Hearing aids, like lots of other devices, are getting smarter, less conspicuous and more stylish all the time, and just in time. The U.S. census reports that the average American is older as the population as a whole continues to age, and unfortunately, loss of hearing, particularly in older people, is very common. Roughly 37.5 million American adults and rising say they have some degree of hearing loss.
Luckily more choices for treating hearing loss are available because of amazing advancements in recent hearing technology. Here are just a few of the enhancements that are now available.
Hearing Aids That Track Your Overall Health
Did you know that hearing aids can track several key vital signs as well or better than a fitness tracker? Not only can it monitor the time between heartbeats to help detect potential cardiovascular troubles, but it also monitors calories burned, heart rate, step count, and the total number of steps taken. They are even developing technology that can determine blood pressure, oxygenation of the blood and other relevant vital signs. There are other potential benefits that come with hearing aids, like the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will help your overall hearing so that your social life will improve as well. Actually, social engagement has been linked to your general health as well, so really it’s another health statistic we should be looking at. With these new hearing aids, you won’t even need a fitness device or smartwatch because the hearing aids can sync to your smartphone so you can listen to your tunes.
Smarter and Easier Streaming
Being connected to your virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa is becoming more important as people get more addicted to these features. Even if you defy the allure of talking directly to these assistants, Bluetooth hearing aids allow you to stream sound from any Bluetooth device like your phone or smart TV. Consider the benefits of this: You can avoid getting yelled at for having the Volume too high while watching this year’s Big Game in a room full of screaming friends. Being able to directly stream phone calls, music, shows and more right to your ears not only helps you hear and appreciate them more, but it will also help you handle your hearing loss discreetly.
Automatic Adjustments
Have you noticed that you get ads from Goodreads and they seem to know what kind of books you enjoy reading? Or how Amazon somehow know which products to recommend? That’s because big data and artificial intelligence are very powerful. Current hearing aids can also make adjustments automatically based on your responses in the past. For instance, if you turned down the volume the last time you went to the train station, your hearing aid will recall that and turn itself down the next time you go into the train station. They are expanding this technology to include crowdsourcing as well, enabling information from other users to inform your hearing aids that you’re approaching a loud zone. Over time the hearing aids add up all this information to make suggestions and automatic corrections, so you can adjust quickly to changes in the hearing environment.
You Won’t Have to Keep Changing Those Little Batteries
Who wants to constantly struggle with hearing aid batteries? Rechargeable hearing aids are currently available. While you can do a lot to help extend the life of your hearing aids’ batteries, let’s face it…it’s still costly and frustrating. Even better, technology to recharge your hearing aids while they are still in your ears is being developed.