Gail Shields-Miller started losing her hearing a few years ago.

“I thought it was like, okay, I was coasting. It didn’t seem that bad until my son said, ‘Mom, you’re not hearing anything,’” she told NY1.

Shields-Miller saw an audiologist and started wearing hearing aids.

“I think there’s so many people that they’re still embarrassed that they don’t hear,” she said. “I think there’s a little bit of a taboo on wearing hearing aids. So once you cross over that and say, ‘I don’t give a hoot about it,’ it becomes a much better relationship with your hearing aids.”

Shields-Miller says wearing hearing aids has improved her quality of life, and researchers say it may slow the onset of dementia.

“Because of the lack of auditory information when there’s a hearing loss, they believe that that’s

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