The FDA just approved new Apple health features — AirPods as hearing aids, Apple Watches detecting sleep apnea. But what’s happening with your health info? I’ve got the details!
Love, hearing loss and Bluetooth settings
hear.com
Barry and I were on vacation in the Bahamas, soaking up the sun and enjoying island life until he caught a nasty virus. The next morning, he woke up and said, “I can’t hear out of my right ear.”
Just like that, his hearing was gone.
He saw a doctor on the island who put him on a steroid immediately. Once we got home, he started a series of injections right into his ear to try to restore the hearing. Nothing worked.
🧏🏼 That’s when reality set in
He’d permanently lost the hearing in one ear.
At first, it was just little things. We avoided our favorite restaurants because they were too noisy. Conversations turned into misunderstandings. I’d start to tell a story, then stop halfway through because it was frustrating for both of us when he couldn’t quite catch the details.
Barry, like a lot of people, didn’t want to get a hearing aid. “They make you look old,” he’d say. And I get it, no one wants to feel like they’re falling apart.
But hearing loss doesn’t just affect one person. It changes how we connect with the people we love. We’ve been married 25 years. I wanted us back.
📱 Tech to the rescue
I helped him tweak his iPhone when he first lost his hearing.
- I went into Settings > Accessibility > Audio & Visual > Balance to shift sound to his good ear.
- While there, I turned on LED Flash for Alerts for texts and calls so he wouldn’t miss them.
- I also activated Background Sounds to cut out unwanted chatter.
That really didn’t help much.
You can buy hearing aids over the counter - Should you?
Photo © Zay Nyi Nyi | Dreamstime.com
Life just got a little bit easier for people with hearing loss. Previously, you had to rely on a licensed physician to get hearing aids, which involved medical or audiological examinations. However, a new rule enables you to buy over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids as easily as a nasal spray or reading glasses.
Listen up: Soon, Apple will drop a free software update that adds a hearing test and hearing aid features to the AirPods Pro 2. Keep in mind only those with mild hearing loss can benefit from AirPods as hearing aids. You’ll also need iOS 18.1 on your iPhone or iPad for these new features to work.
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