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My Costco visit; Do I listen to them or to audiologists?

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The title seems like a silly question, but let me tell you what happened:

I’m 68 and have had tinnitus and moderate to severe hearing loss at high frequencies for many years.After reading about the strong correlation between uncorrected hearing loss and premature cognitive decline in those over 70, I thought it was time for hearing aids. Everything I read supported me on this.

My Costco test confirmed that my left ear is at 60b loss at 4kh and 6kh, my right is 40 at 4kh and 60 at 6kh. The Costco told me I don’t need hearing aids because '“no one hears much in those ranges anyway.” When I reminded her about my focus on cognition, she said “well, your brain hears at those frequencies so you’re fine.”

That’s at odds with what audiologists say. It’s all over the internet from many highly reputable sources (the Mayo Clinic and others) that uncorrected moderate hearing loss can lead to cognitive decline, and if corrected early enough (in your 60s) you are much less likely to experience it. At 60 db loss, that’s moderately severe and my tinnitus is litterally telling me that my brain can’t hear well enough. So here’s the stupid question: are audiologists overreacting, or is Costco underreacting?

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Looking at your I would say you need hearing aids. You are missing consonants for speech.

As far as cognitive issues my thoughts are if you are active in life, talking to people with or without hearing loss you will be fine. A reclusive person with or without hearing loss is subject to cognitive issues.

@srroat said:

The title seems like a silly question, but let me tell you what happened:

I’m 68 and have had tinnitus and moderate to severe hearing loss at high frequencies for many years.After reading about the strong correlation between uncorrected hearing loss and premature cognitive decline in those over 70, I thought it was time for hearing aids. Everything I read supported me on this.

My Costco test confirmed that my left ear is at 60b loss at 4kh and 6kh, my right is 40 at 4kh and 60 at 6kh.

If you copy and paste what you wrote into Google you can get a really good response from . I’m not sure of the site’s policy on that so give it a try.

Conclusion: you can benefit from

Edited

My is similar to yours. Here is my experience :

Some audiologists have pushed hard saying it’s the end of the world if don’t get aids , others (including the Costco fitter I saw) told me I don’t need them.

I was first referred to an audiologist because I was /am constantly feeling that my ears are plugged (underwater ) . The and both said it was due to my loss at high frequencies . It took 20 years to find an ENT that finally gave me the correct diagnostic (Patulous ear tubes) and told me my hearing loss is borderline. She said it was up to me to continue using them or not. Unfortunately there is no approved treatment for Patulous tubes (but that’s another topic).

Truth is, I only need the aids for some women with high pitch soft voice and for some noisy environments (Not all of them , bowling alleys are fine but sports bars can be hard for me ). I no longer have to play the TV loud at night and music sounds beautifully now (there is a huge difference with music ).

The WHO ( World Health Organization) defines hearing loss on the threshold values of four frequencies (0.5, 1, 2, 4). In my case , if I take the average of those , it will show that I have normal to mild loss.

Can I live without aids? : absolutely . But aids make my day is easier and I get less tired at the end of the day. And I dislike the sound of music now without aids. I wear them 12+ hours a day.

I think it’s a judgement call. You are not likely to notice a lot of improvements with hearing aids and will likely notice some downsides. Improvements will be subtle. I think it would be beneficial to get them as I think it will be easier to adjust to them by the time you '“really” need them. The reason I’m saying this is because you have near normal hearing out to 3000 Hz. That’s about what old landline phones covered.

Edited

I disagree that you’re not likely to hear improvements with hearing aids, given your . That said, will change how you’ll hear sound throughout your near-normal range. Natural hearing remains the gold standard!

But then again: you dip into the moderate/profound loss range quite fast at the lower end of the spectrum. You ‘naturally’ would have heard this part of the spectrum back in the days with normal hearing. Regaining all of those frequencies could make your hearing more rich in general. However, If you’re primarily or exclusively focussed on hearing speech, as the Costco fitters typically are, then you may not need aids.

It’s all a series of trade offs! and getting accustomed to the new sounds introduced by HAs in order to evaluate how you like them takes some time. the plus side of Costco is their three month return policy. But you really have to commit to trying HAs, especially given your audiogram, before deciding if the plusses outweigh the minuses.

In reply to @japple

I have done just that, searched with ChatGPT and Gemini and they both strongly suggest I get the aids. They say I am at risk if I don’t. But then again, how accurate are they. More and more I am believing , as it confirms what audiologists and neurologists say.

I have to say that I am not convinced that hearing loss has anything to do with causing or increasing the likelihood of dementia etc. From what I have seen of “elderly” people, that is anyone over 70, it seems to me more like once people stop working - they basically vegetate at home. Too many retired people seem to have nothing to do all day and they get out of the habit of socialising, doing things and basically keeping the brain active. The less you do, the less you end up wanting to do. The mistake too many people make when they retire is not having a plan of what they want to do with their retirement as in having some kind of schedule or daily planner to keep them active.

This does not apply to all people who retire. I know some who lead very active lives and are always going out. But the majority unfortunately do seem to hibernate in their homes.

I say this partially because I have had my hearing loss all my life since birth. I was only diagnosed about age eight when somebody worked that I was not hearing properly. Even when I got hearing aids, the technology was so poor at that time, that they said that there was nothing they could do for my right ear because my right ear was so bad.

I certainly don’t feel like I have suffered cognitive decline etc despite having relatively poor hearing for decades until technology improved sufficiently that I could wear hearing aids in both ears. What I notice more is that elderly people who never go out or do anything seem to be the ones that age quicker and seem slower in the uptake.

I don’t actually know what evidence there is to support the claim that hearing loss causes dementia etc. It may well be true, but I personally think the real problem is too many people retire and simply vegetate at home. I would be interested to hear what the medical opinion on this is.

Edited

In reply to @jeffrey

@jeffrey said:

HAs will change how you’ll hear sound throughout your near-normal range.

Can you explain this? Elaborate more on the statement above?

For my hearing loss—which is very similar to the OP’s—my hearing aids give almost no gain up to about 2 kHz and only a small amount up to around 3 kHz. I’m using Widex SmartRIC 440 with OpenBass domes, and I mostly stay in the PureSound program because it minimizes processing and the OpenBass domes let natural sound enter the canal. In practice, that means my aids are doing almost nothing in the lows and mids.
That’s why your comment about “changing sound in the normal range” caught my attention. I’m curious what you meant by that.

“you dip into the moderate/profound loss range quite fast at the lower end of the spectrum” I’m don’t understand this either – his hearing is good up to 3K so it is only a HF loss. From what I understand, the “low-end of the spectrum” refers to frequencies below 2K.

I would not trust bots on this, because they scan some unidentified body of text and take everything it ‘reads’ into account without much regard to the reliability of the source.

What is your word recognition score?

How much does you tinnitus affect you? can help.

How much music do you listen to? So much of music is in the overtones, and you can’t hear them. OTOH, I used to listen to musical broadcasts and records (and even some CDs) in the evenings, but for the last 15 years (I got my 1st aids in 2010), recorded music has been unlistenable.

IMO, you can’t know who’s right about your need for HAs without a trial. You can’t know how HAs will help you without a trial.

In reply to @Roberto

@Roberto said:

I don’t actually know what evidence there is to support the claim that hearing loss causes dementia etc. It may well be true, but I personally think the real problem is too many people retire and simply vegetate at home. I would be interested to hear what the medical opinion on this is.

I don’t think there is one cause for dementia. It’s a combination of multiple things including hearing loss. So I think it’s a good idea to do what you can to improve one’s hearing to help eliminate one of those issues.

Anyhow I recommend folks start square dancing. This activity checks a lot of boxes that may help delay dementia.

Hi, @srroat

I’m replying to your post based only on my personal experience. I most definitely benefited from getting hearing aids back when my hearing loss was more like yours. It really, really helped me to hear. I can’t imagine recommending that you not get aids, based on your .

(I’m not addressing the dementia question, because causes for dementia are very complex).

I would recommend that you at least try wearing hearing aids to experience what they are like, before deciding. Please let us know what you do.

Katy

I will throw a curve ball into the discussion.

If your financial situation enables you to try hearing aids without compromising your financial situation, I suggest trying hearing aids. If you can tolerate them and see any improvement in your hearing, I don’t see the down side.

On the other hand, if you don’t hear any better or they are too much of a distraction, return them. Make sure that any trial doesn’t cost you too much. Costco, does not charge for returns during the trial period.

Can anyone comment if OP would benefit from AirPods, if the approach doesn’t work?

Costco would be the best route for hearing aid trial and full refund if OP doesn’t like life with HAs.

@srroat said:

are audiologists overreacting, or is Costco underreacting?

Neither.

You don’t have a moderate hearing loss. You have a moderate loss at 4-6kHz. The overall picture is mild given normal hearing out to 2kHz.

Are you having functional difficulties yet? If yes, try hearing aids. If not, you can leave it for now.

Edited

In reply to @japple

I have no problem with life with hearing aids, nor with cost. I did a trial of for a few weeks and had no issues, except for excessive floor noise which could not be filtered out, hence my trip to Costco.

The question is whether the audiologists are overplaying the link between untreated hearing loss and cognitive decline, or if Costco is unaware of the studies and is therefore clueless and giving me advice based on their lack of knowledge.

Hearing loss definitely speeds cognitive decline in those with prone to those issues. Not hearing well further causes self imposed social isolation. In all likelihood your hearing will worsen over time, so hearing aids are probably in your future.

Good luck. I think you are on the right path.

In reply to @srroat

My take is that they’re overplaying it. To the best of my knowledge it’s not hearing loss that is directly connected to dementia but social isolation. I don’t think deaf people who are part of the deaf community are more prone to dementia. If you’re hearing isn’t stopping you from engaging socially, it’s not a problem. If it is, then dealing with it would be wise. I do think it’s easier to get used to hearing aids gradually rather than waiting too long and having to get them.

In reply to @japple

He qualifies - he has mild to moderate loss. That’s within the scope of .

My is a bit worse than him (similar shape) and AirPods Pro work for me (I just don’t like the plugged feeling of the AirPods for extended periods of time)

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