October 2021 Newsletter
Thanks for the recognition!
In our October newsletter we announced with great pride that our newest product BeHear SMARTO, a simple to operate body-worn personal sound amplifier, was awarded first place in the Personal Listening Amplifier (wearable) category of the annual Hearing Technology Innovator Awards™. We thank all of our supporters for helping to make this happen! As a BeHear follower we invite you to pre-order SMARTO at a big discount.
ALSO IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
♦ Recent publication from FDA for OTC hearing aids explained ♦ “I can now hear what’s being said” review from BeHear NOW customer ♦ Invitation to HLAA webinar introducing SMARTO ♦ Free admission to CES for Behear subscribers ♦
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September 2021 Newsletter
BeHear Back to the Routine
In this September newsletter we formally introduced our newest product: BeHear SMARTO, a simple to operate body-worn personal sound amplifier. As a BeHear follower we invite you to preorder SMARTO at a big discount.
ALSO IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
♦ “Situational hearing devices” trend explained ♦ BeHear hearing solutions now in French electronic retailer, Boulanger ♦ “Life-changing” review from BeHear PROXY customer ♦ Special discount on BeHear PROXY neck speaker and bundle ♦
To get these newsletters sent directly to your inbox, register here. ♦
August 2021 Newsletter
BeHear Latest Summer News
♦ OTC policy as opportunity for audiologists ♦ Photographer/Paramedic reviews BeHear ♦ Promoting hearing health in China ♦
To get these newsletters sent directly to your inbox, register here. ♦
Promoting Hearing Health in China with BeHear Hearing Self-Check Kiosks
You may know that our products are designed in Israel, and then manufactured in China. But did you know that BeHear products are sold in China in a wide variety of sectors? Here are a few examples of how BeHear technology improves the life of people in China.
Airport Stores
Enjoying your own personal music selection and video fare is one of the best ways to make air travel pleasant. We are thrilled to work with a retail partner in China to deploy hearing check kiosks and the full range of BeHear products in the AI Smart Times airport stores network in Shenzhen, Zhengzhou, Harbin, Xi’an, Hangzhou, and Chongqing.
While waiting for their flight, travelers can self-check their hearing and choose an appropriate listening enhancement solution from the BeHear product line.
Community Welfare Sector
We have established partnerships in Nantong, Jiangsu Province to offer hearing check service using our kiosks in local community centers. BeHear products are offered to patients if they prefer the listening levels they experience with BeHear technology applied.
The same type of partnership is in effect in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, where our kiosks are installed in the local health management center serving the neighborhood.
Elderly Care Homes
BeHear has partnered with AoYuan Group, a leading network of elderly care homes in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. BeHear kiosks provide residents with the ability to check their hearing and experience the personalized improvement offered by BeHear technology.
The same program is underway with the China Everbright Group, one of the Fortune 500 companies with a subsidiary in the elderly care business in Zhengzhou, Henan Province. Three separate senior care centers in Zhengzhou are now offering BeHear hearing check services.
3 ways to avoid using our products
Our goal is to democratize hearing and help make everyone’s life sound better. That’s why we make cutting edge hearing technology accessible to everyone who needs it. BUT, since prevention is the best cure, we’ve decided to share 3 easy hearing tips that will help protect you and the people you love from hearing loss in the future:
Hearing tip № 1
Love to spend time at restaurants and bars with loud music? How about rock concerts? Prepare to be our customer! The outbreak of Covid19 made it difficult to do many of the things we most enjoy. The good news is that, as vaccinations become more prevalent and quarantines are opened, we are going back to our old routines. The bad news is that loud music creates a dangerous level of sound which damages your ears.
Avoid being close to loudspeakers, especially for extended periods of time. Prepare in advance and use earplugs or give your ears a rest by going outside from time to time.
Hearing tip № 2
Working in a loud place without hearing protection? Welcome to our club!
Many people are exposed the sounds generated by machinery during their working hours. That means extended exposure, day after day, for years. Hearing loss occurs slowly, over time and so, for example, a construction worker might not notice there is a problem until it is too late. This is a case of better safe than sorry! Your employer should supply you with ear protection in the form of noise cancelling headphones, or at least earplugs. If they don’t, it’s worth purchasing your own earplugs. The expense is small but the benefit in avoiding accumulative damage is large.
Hearing tip № 3
Are you a parent to a teenager? It’s important to check whether or not they are blasting their eardrums, paving the way to a future of hearing loss.
Teenagers commonly prefer listening to music at the highest possible volume to lose themselves in the beat. If you can hear the music “spilling out” of their room or headset, it is too loud – but that also means you are in luck! It’s highly probable that your teenager is blasting his or her ears via their headphones and, unless you actively check, you will never know. Be active in teaching hearing health awareness. Your kids might think you are annoying now (they will for a million other things anyway), but they will thank you in the future.
Whenever possible, it is best to prevent difficulties, but if you are currently experiencing hearing loss, no worries! Our hearables offer a simple and accessible hearing enhancement solution that make life sound better. There is no reason to miss out on the activities and interactions that you love!
How to keep your ears young and your mind sharp
Did you know that hearing health impacts not only your physical, but also your emotional and mental wellbeing? Most people don’t realize how important, or how complex hearing is. It’s the one sense we just don’t think about.
We experience the richness of life through our ears and don’t even notice. If a grilled cheese sandwich doesn’t sizzle, it doesn’t arouse our appetite in the same way. When we want to describe a city as exciting, we tend to focus on the bustling crowd and the urban beat. For nature it’s the bubbling of a brook, chirping birds or rustling leaves.
Sound injects feeling into experiences that would otherwise be mute, flat, and distant.
When we truly understand how complex the hearing mechanism is, it is easier to understand why it is a good idea to make hearing health part of our self-care anti-aging regimen, to maintain mental and physical wellness.
Hearing loss and cognitive function are related. The correlation between untreated hearing loss and cognitive decline is well documented. Hearing loss makes social interaction more difficult, reduces the ability to connect with others, and often leads to isolation and decreased physical activity. This results in a marked decline in physical and even mental health. Recent research has uncovered that untreated hearing loss in mid-life is the most significant factor in the later onset of dementia(!).
This discovery is shocking, but it is also good news. Awareness of the significance of hearing health, coupled with the realization that hearing degradation is a natural part of life, is the first step to implementing mitigatory care.
The challenge is in overcoming the psychological and financial barriers to seeking care. 15% of the general population experience some level of hearing loss but because degradation is gradual, many don’t recognize the decline until it becomes serious. On average it takes 7 years from the moment a person accepts that he or she is experiencing hearing loss to the point where they start to seek treatment.
When hearing loss is ignored and left untreated, the auditory system is deprived of sound, resulting in subsequent atrophy of the auditory nerves and speech processing areas of the brain. In other words, untreated hearing loss goes beyond the ears to affect the brain itself. Unfortunately, technological solutions cannot fully compensate for the physical and mental capabilities which are lost when ears go untreated. Severe hearing loss needs to be treated with hearing aids or surgery, solutions that are both expensive and complicated.
So how can we attain the best possible hearing health and maintain a high quality of life, for as long as possible?
3 steps for keeping the ears young and the mind sharp
Step 1: Awareness
Understanding that hearing matters can help us protect ourselves and those we love. Try to notice if you or someone close to you frequently asks people to repeat themselves, has trouble making out conversations in noisy places, or gets frustrated trying to understand dialogue on TV.
Step 2: Prevention
Age-related hearing loss is something most of us will eventually experience ourselves or in someone close to us. Preventative care can help delay onset so it is a good idea to protect the ears whenever possible. Avoid environments that are extremely loud, especially when the volume remains intense over extended periods of time. But what if you are a factory worker? Or work in a bar? Prepare in advance! Use protective gear, a headset or earplugs. It’s better to be safe than sorry!
Step 3: Get hearing help early!
Implementing assistive hearing solutions sooner, rather than later, addresses hearing challenges when the problem is mild to moderate. This is a way to keep the ears young and the mind sharp and help avoid worse problems in the future. BeHear hearables for example, are hearing enhancement solutions that provide the audio quality of hearing aids at the price of competing hearables. BeHear’s sophisticated technology provides a customizable solution that enables the wearer to self-tune and control his or her own hearing without having to go through the complex and expensive process of getting a hearing aid.