Technological progress: better hearing than normal hearing

[HH scientist]

aren't there actual diseases and other health crises that money could be spent on?

I am sure that there are. Old adversaries such as malaria and tuberculosis were not caught by the health care revolution brought about by vaccines and penicillin developed from the 40's to 60's. To date only smallpox has been eradicated and two more diseases, guinea worms and polio, are close to being eradicated. I will use the example of malaria that some progress is being made in the fight against diseases. And remember we still have no 'fancy' drugs with colorful names against this diseases, so they are using simple solutions to a complex problem.

Take a look here: Malaria: Squashing mosquitoes with dollar bills | The Economist. And funding is increasing, which is want and it is clearly money well spent.

Future technology - genetic engineering and all that stuff - will be able to deal with everything from infectious diseases (spread by bacteria and viruses) to (hereditary) genetic diseases. But we are still waiting for that to happen because our technology is not mature yet. And deafness is one of those in my opinion.

I remember Muhammed Yunus (the guy who got the Nobel Peace Prize for microloans) once saying that he wants to put poverty in a museum. And diseases is one cause of poverty. So fighting diseases also fights poverty and putting them in a museum is what I want to happen.

 

[shel90]

Wow...I guess I have a disease since I am deaf. I need to be SAVED so I wont die from it.

 

[HH scientist]

Wow...I guess I have a disease since I am deaf. I need to be SAVED so I wont die from it.

You got me. You will not die from it - definitely. Perhaps I meant that deafness is not a disease but it has got awkward social implications.

I am diabetic (type 1) too, so maybe I was thinking about that too when writing my previous posts. Diabetes type 1 is lethal immediately if not treated and type 2 after a while. I have to spend the whole day thinking about my blood sugar level and ensuring that it is not too high or too low. It requires a lot concentration and 24/7 attention.

 

[shel90]

You got me. You will not die from it - definitely. Perhaps I meant that deafness is not a disease but it has got awkward social implications.

I am diabetic (type 1) too, so maybe I was thinking about that too when writing my previous posts. Diabetes type 1 is lethal immediately if not treated and type 2 after a while. I have to spend the whole day thinking about my blood sugar level and ensuring that it is not too high or too low. It requires a lot concentration and 24/7 attention.

Not awkward in social situations anymore thanks to ASL and the Deaf community. I am still deaf as a stone.

Anyways, hope your health stays good. Diabetes isnt something to mess around with.

 

[sallylou]

I was socially awkward before hearing loss. Ironically, I socialize more with ASL. :P

 

[dogmom]

think ya missed it, HH scientist....

deaf = disease??

NOT

diabetes, now that's a medical thing.....

and I do hope that anyone with diabetes lives well for them

 

[whatdidyousay!]

"Somewhere over the rainbow..."

Sad that some hate deafness so much that they would hang onto any pie in the sky that might make them hearing.

I would be very upset if I lost all my hearing. I would be terrible using a tty
as my spelling terrible!! No would know what I am try to spell. Spell check can't help me all the time either.

 

[Jane B.]

I would be very upset if I lost all my hearing. I would be terrible using a tty
as my spelling terrible!! No would know what I am try to spell. Spell check can't help me all the time either.

I am assuming that you are in the US. If so, you can use your state relay service for phone calls with VCO. In that case you talk to the other person and the CA types what that person is saying so that you can read it on your TTY. No spelling skills needed.

 

[HH scientist]

think ya missed it, HH scientist....

deaf = disease??

NOT

diabetes, now that's a medical thing.....

and I do hope that anyone with diabetes lives well for them

It seems to me like we are on the same frequency. Diabetes is manageable but not to fool around with. One advantage is that I got the opportunity do to research (genetics) which is inspiring and feels like revenge in a sense. It says that revenge is sweet and I hope to live to the moment when gene therapy is getting useful and we can put more diseases in a museum.

 

[VacationGuy234]

I have a deaf female friend who has no problem teasing me about the fact that if I lose my hearing it is not the end of the world(there is a source of strength in this). I know she means this in all sincerity, but I also know that it is difficult for her to understand. HoH people do understand that deaf people are OK with being deaf, but, by the same token, deaf people need to understand how great a loss it is for someone who has had hearing to lose it. Now, some might say you cannot know, on either side what that would be like, but it does not take personal knowledge to have empathy.

 

[KarissaMann05]

Wow...I guess I have a disease since I am deaf. I need to be SAVED so I wont die from it.

This post made me want to attempt to create a dA stamp for "Deafness is an inability, not a fatal disease". -__-

 

[deafskeptic]

I've carefully researched CIs and am open to the idea of having one. But the hard fact is that what you can hear via the latest CIs are nowhere near what a normal* ear hears. I'm not sure they ever will. For example a normal* ear has around 15,000 hair cells to send sound information to the brain. The current generation of CIs have a mere 24 electrodes to do the same job.

CI is a cure for deafness in the way two wooden sticks are a cure for missing legs. Sure I can "walk" again, but don't tell me that I can walk like a normal* person.

[*By "normal" I mean "the majority" - NOT "normal" as a standard for everyone to be measured against.]

Nod. I've always told others that the sounds that I hear via my CI is not same as what the hearing hear and that the sounds that I hear is fairly distorted. I am not likely to ever have normal hearing in my lifetime.

 

[deafskeptic]

You got me. You will not die from it - definitely. Perhaps I meant that deafness is not a disease but it has got awkward social implications.

I am diabetic (type 1) too, so maybe I was thinking about that too when writing my previous posts. Diabetes type 1 is lethal immediately if not treated and type 2 after a while. I have to spend the whole day thinking about my blood sugar level and ensuring that it is not too high or too low. It requires a lot concentration and 24/7 attention.

Been there done that. There's noooo escape from diabetes.

 

[deafskeptic]

think ya missed it, HH scientist....

deaf = disease??

NOT

diabetes, now that's a medical thing.....

and I do hope that anyone with diabetes lives well for them

Yeah. I hope there's a cure for diabetes within my life time. It's potentially fatal for the diabetics.

 

[C-NICE]

I got hit with progressive hearing loss at 22 and type 1 diabetes at 30. I did not take either one very well.

 

[Banjo]

I am perfectly content with being deaf. I know it's not the same for everyone else, but seriously, there is more to life than than just being deaf and it has nothing to do with hearing.

 

[jillio]

Yes they do rest, but in the cochlea something interesting happens. Multiple nerves are responsible for the same frequency. This allows them to alternate. I have no clue how they do this but I suspect its similar to how they cancel out frequency leakage (in "normal" hearing). Almost like a nerve in a cluster saying "I got this one guys". While that nerve is recovering the next nerve can carry the message.

I'm sure there is a really good and detailed scientific explination in how the cochlea works, but I am not a scientist and can only share my understanding of the subject. I honestly hope I am not sharing miss-information, but I don't think I am. Perhaps my terminology is not right, but the concept is sound. (whoops, pun was not intended on that last word)

Yes, in the cochlea several nerves are responsible for the same frequency. However, the CI, and any other device like the CI bypasses the cochlea and goes straight to the 8th cranial nerve. There is no device at present, nor do I forsee one in the future that would be able to replicate what occurs in the connections between the external hearing mechanisms, the auditory nerve and its branches, and the areas of the brain responsible for processing various types of auditory stimuli.

 

[jillio]

Yeah. I hope there's a cure for diabetes within my life time. It's potentially fatal for the diabetics.

There is constant research being done. This is a disease that affects millions upon millions, and cuts short the life of many. These disorders are where are research dollars need to be going.

 

[jillio]

I am sure that there are. Old adversaries such as malaria and tuberculosis were not caught by the health care revolution brought about by vaccines and penicillin developed from the 40's to 60's. To date only smallpox has been eradicated and two more diseases, guinea worms and polio, are close to being eradicated. I will use the example of malaria that some progress is being made in the fight against diseases. And remember we still have no 'fancy' drugs with colorful names against this diseases, so they are using simple solutions to a complex problem.

Take a look here: Malaria: Squashing mosquitoes with dollar bills | The Economist. And funding is increasing, which is want and it is clearly money well spent.

Future technology - genetic engineering and all that stuff - will be able to deal with everything from infectious diseases (spread by bacteria and viruses) to (hereditary) genetic diseases. But we are still waiting for that to happen because our technology is not mature yet. And deafness is one of those in my opinion.

I remember Muhammed Yunus (the guy who got the Nobel Peace Prize for microloans) once saying that he wants to put poverty in a museum. And diseases is one cause of poverty. So fighting diseases also fights poverty and putting them in a museum is what I want to happen.

You have that reversed. Poverty creates the condition by which disease propogates. Disease does not cause poverty.

 

[HH scientist]

You have that reversed. Poverty creates the condition by which disease propogates. Disease does not cause poverty.

You have a point. Poverty causes disease, but I am also sure that disease causes poverty. The influence and augment each other. It is some kind of spiral. But if you want to get of them both, you have to start somewhere with both or either of them.