Tag: hearing loss

• Season for Self-Care & Socializing

  ‘Tis the season for self-care & socializing. This is a common time for flare-ups if you have tinnitus or hyperacusis. I’ve gathered together some coping strategies, soundscapes, and tips on how…

  

• Tool Review: Mental Health Apps for Tinnitus, Hyperacusis, and Anxiety

  Looking for the best free apps to cope with stress, worry, sadness, or poor sleep? In this video, I discuss highly rated mental health apps as of 2025, what to…

  

• Coping Tools for Hyperacusis & Tinnitus

  There are so many videos out there promising instant relief to tinnitus, and they just aren’t real. In this video, I info share about what coping tools actually work and…

  

• Digital Tech Dangers: Screen Time & Personal Listening

  My latest Safe Sound Science with Granny Jan series is on the Dangers of screen time for children and teens at home and school. Now on YouTube and TikTok, I…

  

• Losers Mantra

  I first read this stanza of Losers at age 14. Around 1979 ish. It was after my first serious mental health crisis. Since then, I’ve used it as my mantra…

  

• Environmental Noise Risk Quiz

  How much do you know about the rising public health emergency from preventable noise pollution? Check your knowledge with this quick quiz.

  

• Over The Counter Hearing Aid Resource Centre

  Quiet cheers to Speech-Language Audiology Canada for adding an Over the Counter Hearing Aid Resource Centre to their website. While these products can help improve access to hearing healthcare, SAC…

  

• Granny Jan now on the YouTube

  I’m going really high tech. You’ve listened to simulated tinnitus and noise-induced hearing loss on my SoundCloud. (If not, check it out! Scare yourself. Scare friends and loved ones.) But…

  

• Rethinking Care for Hyperacusis

  My latest article in Tinnitus Today (Spring 2025) is titled When the patient becomes the clinician: Rethinking care for sound hypersensitivity. In this post, I’m giving a short overview and…

  

• Tinnitus & Hearing Loss Simulations

  Image by Aditya Chinchure on Unsplash. What does it sound like to have tinnitus caused by loud music or noise exposure? I’ve put together a short SoundCloud playlist of noise-induced…

  

• Ministry of Education Makes Recommendations on Student Screen Time and Use of Digital Devices

  In New Zealand, the Ministry of Education has updated their website to address health and safety management of digital device use by staff and students. This was done in consultation…

  

• Building Balanced Screen Time for Today’s Tech-Savvy Youth

  I’m happy to share that my new article was published in the Winter 2024 issue of Tinnitus Today. The focus is nurturing healthy digital habits among today’s youth. Children and…

  

• Screen Time and Health Risks in Children and Teens

  I am a co-author of a new study, along with lead author Julie Cullen, on the impact of digital technologies on health and wellbeing of children and adolescents. Our study…

  

• Safer Personal Listening Guidelines

  If ears bled from unsafe personal listening with headphones or earbuds, maybe there would be mandatory manufacturing safety standards to better protect public health. Imagine riding a 10 speed bike,…

  

• Teaching Children and Teens about Safer Personal Listening

  There are many causes of early childhood or teen onset hearing loss, tinnitus, and/or hyperacusis (decreased sound tolerance). Unlike other causes, early noise damage to hearing health is entirely preventable.…

  

• Gaming Could be a Contributing Factor to Hearing Loss and Tinnitus

  Dangerously misleading “safe” listening information is shared in a recent article in the British Medical Journal that found gaming could lead to hearing loss and tinnitus. Risks included gaming at…

  

• Style Guidelines for Children’s Hearing Protection

  As a general rule, earplugs are not recommended for children up to age 12 unless prescribed or fit by an audiologist or hearing healthcare professional. Earplugs are difficult to insert…

  

• This is Your Brain on Noise

  It is generally accepted that loud and very loud noise exposures can cause hearing loss. When I first read Dr. J.J. Eggermont’s book Noise and the Brain, I was horrified.…

  

• No Hearing Protection at Stadium Sports Events

  I was excited to watch the Canada vs Belgium World Cup men’s soccer match in Qatar. I had no doubt our team would do Canada proud. But this isn’t about…

  

• Call to Action: SoundPrint’s Find Your Quiet Place Challenge

  I’m partnering with SoundPrint, a hearing health app, to promote hearing health awareness this October. I don’t represent an organization. I’m just one person. But every person counts when it…

  

• Protecting Hearing at Concerts

  Images by Jan L. Mayes Whether it’s pop, rock, or country, amplified music at concerts is loud enough to damage hearing health. I’m an old bat in my 50’s and…

  

• If Ears Bled from Everyday Noise Exposures

  The image for this post was a graphic for a hearing health shock campaign I planned in 2017. I wanted to raise awareness about noise risk from common everyday sound…

  

• The Health Impact of Environmental Noise

  [Originally published at silencity.com in 2019; noise risk decibels revised April 14, 2022] Environmental noise is damaging and inflicts unwanted sounds into everyday life. In 1984, Gordon Hempton, The Sound…

  

• If Only We Could See the Damage of Noise Exposure

  I was very honoured to have my article featured in Tinnitus Today, Spring 2022 issue. I discuss science from my 2021 papers published in Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, co-authored…

  

• Airhorn Noise Joke

  When my oldest child (now a young adult) arrived at work on April Fool’s Day this year, there was a noisy joke waiting for her. Co-workers rigged an air horn…

  

• Protecting Hearing for Life

  Written by Jan L. Mayes, MSc, Audiologist (Retired) This article was originally published in Communique, the Speech-Language Audiology Canada blog: https://blog.sac-oac.ca/protecting-hearing-for-life/ The theme of World Hearing Day 2022 is, “To…

  

• Personal Listening Systems are Likely Unsafe at Any Sound

  I was excited to have a second paper published in The Hearing Journal, co-authored with Dr. Daniel Fink of The Quiet Coalition. We’re trying to raise awareness about personal listening…

  

• The Danger in Headphones

  I was honoured to be included in the Hearing Health Foundation Summer 2021 Entertainment issue. My article is on the danger in headphones (and earbuds).  It includes tips on how…

  

• Too Loud Article in The Hearing Journal

  I was very excited to have an article published in The Hearing Journal. The title is Too loud: Noise exposure in everyday life is causing hearing loss. I co-authored this…

  

• Unsafe at any Sound: Hearing Loss and Tinnitus in Personal Audio System Users

  This is the second of two papers I co-wrote with my colleague Dr. Daniel Fink of The Quiet Coalition. It was accepted in Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics and is…