Quincy Hearing May 2017

May 2017

THIS hear Follow the beat of better hearing and healthy living Filled With a New Purpose

Our Plan to Help Cancer Patients Suffering From Poor Hearing

center on the property and are raising money to sponsor 12 patients at a time to experience this new kind of treatment — a program they hope will only grow with time. That deeply moving conversation planted a seed in both of our minds and got us thinking about the ways that we might be able to contribute to fighting the cancer epidemic. We’d been looking for some big, wide-reaching way to help out, but being around all these people tangibly working to fight cancer, we realized that maybe we’d been thinking too big. Maybe we didn’t have to wait until we had this huge grand plan. Maybe we could just use our immediate resources and establish some means to aid those who are suffering as soon as possible. So, long story short, we’re in the early stages of starting to partner with a nonprofit foundation, applying our own unique expertise in order to improve the quality of life of cancer patients. Many people don’t know this, but cancer, and especially chemotherapy, destroys your hearing. Of course, amid the myriad costs associated with cancer treatment, worries about hearing well can easily fall by the wayside, essentially eliminating a massive component of the quality of life of the patient. Janice and I are looking to alleviate this through the creation of a program that provides cancer patients with free access to hearing aids, as well

Everyone has their own experience with cancer. Since Janice’s mother passed away of lung cancer recently, both of us have been looking for an opportunity to aid others suffering from the disease in any way we can. Luckily, one avenue has presented itself in the past few months — one that’s energized us with the feeling of purpose and the potential to help others. Let me give a little background first. Back in February, I was visiting Costa Rica for a two-week “entrepreneurial mastermind” to learn tactics to optimize our business systems and provide better patient care. At the conference, I got the chance to talk with an extremely successful man whose wife had recently recovered from cancer. everything, bought a huge amount of property in Costa Rica, and moved them both down there. Along with his own fervent research, he gathered as many experts in medicine as he could in order to determine the best possible treatment for his wife and the millions of others suffering from the disease. Essentially — and I’m oversimplifying here — together they created a natural, nutritional, plant-based diet approach to treating cancer, applied in tandem with many treatments prescribed by traditional oncologists. Through several months with the treatment, his wife had made it out completely cancer-free. Now they’re in the process of building a wellness Originally a scientist from New York, upon hearing his wife’s diagnosis, he dropped

as treatments through Quincy Hearing or other partnered providers.

Though it’s still in the early stages — we don’t even have a name for the program yet — we’re both deeply passionate about the cause. Seeing the painful impact cancer has had on our loved ones firsthand, we’re eager to ease the debilitating burden of treatment in any way we can. Of course, getting something like this off the ground is anything but easy. The paperwork alone is incredibly complicated. But, it’ll all be worth it if, down the line, we’re able to change even one patient’s life for the better.

Phil Powis

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Stave Off Loneliness With Technology

Testimonial Corner

According to a study by Harvard University, 33 percent of people aged 50 and above live alone. Living alone poses many risks to your health and well-being. An English Longitudinal Study of Ageing found that socially isolated people are more likely to smoke, have a poor diet, and exercise infrequently. Social support goes a long way toward maintaining a healthier lifestyle — and technology can help with that. Here are a few tech tools that can help stave off loneliness in retirement. Smartphones Seventy-eight percent of Americans over 65 use cellphones, but only 30 percent own smartphones. However, smartphones contain many apps — including texting, email, and social media apps — that can help keep you connected to your friends and family. Tablets and E-readers Besides being useful for reading e-books, tablets provide a bigger screen for video conferencing with family. You can also email, share photos, play Words With Friends, and more, all from your tablet! Many seniors are using them in lieu of a desktop computer because they are portable and capable of enlarging text. Skype or Facetime Video calling apps are popular with seniors who have grandchildren or other family members who live far away. While these interactions shouldn’t replace face-to-face in-person visits, video calls can definitely supplement such visits, allowing families to connect more frequently. Uber Uber, a ride-sharing service, can be great for seniors too! With Uber, you don’t have to worry about parking or getting gas. For seniors who don’t have a license, Uber is the perfect solution for getting back out on your own terms. Instead of having people come to you, you can meet up with your friends and family at the gym, golf course, coffee shop, or the shopping mall — anywhere you’d like to be! The days of technology being used only for entertainment are long gone. Now, more and more people are using technology to connect with others — and you can too. No matter your age, living alone doesn’t have to be an isolating and lonely experience!

– Donna M.

“Absolutely wonderful!”

– Noreen G.

“I felt welcome from the first time I made the call to schedule an appointment with Miss Eileen. She was most helpful, pleasant, and funny. Dr. Powis was a delight, gave me a thorough exam, and gave me the right directions. I would recommend this office to one and all.”

– Jack O.

“I have been very pleased with my experience with Dr. Powis and Quincy Hearing Aid. She is very professional and really wants the best for her customers. I look forward to being a customer for many years to come.”

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Hearing Health TIPS

The Q-tip Quandary

Should I Be Using Q-tips to Clean My Ears?

You don’t need to do anything special to clean your ears — they’re self-cleaning! You ear canals move as you talk and chew, creating a “conveyer belt” motion that moves wax out of your ears on its own. You may have heard the saying “don’t put anything sharper than your elbow in your ear,” and it holds true — unless it’s through professional treatment. It’s important to leave the ear cleaning to your audiologist, primary care doctor, or nurse, and leave the delicate structure of your ear alone.

Almost everybody knows the pleasant feeling of cleaning out your ears with a Q-tip. Many people swear by the little white implements, cleaning their ears as often as every day. However, Q-tips are really not your best option when it comes to cleaning out your ears if they’re extra clogged for some reason — and it’s likely that your habitual usage of Q-tips is actually causing more harm than good. If you look closely at the packing of Q-tips, you’ll probably see a warning that says “not meant to clean ear canals.” It’s true that when you stick a Q-tip in your ear and pull it out, there will be some waxy residue. What’s really happening, though, is that you’re pushing the wax further into your ear. During otoscopy, an audiologist can immediately tell whether a patient has been using Q-tips, as the wax is shoved to the back, packed in tightly. This clumped-up wax can negatively affect your hearing, and if you use a hearing aid, can interfere with the device, causing it to whistle.

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Easiest Chickpea Curry

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons ketchup • Salt and pepper, to taste • Chopped cilantro (optional) • Lemon wedges (optional)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil • 1 large yellow onion, diced • 3 garlic cloves, minced • 1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick • Pinch of ground cloves • 2 (15-ounce) cans no-salt- added chickpeas, rinsed and drained

Directions:

1. In a large straight-sided skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. 2. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until dark brown around edges, for about 6 minutes. 3. Add garlic, curry, cinnamon, and cloves and cook, stirring, until fragrant, for 30 seconds. 4. Add chickpeas, ketchup, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 20 minutes. 5. Uncover and increase heat to medium-high; cook until sauce is slightly reduced, for 5 minutes. 6. Serve with chopped cilantro and lemon wedges, if desired.

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INSIDE this issue SEE WHAT’S

Our Plan to Help Cancer Patients Suffering From Poor Hearing PAGE 1 Stave Off Loneliness With Technology Testimonial Corner PAGE 2 Should I Be Using Q-tips to Clean My Ears? Chickpea Curry Sudoku PAGE 3

An Epic American Journey PAGE 4

AN EPIC AMERICAN JOURNEY

The story of Lewis and Clark is an essential part of American history and a powerful account of courage and discovery. Geography professor John Loga Allen succinctly summed up the tale’s allure: “It is the American Epic.” When we think of the American ideal of perseverance and ambition against insurmountable odds, it is hard not to think of Lewis and Clark.

crosses the Rocky Mountains does so in their footsteps.” The expedition they led was truly a journey into uncharted territory, which can be hard to comprehend for contemporary Americans. Lewis and Clark departed with 33 people and encountered many native tribes, both friendly and hostile, during their excursion. Perhaps the most famous Native American they met was Sacagawea, a Lemhi Shoshone woman who was provided the party with invaluable guidance. Nearly 18 months later, on November 7, 1805, the expedition became the first party of Americans to see the Pacific Ocean. Remarkably, despite the incredible hardship of the journey, only one man, Sergeant Charles Floyd, died during the trip. The cause of death, innocuously enough, was likely a ruptured appendix. In addition to mapping out a significant portion of the continental United States, Lewis and Clark also identified scores of native species that were previously unknown. The geographical, botanical, and anthropological discoveries of the pair are still marveled at to this day through the remarkable journals they kept.

If you wanted to, you could go online right now and view a detailed map of every inch of the country with a simple Google search. With technology like that, it’s easy to forget that not so long ago, much of the United States was largely an uninhabited wilderness. When Thomas Jefferson organized the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, he knew little of the vast swath of land he had bought on behalf of the country. To survey the newly acquired terrain, Jefferson commissioned two men, Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark, to lead an expedition across the Continental Divide. They set off from St. Louis 213 years ago this month, on May 14, 1804. When asked what is so enduring about the story of Lewis and Clark, historian Stephen E. Ambrose notes, “They were first. They led the way. Everyone who canoes on the Missouri River paddles in their wake. Everyone who

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