a sound into like the easy version is having a fan on or something like that in the background but we can have these little devices that kind of look like hearing aids that aren’t hearing aids but are just producing a constant stream of white noise or or sounds of a river or something like that to to help cover up the tinted sound and there’s also a lot of CBT cognitive behavioral therapy that goes into that that’s outside my scope but a lot of referrals with that so there’s cognitive based see what did you see me T yeah cognitive behavioral therapy okay what did it make the distinction that you didn’t say CBD oh no yeah I worked for a few months in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Brooklyn the VA and we had a support group for veterans with tinnitus that was a weekly support group it’s a very common issue especially if people had had acoustic trauma it was ID blasts and all those things it was a group run by the audiologist and a psychologist there’s a whole curriculum of making peace with your tinnitus because part of the problem is that if you’re hearing the sounds all the time then you get angry and upset and anxious that you’re hearing them and that’s that’s been the problematic cycle but maybe making peace with your tinnitus and then it’s the new background you know you have your own music your own toys yeah yeah it’s just kind of a hard hard pill to swallow for some people but there are lots of different approaches and techniques for dealing with tinnitus so what led you didn’t launch a podcast I launched my podcast the all about audiology podcast because I think I was getting that itch where I just always wanted to be talking about audiology and having this great interest in enthusiasm and passion for what I what I do and I needed to do that without driving my husband crazy and I felt like there there was some there were some things that I wanted to say that we’re a little bit maybe not controversial maybe not harsh but you know taking a stance on certain issues that that I felt were important to be broadcast and I said no one is gonna give me a platform if I don’t take it for myself so I had I had the the motivation to to get some of my message out there a lot of the things that I do are with children and with the education of children who are deaf and hard of hearing and how the conversation around cochlear implants and sign language and language deprivation was was happening I felt like there’s a bit of miss not misinformation but maybe incomplete information so that’s kind of my my soapbox but I really do love talking about how the ears work and how our brains process sound because it fits in with our emotional experience of the world and it fits in with how we create relationships so it’s like a much bigger topic and I have an interesting a sneaky way to get into do you have anything to say about those candles that people use for you know I’m rolling my eyes is my answer I’m kind of weird no okay so there’s actually an amazing YouTube video from an audiologist dr. cliff he did a test side by side where he burnt one down just in a in a cup and burnt one down in someone’s ear and the result was identical so basically if they show you what comes out of your ear quote-unquote it’s actually just the candle itself burning into a nasty [ __ ] that you can think looks like your wax but is just the candle itself not to mention how dangerous it is to have a fire right next to your hair not a good idea so no this is not a real thing and my professional piñon and if you have earwax then you should see a professional ENT or audiologist that does cerumen management which is fancy words for they take the earwax out in a safe way is it common to develop more ear wax as you age it’s a lot of factors it has to do with your sebaceous glands which are with the parts of your skin that make oil though the oily glands and then it mixes in with dead skin cells though the skin cells of your ear canal with the oily substances with hair with dust and that all mixes up into making earwax and our ears actually flush that out in their own natural system which is amazing the way the skin grows it grows in this rotating outward way and you really should never ever ever use q-tips because they will just push it in deeper and cause more harm than good plus they can cause scratches oh my gosh the people who use pins don’t get me started do not use anything sharp and your ears whatsoever so how should we okay so no q-tips so tell me what dangerous no which you should after you take a shower you should just use a little washcloth or a towel or a napkin and wipe the outside of your ear and that’s it now if there’s someone who’s using q-tips all this time then it’s gonna take like a week or so to recalibrate because the ear is going to make as much wax as it needs and if you keep flushing it out it’s gonna keep making it so someone who’s always using q-tips might have a couple days where it’s uncomfortable let’s say but it will all even out and if you if some people who do get a great accumulation of wax should have that removed by an ENT who has all this special equipment the ante has all this tiny equipment and lights and cameras to get it all out and a irrigation like a water sprinkler and drainage system it’s like it’s complicated you don’t just want to go in there with a pen or a bobby pin base it’s based on like your home moans in your skin level and and that but I don’t think it’s more common as you age necessarily I think it’s just an individual thing what’s interesting is people who use hearing aids they do develop more more wax because the hearing aids are blocking that that natural mechanism of clearing out the wax so people who have hearing aids do you need to have their wax cleared out more often good common I would like to talk a little bit about communication strategies which I think are the over looks and amazing thing that that audiologists teach their patients and really can teach everyone communication strategies that help you communicate better when there’s misunderstandings from the level of MIS hearing like I didn’t hear you well or I thought you said this but you really said something else and that happens to everybody even people with normal hearing in a quiet environment it happens you know we all experience that but people with hearing loss experience that much more often and it really can begin to interfere with your relationships with your productivity at work you know it’s all the things that matter talking on the phone and and the more that the more hearing loss there is the more isolated someone can become an avoidant of those situations which are just more and more frustrating so one of the things that we teach is using communication strategies like asking someone to rephrase what they said if they didn’t hear properly because if they just repeat it it might be difficult to hear those same sounds again so instead of saying what or say that again asking someone to say I heard this part of your sentence but what was the second part or can you say that in a different way right so learning how to ask the question that’s helping you to hear better in a conversation and educating fir for yourself for what your needs are like where you’re going to sit in a restaurant like not near the kitchen you know like get it get a quiet spot or or even what time you go to a restaurant if you’re having trouble and then and you want to have a conversation with with your people that you’re going out to eat with then maybe recommend a quieter place or a different time of day things like that learning to work around the things I think that applies to any kind of limitation you might say instead of having it as a limitation being working with it you know and knowing what are the things that you can change that will make it easier to communicate and overcome those those barriers I did two things soon after interviewing dr. Saperstein I made an appointment with my HMO for a baseline hearing test because I don’t think I’ve had my hearing tested since I left seeing a pediatrician and the second thing I stopped using q-tips I am these podcast episodes reach a larger audience now that they’ll be available on our YouTube channel with captions I will no no longer say thanks for listening but my announcer may continue saying it I’ll speak with them about it thanks for continuing to tune into glass-half-full pine casts whether it be online on your phone on youtube or any other place you follow us thank you thank you for listening to glass half-full Leslie invites you to leave a rating and review on iTunes this helps spread the word to others dealing with chronic health issues for show notes updates and more visit the website glass-half-full dot online
