Healthline (Continued from page 10)


Hearing aids come in four main designs, each of which positions the electronics in a different place— partially in the ear canal, completely in the ear canal, in the ear bowl, or behind the ear. (The Hearing Loss Association of America—www.hearing loss.org—is a good source of informa- tion about these choices.) The larger the microphone and the more power- ful the amplifier, the larger the hearing aid will be. Size and price are the two factors that most affect people’s decision-making processes when deciding on a type of hearing aid, but other practical issues like ease of handling and device mainte- nance should be taken into consider- ation as well.


Care must be taken in handling and maintaining hearing aids. Most are tiny and easy to lose. Controls are tinier still. Batteries must be changed. The smaller and less obtrusive the device, the more frequent the battery changes are. The devices must be kept clean and dry or their normal lifetime of three to five years diminishes—not an insignifi- cant problem given their costs, which range from $500 to $5,000. A good hearing clinic will offer a variety of styles of hearing aids to choose from as well as a variety of brands and instruction and supervised practice in the use of a hearing aid. Most repu- table manufacturers offer a thirty- to sixty-day trial period and accept returns. Given the size of the invest- ment, it is wise to use this period


It’s Your Business (Continued from page 8)


Deutsche Bank, and the Bank of New York Mellon. Each bank offers ADRs for thousands of companies from dozens of countries.


Diving in Deeper


It’s possible that you might not find an ADR for the company you are interested in. In that case, you can invest directly in foreign markets by purchasing shares on that country’s


56


Departed GL Officers


Past Grand Lodge Committeeman David E. Homewood, of the Redding, CA, Lodge, died September 1. Brother Homewood served on the Grand Lodge Ritualistic Com- mittee from 1999 to 2002 and, as a member of the Garden Grove, CA, Lodge, was district deputy for the Orange Coast District of California in 1977–1978.


Past District Deputy Richard D. Burris, of the Cumberland County, TN, Lodge, died September 6. Brother Burris served as district deputy for the East District of Tennessee in 1998–1999.


Past District Deputy Norman H. McIntyre Sr., of the Hartford, VT, Lodge, died September 11. Brother McIntyre served as district deputy for the South District of Vermont in 1998–1999.


Past District Deputy Glenn C. Rutan, of the Ravenna, OH, Lodge, died September 6. Brother Rutan served as district deputy for the Northeast South District of Ohio in 1983–1984.


Past District Deputy Richard P. Turner, of the Minneapolis, MN, Lodge, died October 5, 2009. Brother Turner served as district deputy for the Metropolitan District of Minnesota in 1986–1987.


well, becoming thoroughly accus- tomed to handling the device chosen. Success with a hearing aid requires learning and patience.


No hearing aid restores normal hearing. In fact, once a hearing aid is in place, the brain has to adapt to the electronically mediated information it receives, and the more the device is used, the faster this process occurs. Since the aging process in some people involves not only the sensory parts of the ear but also the auditory pathways in the brain, some hearing deficits are compounded by trouble


stock exchanges. However, direct purchase of stocks outside of one’s home country can be a dauntingly complex process. The first thing you need to do is to contact your own brokerage firm and see whether it provides a service facilitating foreign trades in the target country. If it does, the broker needs to contact an affiliate firm located in the target country. Even if your broker’s foreign partner provides such a service, it may not have access to the specific stock you want to buy shares of. In such cases, you can set up a brokerage


decoding complex sounds such as conversation. When decoding is the main problem, a hearing aid may not help because it simply boosts the volume of selected sound frequencies. Careful audiometric analysis may be necessary to predict decoding prob- lems, which require other coping strategies.


Improving hearing technology gives new meaning to the old proverb “No one is as deaf as the man who will not listen.” Most people with hearing loss can be helped—but only if they first acknowledge the problem. ■


account directly with a firm in the country involved. But for most investors, this simply isn’t a practical approach.


Is there a place in your portfolio for


foreign equities? Global stocks may seem too exotic if you’re a conservative investor, but going global offers some important advantages, including diversification over multiple econo- mies and wider geographic areas. Foreign stocks may also offer you an opportunity to benefit from much higher rates of return than are cur- rently available in our own economy. ■


D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 0 / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 1


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