Hearing aids, like many other devices, are getting smarter, more inconspicuous and more stylish every day, and just in time. The average American is older, reports The Us Census Department, as the population as a whole continues to age, and hearing loss is, sadly, really common, especially in older adults. Approximately 37.5 million American adults and rising say they have some level of hearing loss.
Luckily more options for treating hearing loss are available because of amazing advancements in recent hearing technology. Here are just a few of the enhancements coming our way.
Hearing Aids That Keep Track of Your Overall Health
Hearing aids are as good if not better than a fitness tracker at tracking many vital signs. Not only can it track the time in between heartbeats to help find potential cardiovascular concerns, but it also monitors calories burned, heart rate, step count, and the total number of steps taken. They’re also developing technology that can evaluate other significant vital signs like blood pressure and oxygenation of the blood. There are other potential advantages that come with hearing aids, like the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will improve your social life by helping your general hearing. Actually, social interaction has been linked to your general health as well, so actually it’s another health statistic we should be following. Since hearing aids can now also sync with your smartphone so you can listen to your tunes, who needs a smartwatch or fitness device?
Smarter and Easier Streaming
Being connected to your virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa is getting to be more important as people get more attached to these features. Even if talking to these assistants is not your thing, Bluetooth hearing aids permit you to stream sound from any Bluetooth device such as your smart TV or phone. Just consider the benefits: You could hear the play-by-play in the big game clearly over your family’s cheers (or at least steer clear of getting yelled at for having the volume too high). You will be capable of managing your hearing loss more discreetly and also enjoy your music, phone calls, and shows more by having them directly in your ears.
Automatic Adjustments
Did you ever notice how Goodreads seems to know what kind of book you’d like to read? Or how Amazon somehow know which products to recommend? That’s because big data and artificial intelligence are very powerful. Modern hearing aids can also make changes automatically based on your responses in the past. It will notice how you prefer to turn the volume down when you enter the train station and do that automatically the next time it recognizes you’ve entered the station (or any other situation with to much background noise). They are also beginning to network your hearing aids with other devices that belong to people near you in order to alert you of a potential loud noise danger nearby. 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 Need to Keep Changing Those Tiny Batteries
Who wants to constantly wrestle with hearing aid batteries? Rechargeable hearing aids are now available. Even though you can do a lot to help increase the life of your hearing aids’ batteries, let’s face it…it’s still irritating and expensive. Even better, they are developing technology that will recharge hearing aids without even needing to take them out.