This WSU Newsline Podcast is available at http://www.wichita.edu/newslinepodcast. See the transcript below:

You’re listening to the podcast edition of the Wichita State University audio newsline. Learn more about WSU — the home of Thinkers, Doers, Movers and Shockers — on the Web at wichita.edu.

Hearing is often taken for granted. Of the some 220.5 million people in the United States over age 18, it is estimated that more than 25 percent possess some degree of hearing loss, totaling about 55 million persons.

According to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics, the population of people age 75 years and above is expected to almost double through the four decades from 2007 to 2050, and so, accordingly, will the incidence of hearing loss and other disabling conditions.

Hull: “Improved cardiovascular health not only improves hearing somewhat, but certainly helps our ability to process and understand what we hear, to be able to make decisions about what we have heard.”

Hull explains what he means by processing what we hear.

Hull: “We’re talking about our ability to process what we hear, to be able to make decisions about it, to be able to make financial decisions, for example.”

It’s one thing to be able to amplify sound to hear better, but it’s another entirely to process what we hear, according to Hull.

Hull: “There are a number of ways to improve hearing, through hearing aids for example, surgery. But for central nervous system processing, we need a central nervous system that’s working well, and improved cardiovascular health appears to be one way that that can happen.”

Hull says we can help ourselves by maintaining an active lifestyle.

Hull: “One of the most important things that we can do to prevent an aging central nervous system and our ability to understand and process what we hear is to maintain an active lifestyle — aerobics, swimming, walking.”

Hull: “It doesn’t seem to matter when we begin, that can happen at any age. But the most important thing is that improving our cardiovascular health appears to be able to turn back our biological clock.”

And that is good news for those who want to be able to understand what people are saying.

Hull: “Hearing loss can occur for many reasons and at any age, but processing what we hear doesn’t have to get old.”

Considering that our cardiovascular health can play an important role in processing or understanding what we hear, maybe it shouldn’t come as any surprise that so many elderly struggle in that area.

Hull: “One of the reasons auditory processing, or the processing of what we hear tends to decline with advancing age, is that as people age, they become less and less active.”

According to Hull, it appears that age is not the only factor contributing to decreased hearing sensitivity, but good cardiovascular health supports hearing sensitivity for all ages. Further, researchers found the greatest difference in favor of good cardiovascular health and hearing in the 80-plus-year-old group.

Thanks for listening. Until next time, this is Joe Kleinsasser for Wichita State University.