The 44 Sounds Hearing Aid Clinic

09/28/2025

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09/11/2025

Did you know?
Most hearing clinics in Canada are not independent. Many belong to large international corporations like Reunion Hearing Group, Inc. (Beltone), Demant (HearingLife), WS Audiology (HearCANADA), Sonova (Connect Hearing), Amplifon, or Costco (U.S. based).

These chains usually sell their own house products, follow strict corporate pricing, and offer limited flexibility. Their staff often cannot choose freely from all brands or tailor solutions outside company policy.

As an independent clinic, we are free to recommend what genuinely fits your hearing needs. We carry multiple brands, adjust packages, and design care around you—not a head office.

09/10/2025

Beware the Toxic Sale:
Lessons for Every Day, Not Just in Hearing Aid Clinics

1. Squeeze as much as possible
• Push for maximum money, upsell at all costs.
2. Scare tactics
• Pressure with fear: “If you don’t buy now, your life will collapse.”
3. Confusion / Hiding details
• Overcomplicated contracts, hidden fees, vague promises.
4. Guilt trips
• “If you care about your family, you’d buy this.”
5. Endless follow-ups
• Harassing with calls/emails to wear down client.
6. Fake urgency
• “Only 2 left,” “Offer ends tonight” when it’s not true.
7. Overselling / Overpromising
• Claim product does more than it can.
8. Sympathy traps
• Playing the victim as a seller: “Please help me hit my quota

08/30/2025

HEARING LOSS
is a Silent Thief
Catch it early with a FREE Test

08/18/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19UbiH22eJ/?mibextid=wwXIfr

08/07/2025

07/29/2025

In Memoriam: Brian Morris (1962–2025)

I'm deeply saddened to share that my client, Brian Morris, passed away on July 27, 2025, at the age of 62 after a fast and unexpected battle with cancer.

Brian had not yet reached retirement. He leaves behind a young son and had recently brought a dog into his life—plans for the future that were abruptly cut short.

His passing is a stark and painful reminder of how fragile and unpredictable life can be. My thoughts are with his family during this incredibly difficult time.

07/11/2025

Aging and Social Withdrawal: Brain Network Shifts May Be a Hidden Driver

New research shows that social withdrawal in older adults may be tied not just to external circumstances, but to functional changes in brain network connectivity as we age.

A study published in PLOS ONE found that:

Decreased connectivity between the frontoparietal and default mode networks (DMN) is associated with lower self-esteem, impaired cognition, and reduced sociability.

Increased connectivity in limbic-insular circuits, often activated in social exclusion, may increase emotional sensitivity in aging.

These changes may undermine emotional regulation, communication, and assertiveness — key components of sociability.

Using resting-state fMRI from 196 healthy participants aged 20–77, researchers linked network shifts with scores on a sociability scale. They found that both increased and decreased connectivity patterns independently mediated the relationship between age and sociability.

Bottom line: Social withdrawal with age isn't just a psychological or environmental problem. It's possibly neurologically encoded. Interventions targeting sociability should consider the neural dimension, not just social opportunity.

Citation:
Anderson, P. (2025, June 4). Social Withdrawal in Aging Tied to Shifts in Brain Networks. Medscape Medical News.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/social-withdrawal-aging-tied-shifts-brain-networks-2025a1000f29

07/09/2025

37% of US Adults Face Moderate-to-Severe Loneliness — It’s a Public Health Signal, Not Just a Social One

New data from the 2021–2022 Health Information National Trends Survey show that over one-third of U.S. adults experience significant loneliness, with 14% reporting it at severe levels.

Risk groep:
Young adults (18–34)
Lower-income individuals
Those identifying as gay or le***an
People with depression or short sleep duration
Adults with multiple chronic illnesses (especially heart and lung disease)

Implications:
This isn’t a vague emotional issue — severe loneliness correlates with poorer health outcomes, including higher rates of depression, chronic disease, and even mortality.

Researchers stress the need for targeted health screenings and preventive strategies, especially for vulnerable groups. Loneliness isn’t evenly distributed — it follows clear socioeconomic and health-related lines.

Citation:
Talwadekar, M. (Ed.). (2025, June 16). Loneliness Among US Adults: A Growing Concern? Medscape Medical News.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/loneliness-among-us-adults-growing-concern-2025a1000g0i

07/09/2025

Everyone says "Canada's healthcare system is broken" but most don’t actually dig into why. Canada’s healthcare isn’t public in the way people think—it’s publicly funded but privately delivered. Doctors are private contractors. Clinics are private businesses. Hospitals are run like corporations. The government just pays the bill. So, yes—just because they bill the government doesn’t make them public in behavior or motivation. The system pays per visit, per procedure, per diagnostic code. There is zero financial incentive for prevention, follow-up, or long-term results. The more they see, the more they make. Time equals money. Quantity equals profit. And because most physicians are self-employed under this structure, they’re stuck in that model whether they like it or not.

“Broken” really means overloaded and unaccountable. Wait times are extreme—not because of lack of funding alone, but because there’s no structural efficiency. There’s no consequence for bad outcomes, no penalty for wasted time or misdiagnosis. The system is bloated with admin layers, gatekeeping, and bottlenecks—all while patients get sicker waiting.

Just like in traffic, people are frustrated by the delays without realizing they’re part of the volume. But the system was designed to encourage dependence instead of self-management. Example: endless repeat visits for prescriptions or referrals that could be handled more efficiently—but aren’t, because that’s how the money flows.

Canada’s healthcare isn’t broken because it’s “too public.” It’s broken because it’s a public payer system feeding a private incentive structure that rewards throughput—not health. The fact that billing goes to the government is irrelevant—if the behavior is profit-seeking, it functions like a private system. People waiting 18 months for surgery while providers bill millions for appointments that solve nothing—that’s the result. The system isn’t “overwhelmed by demand,” it’s designed to prioritize transaction over transformation.

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