Sunday, September 15, 2019

How Hearing Loss Leads To Lonelines

Plus: Bootcamp For New Dads
Jason LeCras for NPR

‘Bootcamp For New Dads’ Helps Fathers Learn To Bond With Baby

So, your squirming, squealing baby has just plopped into the world and won’t stop crying. Now what?

In the waning months of his wife’s pregnancy, that prospect terrified Yaka Oyo, a 37-year-old father-to-be in New York City. Then he signed up for Bootcamp for New Dads, a prenatal class taught by men for men, and learned what one OB-GYN calls a dad’s “secret parenting weapon”: swaddling. 

Oyo picked up concrete skills: “how to read my daughter’s cues,” and use a low voice to sing to her, as well as how to diaper, feed and hold her. Even more important, he became comfortable in his new identity as a father – which is key to father-baby bonding.

READ ON to learn how the whole family benefits when men become engaged fathers from infancy on.

BONUS: Remember, You’re Not Your Father

Leren Lu/Getty Images

How Hearing Loss Worsens Loneliness

Roughly 1 in 5 people in the United States has some degree of hearing loss – a condition strongly linked to loneliness and isolation, especially in older people. According to one Dutch study, each decibel drop in hearing experienced by people under 70 boosts the odds of becoming severely lonely by 70 percent.

It’s a bad spiral: Researchers say prolonged isolation is as hazardous to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day – dramatically raising the risk of depression, dementia and early death.

Hearing aids can turn all that around quickly, preliminary research suggests.

READ ON to learn how congressional moves could soon help you get a better, less expensive hearing aid.

BONUS: Why is everybody mumbling? A $5 phone test can check your hearing now

Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

Could A Ban On Flavored E-Cigs Help The Youth Vaping Crisis?

Alarmed by new survey data that shows teens are continuing to use e-cigarettes in increasing numbers, the Food and Drug Administration announced this week that it’s working up a policy to ban kid-friendly “vape juice” flavors such as bubblegum, mango and mint.

In 2019, more than a quarter of high-school kids report having used e-cigarettes, the HHS says. Middle school students are picking up the vaping habit, too.

Health officials still don’t know whether flavored products have contributed nationally to the several hundred recent cases of lung disease among young people, including at least six deaths, that seem tied to vaping. But people who are addicted to the nicotine in vaping devices do put themselves at risk, says Paul Billings, national senior vice president of advocacy at the American Lung Association.

READ ON to learn how the FDA’s proposed ban may expand to include tobacco-flavored vapes, too.

More of this week's health stories from NPR

What Med Schools Now Teach About Relieving Pain

​​​​​​​A New Treatment For Peanut Allergies

​​​​​​​How To Build Resilience In Your Kids
 
We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots and follow us on Twitter at @NPRHealth.

Your Shots editor,

Deb Franklin
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