Josh: More people need to recognize that role that genetics play in their health and what happens to him. Most people really do attribute hearing loss to environmental factors, and there are definitely many cases where this is true, but certainly if a family all begin losing their hearing, especially earlier in their lives, the cause should be recognized as being genetic. I’m glad that at least in this case, someone investigated it.

Pat Phalin learned she had hearing loss at 30, when she volunteered to give hearing tests at her local school. The pupils heard sounds she could not hear.

Her husband Larry, a genealogy enthusiast, saw a pattern in his wife’s family history. Her mother, grandfather and great-grandfather had severe hearing loss as adults. One of the Phalins’ children had hearing problems before he reached school age. … Continue Reading »