Latest / Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News / White noise machines and children’s developing brains: A hidden risk parents need to understand

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White noise machines and children’s developing brains: A hidden risk parents need to understand · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:06
  Welcome to the unto take a deep breath.
• 0:11
  Take the higher road.
• 0:13
  That's what they always say.
• 0:14
  Let's say they know the way they won't take it from me.
• 0:20
  Don't ever die yourself with swiping just a dream.
• 0:24
  You made your own so kid can scream.
• 0:27
  The people overlap with a never ending force.
• 0:31
  You never have the chance.
• 0:33
  So watch with work.
• 0:35
  It's calm, my friend, because this is whole.
• 0:44
  It's time at this life.
• 0:54
  All right.
• 0:55
  I'm so excited to be back today.
• 0:57
  Welcome to the Nurses Report with your host for this day, Nurse Gail McCray.
• 1:03
  And today I am very excited to welcome on a guest who we are going to be having a very interesting conversation about our children.
• 1:14
  Because everyone knows here that that is really my top priority.
• 1:43
  But today we are going to go into a different topic about the machines that we're using around our children's beds and the impacts that they have that we may not actually know about.
• 1:58
  And with me to have that discussion today is Beverly Ann Hanson.
• 2:03
  She's a registered nurse and neuroscience brain coach with 40 years, almost 40 years of clinical experience in medical and behavioral health technology and neuroscience.
• 2:15
  She is the founder and the CEO of Clinical Brainiacs, which is a Birmingham, Alabama-based brain education and advocacy nonprofit.
• 2:28
  She is also the author of the book, White Noise Dark Impact.
• 2:33
  Are we damaging children's brains?
• 2:37
  This is a groundbreaking book that challenges one of modern parents' most trusted sleep tools.
• 2:45
  Beverly Beverly's work sits at the intersection of clinical expertise and parent education, where we know there are so many holes through her platform at clinical um what is this?
• 3:04
  Brainiacs.org and her social media uh presence on LinkedIn, Twitter, X, formerly known as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
• 3:16
  She translates complex neuroscience into practical guidance that empowers parents and caregivers to make more informed decisions during the critical window in their child's brain development.
• 3:32
  Her book was recently recognized by the IIBA Health Award.
• 3:41
  So Beverly, thank you so much for coming on.
• 3:45
  I am really interested in this topic of really anything that has to do with our children's health.
• 3:53
  But this is one that I had never heard of before.
• 3:55
  And so it really sparked my interest to try and discover what is it that's really going on here.
• 4:03
  So if you could introduce yourself, any other details I missed out.
• 4:07
  How did you get into this work?
• 4:10
  And how is it?
• 4:11
  Um how's it been progressing for you?
• 4:15
  What's so interesting, and I am so happy to be here again on the nurse channel.
• 4:19
  And I think I want to start with the nursing piece here.
• 4:22
  So I've been a nurse over 40 years.
• 4:25
  You get started being a nurse, you don't really know where you're gonna go.
• 4:29
  And so I have had this circuitous path that when I tell you what I've done is led me why I knew immediately the white noise machines were very harmful.
• 4:40
  And so I did about 10, 15 years of acute care, and then I moved into population health.
• 4:45
  And so that was running, and a lot of people don't know this, but inside health plans like Blue Cross, Cygna.
• 4:50
  If they have um wellness programs, those are run by vendors.
• 4:54
  And so I did a chronic care vendor project.
• 4:57
  I did a CHF project.
• 5:00
  Then I moved into children's brain health through chip program, so that's Medicaid programs all over the country.
• 5:07
  I worked for a vendor that did that in like 40 health plans, and then I ran the behavioral health for a big regional blue plan.
• 5:15
  So that got me the other side.
• 5:16
  So I was the executive in charge of that.
• 5:19
  After leaving there, I went to work for a brain health company.
• 5:23
  It was so interesting, and that's why I have to just highlight this is the unique piece of experience that most people don't have.
• 5:29
  So I got to work with a company called Total Brain, and the founders, Dr.
• 5:33
  Ebby and Gordon, a world-renowned neuroscientist, and he has an assessment for how you assess brain capacities.
• 5:40
  So, how is your brain performing?
• 5:42
  And it's validated from ages eight to 99, and it's used clinically in a lot of neurology clinics.
• 5:49
  In fact, um, Dr.
• 5:50
  Amen, most people know Dr.
• 5:52
  Daniel Ayman.
• 5:53
  He has um about 15 clinics across the country.
• 5:56
  He primarily works for children uh who have anxiety, ADHD, uh, traumatic brain injuries.
• 6:02
  Every child in those um clinics gets assessed with the total brain assessment.
• 6:07
  So that gives me this different perspective on how the brain functions.
• 6:12
  So when we talk about a white noise machine, it's always out there as a slate tool, but it is impacting so many other things.
• 6:21
  And so, you know, what we hear really shapes who we become, and I think especially the influencers that are number one selling a product like a white noise machine and encouraging these parents to use them, have no idea the impact these are gonna have on the baby's brains down the road.
• 6:42
  And I have some very frightening statistics that I want every clinician that is listening to this podcast to think when they see a child to ask these questions.
• 6:51
  Wow.
• 6:53
  So that's a great uh background into what makes you an expert to discuss this.
• 6:59
  Uh so let's just let's get into the uh the science.
• 7:00
  So let's just let's get into the uh the science.
• 7:05
  Um you watched your own grandson uh develop uh develop with uh white noise uh machine running.
• 7:05
  Um you watched your own grandson uh develop uh developed with uh white noise uh machine running.
• 7:17
  What did you notice as a grandmother and somebody with all of this clinical background experience uh that changed everything?
• 7:17
  What did you notice as a grandmother and somebody with all of this clinical background experience uh that changed everything?
• 7:29
  That is a
• 7:29
  That is a great question, and you know, you go from being a parent to then you have that big gap and you become a grandparent, and boy, the world had changed by the time you know I started seeing all of my little grandson and his little peers, and so what changed at that time is the prolific use of white noise machines, and I want to make sure everybody here knows white noise was invented in the 1960s, it was invented for adults.
• 7:56
  It was a husband whose wife couldn't go to sleep, and he took a fan noise and concentrated it, okay.
• 8:02
  And then fast forward to 2010, these all of a sudden have become adopted in to the child market.
• 8:11
  So that's where you know, my little son and daughter-in-law were fall, they're following what everyone does, and so it's really important to understand what these sound like.
• 8:22
  So I'm gonna have a little sound bite here for you because it is so irritating, and then I'll go into my story.
• 8:27
  Okay, you hear that?
• 8:30
  Yeah, such an irritating sound.
• 8:33
  And so I was babysitting my grandson, and I was instructed to put that on.
• 8:38
  It bothered me so much rocking in his room, I just couldn't stand it.
• 8:42
  I had to turn it down.
• 8:44
  And then I started, you know, I watched him, unlike other children, didn't quite babble as much.
• 8:50
  He was 18 months old, he wasn't really talking, and then I noticed in other peers.
• 8:56
  He had a peer with a hearing aid.
• 8:59
  Now I'm gonna tell you this story of this child.
• 9:02
  He ended up with sensor neural hearing loss, but he had intact hearing when he was born.
• 9:09
  But his grandmother, this was the story, she said, Oh, Beverly, you're going to learn about these white noise machines.
• 9:14
  They are the best thing since sliced bread.
• 9:16
  You just turn it on and put it right by his ear, and he goes right to sleep and stays asleep.
• 9:22
  So that child had concentrated white noise every moment he was asleep from when he could hear normally when he was born to then needing hearing aids at three years old.
• 9:33
  So my radar went off immediately after that.
• 9:37
  And then I was watching these developmental, I won't say delays, but um my grandson just didn't have that outgoing um language and speech and babbling that I am accustomed to seeing for other children.
• 9:50
  The other things I noticed in the little peers, whispering, enunciation issues.
• 9:56
  I want every clinician on this call to really start thinking about how are these children talking.
• 10:01
  Um, there are a lot of them, they just um they whisper, they don't really speak, and that's what I noticed.
• 10:08
  So I started looking into the research from that, and then what I found was truly frightening.
• 10:14
  So um just like we've learned through history lessons with smoking while pregnant, the litomide, lead paint.
• 10:27
  I mean, these things come into our existence without any scientific rigor, and then we go, oh, wait a minute, there's a problem, and I didn't know that was coming.
• 10:38
  And so that's where we are with white noise, because I want to make sure every clinician that hears this knows there is not one study that shows a benefit to any child from white noise.
• 10:51
  The benefit is to the parent, and that is because the child is numbed into a sleep that they don't awake from easily.
• 11:00
  Yeah, that's so interesting.
• 11:02
  I uh have a couple of kids, and they're older now, but uh we used white noise machines when they were infants.
• 11:11
  Um, I can't say I ever put any that close to my kids.
• 11:15
  Um, and we uh definitely didn't use any of the cordless devices because I'm always concerned about you know the frequencies in their rooms and you know, something that goes into the wall can't I don't know how old your children are.
• 11:31
  It sounds like they might be a little older.
• 11:32
  I think the use of these has really modified to where now a child has them every moment they're asleep.
• 11:40
  So for my grandson, let's add this up.
• 11:43
  Every time he went to bed at night, every nap.
• 11:46
  So you have a newborn, they could be exposed to 14 to 16 hours of white noise a day, and that interrupts critical brain learning.
• 11:55
  So if you go to the neuroscience side, and so what I always like to say is every hour your child is listening to a white noise device, that is an hour of learning that they do not accomplish.
• 12:08
  And so when I say learning, even though you're asleep, that is the basis for emotional regulation for the rest of your life.
• 12:16
  So these little baby brains are building that architecture.
• 12:19
  So think about it.
• 12:20
  They hear, they smell, you touch them.
• 12:23
  Those are the three real big sensory organs that an infant has.
• 12:27
  And if you block out all of that sound, they don't learn emotional regulation.
• 12:34
  So just tremendous downside risk later.
• 12:38
  And I've got a statistic for you.
• 12:40
  I know I'll take a little break.
• 12:41
  I think he had a question.
• 12:43
  Yeah, so no, my next question was well, let's talk about the data.
• 12:48
  Okay.
• 12:49
  Um tell me about the research that uh you found when you first started looking into this.
• 12:57
  Okay, well, the ones that were really striking out to me is um hearing loss.
• 13:02
  And so per the CDC, 5.2 million children have um permanent noise-induced hearing loss.
• 13:10
  And there was a podcast, uh, Dr.
• 13:12
  Stan Klovich from uh Stanford did with um Andrew Huberman just a few months ago, and she spoke about she's the world expert on ears, and she spoke about children in particular, their ears are more tender, so they always say 40 to 50 decibels for a child, and then she believes it's individualized for every child that children could have even more impact at a lower level, depending on the child.
• 13:41
  Now, these white noise devices usually kick out between 60 and 85 decibels, and 85 causes adult hearing loss.
• 13:49
  The ones that are on your phone kick out a hundred decibels.
• 13:53
  There is no regulation for them.
• 13:54
  That's the other thing.
• 13:55
  And in 2014, the American Association of Pediatrics actually called for regulation of these devices, but nothing has happened.
• 14:00
  Actually called for regulation of these devices, but nothing has happened.
• 14:04
  And so you know they're still using them.
• 14:04
  And so, you know, they're still using them.
• 14:06
  And then these um there are influencers that talk about now.
• 14:06
  And then these um there are influencers that talk about now.
• 14:10
  Here's the thing, they're very effective.
• 14:10
  Here's the thing, they're very effective.
• 14:12
  If you use them with they go right to sleep, but that sleep comes at a developmental cost.
• 14:12
  If you use them with they go right to sleep, but that sleep comes at a developmental cost.
• 14:18
  And so, you know, the the hearing damage is one thing.
• 14:18
  And so, you know, the the hearing damage is one thing, and then if you think about broadband, so you you use these with your baby every time they're asleep, but
• 14:23
  And then if you think about broadband, so you you use these with your baby every time they're asleep.
• 14:29
  By the time they're two years old, it's about six to eight thousand hours of noise.
• 14:36
  So that noise time is time that the babies are not learning.
• 14:40
  You know, they hear snippets of sound.
• 14:43
  So they're learning all of the different syllables from the snippets of sound from even parents speaking in another room.
• 14:50
  And then the emotional regulation piece, let's think about your home.
• 14:54
  You hear a dog barking, you learn, okay, there's a dog in this home.
• 14:58
  Um, that's okay.
• 14:59
  A dog bark doesn't make me go um crazy.
• 15:03
  And so there's pots and pans in the home.
• 15:06
  So your brain, your little child, oh, there's food in this home.
• 15:09
  So that's that emotional regulation piece that I'm talking about, is really on the neuroscience side.
• 15:15
  And so that is missing, and I believe this is actually impacting children far greater than we understand.
• 15:23
  So when I tell you this, and you're gonna have a lot of questions.
• 15:26
  These came to the market for infants in 2010.
• 15:31
  When children entered school in 2016, there was a noted increase in anxiety in school-aged children that they had never seen before.
• 15:41
  So anxiety had been stable uh in the population, and that's what I'm a population health person, and so it has risen up to about 30% now.
• 15:51
  And so if you think about that, the anxiety is where you can't assess a situation, you can't perceive threat, and that is part of that emotional regulation piece inside neuroscience.
• 16:03
  So the 30% rise has happened since 2016.
• 16:08
  Well, up to 30% now.
• 16:10
  It was a little bit lower.
• 16:10
  I think it was somewhere in the teens, is where it was very stable, and then it rose.
• 16:15
  And this is pre-COVID, so this is not COVID, and this is reported by Harvard.
• 16:19
  This is a Harvard study.
• 16:21
  Wow.
• 16:22
  So there was a significant increase in anxiety disorders of children that seems to be directly correlated to exactly six years after first grade children exactly six years after the implementation of these devices.
• 16:42
  That's so interesting.
• 16:43
  Yeah.
• 16:44
  So my kids were babies in after two around 2015.
• 16:50
  And so we were kind of we were kind of right in the middle of it.
• 16:54
  Um, and uh this is just so fascinating.
• 16:59
  I'd never stopped to think about well, what are they missing when the white noise is going on?
• 17:07
  That's something that I don't think people stop to think about is what's happening now that the white that white noise is replacing the normal things that pass through our ear canals uh when we sleep.
• 17:24
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 17:25
  So I think you have you know, there are structural damage issues, so there's pressure.
• 17:30
  So you think about there's pressure on the ears from the constant noise.
• 17:34
  Um, there's research that suggests that that is leading to increased use of a stachian tube um uh my gods, you know, for children who have fluid buildup, it's because the uh stacian um tube never gets to rest, it's always activated all night long.
• 17:51
  So that's one component as well.
• 17:54
  And then when you talk about the missed brain learning, see that's the neuroscience piece, and so all of these um influencers, pediatricians, and I'm not calling people out to um ex you know, really attack them.
• 18:08
  I'm calling them out for a lack of understanding.
• 18:11
  Um, what an infant brain does when it's asleep is is um coalesce critical brain learnings, and then they need down times at night as well.
• 18:22
  So when they hear babbles throughout the day, they process that in their mind at night, and so by the time you get to three to six months, a lot of that is very critical work is happening, and that is the uh auditory cortex being um maturing, and so there's a pivotal study from 2003 from Dr.
• 18:45
  Edward Chang.
• 18:46
  A lot of people are familiar with it, you may not be, but I'll I'll link it for you so you can make sure everybody sees it.
• 18:52
  So it was a white noise study, and they used rats, so it's an animal study, and they raised them in continuous white noise, and what they found when they dissected the brains later is that those rats had impaired learning and their cortical uh auditory cortical complex was retarded, and then so in order for that to recover, they needed an extra three to six months of growth, and who knows if it would have ever recovered completely.
• 19:24
  I think that's a big unknown because you know it recovers, but what would it have been had it not needed to recover?
• 19:32
  And so I'm a lot of people will say, Oh, the brain always has neuroplasticity, and it does, but why do we want to create a situation where neuroplasticity has to be actively at work to overcome a deficit we caused from a device that we used on the child, right?
• 19:50
  Yeah, so parents, right?
• 19:52
  Normal parents, we hear about and see these devices, and we think, oh gosh, you know, this could be great because that way if there's noise in the house, my kid won't wake up.
• 20:04
  So we think we're doing our child a favor by turning these white noise machines on by helping to create an environment of more restfulness.
• 20:16
  Um, is there do you know anything about whether there is a difference between having that static white noise versus like the trickling water ones or you know, the different kinds of sounds that are offered in different types of white noise machines?
• 20:34
  Yeah, that's a great question.
• 20:35
  So um remember that noise is noise, so there's always a base level of noise that can cause hearing damage, but some of the different kinds of noise, like white noise is the worst.
• 20:45
  So white noise is actually a brain irritant, okay.
• 20:50
  And so there's pink and brown noise, which is less of an irritant.
• 20:55
  Now, and adults use those all the time, and I don't really talk a whole lot about adults because adults can kind of do whatever, and their brain is not in this development period that they're never going to be able to recover from, like for children, but then you have nature sounds.
• 21:00
  Kind of do whatever, and their brain is not in this development period that they're never going to be able to recover from, like for children.
• 21:06
  But then you have nature sound.
• 21:08
  So the brain loves pattern.
• 21:08
  So the brain loves pattern, and um, I always say take your child outside and let them hear the bird song, and that's in my book.
• 21:10
  And um, I always say, take your child outside and let him hear the bird song.
• 21:15
  And that's in my book.
• 21:16
  And the reason for the bird song is it's a pattern.
• 21:16
  And the reason for the bird song is it's a pattern, and so the brain cues in for that.
• 21:20
  And so the brain cues in for that.
• 21:22
  That's why the brain loves classical music because it starts trying to anticipate what's coming next, and there is a
• 21:22
  That's why the brain loves classical music because it starts trying to anticipate what's coming next.
• 21:29
  And there is a ton of research on that.
• 21:31
  I have a white paper called Music as Medicine that that actually encourages the brain and allows it to better prepare for language and mathematics in the future.
• 21:45
  So the music is very beneficial.
• 21:47
  Nature sounds as well, but nothing continuously when you think about harming the hearing cells.
• 21:53
  Right.
• 21:54
  And resting and allowing that, those those membranes.
• 21:58
  That's really interesting.
• 21:59
  And I had never considered it, but of course, uh, like everything else in our bodies, we're designed to have restfulness periods where there's not a constant exposure stimulating those systems.
• 22:15
  So why would it be anything different with the tempanic membranes and the subtle tissues and structures within the deeper parts of the ear?
• 22:26
  So that's so incredibly fascinating.
• 22:30
  Um 2016 until now, we've seen roughly a 30% increase.
• 22:39
  I wanted to touch back on this learning impairment because that is very significant.
• 22:47
  So you said that there's been in the rats in that study, there was significant learning impairment.
• 22:56
  And there was one other factor you mentioned.
• 22:59
  Um, the cortical uh the auditory cortex, and so that is where you learn words, and so give me, I'll give you an example of a retarded auditory cortex development.
• 23:12
  Okay, so you can hear, let's say you hear a telephone ringing, but your brain doesn't know it's a telephone and you're supposed to answer it.
• 23:24
  That's probably the simplest example of what the auditory cortex does is just a simple structure.
• 23:31
  So you can have these children that are hearing, but they're not comprehending and they're not taking action.
• 23:37
  And so when they see that is in early uh childhood education, and so you can have these children that have slight hearing impairments, but they have massive developmental issues with language, so this is primarily language, and so that's um the American speech pathology group um recently, and I think it was 2023, they did a survey, and they all have seen massive increases in children that need services in school age children.
• 24:09
  I keep going back to you know, no one is telling these parents to not every okay.
• 24:16
  So go back to my own grandchild.
• 24:18
  Every moment that child was asleep, he had that white noise on.
• 24:23
  He went to daycare, they use them in daycares, and I'm gonna throw this out for all the clinicians again here.
• 24:29
  They use them in pediatric ICUs and neonatal units, and so one of the projects I did in the past was for a neonatals that addicted to opioids and AS babies.
• 24:41
  And you think about sometimes uh a premi can be in a nursery for four to six months, and that child 24-7 has gotten nothing but white noise.
• 24:51
  So at Clinical Brainiacs, one of my big initiatives I want to do, I want someone to jump in and say, Beverly, I hear you.
• 24:59
  Let's do a study uh and let's just start with a neonatal ICU and pipe in music rather than white noise.
• 25:07
  And I know there are studies that say the white noise decreases the child's heart rate and calms them, but nobody's looking at the long-term neurological cost, and this child is already behind.
• 25:20
  Yeah, this is such a pattern in our field is that we look like 24 to 48 to one week to you know, sometimes six months outside of uh the impacts of the modalities we're trying to implement without actually looking at the long-term data, and it's interesting.
• 25:44
  This whole dilemma that humanity seems to be plagued with in this arena because it's incessant in all areas of medicine that we fail to account for the long-term impacts.
• 25:57
  It's like all of this chronic disease and all of the uh the epidemic of cancer and heart disease that has plagued our country over the last 50, you know, 80 years since industrialization.
• 26:13
  I mean, anyone who stops for one minute to consider like, well, what might be causing this, we all have to stop and recognize we have no idea because no one is studying the long-term impacts of anything.
• 26:29
  So this would be a great start into trying to discover why we have so many kids suffering from anxiety, and I know there's a lot of parents who want to throw, you know, throw all of the blame at you know, vaccines or the chemicals in our food, but the fact is is that this is almost definitely a multi-pronged um situation where there are so many different toxins and impacts causing major um decline in our children's development, and we don't even know where to start because nobody's been looking at the long-term data.
• 27:13
  No, they haven't.
• 27:14
  And I have uh I have another story to share with you when you said that this is this is one of the things that made me move forward and really start um and and develop the nonprofit.
• 27:26
  So um I wrote the book in the fall and published self-published it, and then I was at a wellness clinic that I go to, and I was getting um my own wellness treatment, and this young man came in 20 years old, and he was going in the hyperbaric chamber for hearing loss.
• 27:44
  He overheard me talking to the other nurses about my book, and then I had won an award, and he looked at me and he said, Are white noise machines bad?
• 27:54
  And I said, Well, you know, it depends.
• 27:56
  You know, my good diplomatic nurse skills here, yeah.
• 27:59
  But he said, Well, I have been using one every night of my life since I was born.
• 28:00
  I have been using one every night of my life since I was born.
• 28:05
  Now I want us to take that away.
• 28:05
  Now, I want us to take that away.
• 28:07
  This is a 20-year-old with tinnitus, getting hyperbaric treatment for hearing loss.
• 28:07
  This is a 20-year-old with tinnitus, getting hyperbaric treatment for hearing loss.
• 28:14
  No, and I don't know, he could have had, you know, some other acute issue.
• 28:14
  No, and I don't know, he could have had you know some other acute issue, but I do know this.
• 28:18
  But I do know this.
• 28:20
  20 years of constant white noise every time he slept is not good for his ears.
• 28:20
  20 years of constant white noise every time he slept is not good for his ears.
• 28:27
  And I think what we're gonna see down the road, too.
• 28:27
  And I think what we're gonna see down the road too, you think about it.
• 28:29
  You think.
• 28:30
  You know, we've got our our dads, our grandpa that worked in factories, and they have hearing loss and they start down the dementia path because they can't hear.
• 28:40
  I am terrified that we are raising a generation of children that are gonna start having hearing loss issues at 40, not 55 and 60 when they're retiring, all because we had this constant white noise on for all these times.
• 28:55
  So I think you got the hearing damage in addition to the brain issues.
• 28:59
  Wow.
• 29:00
  Well, we're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna come back and continue this conversation.
• 29:05
  I want to hear more about uh the cause and what you're up to next.
• 29:11
  So hang tight with us and we'll be right back from our break.
• 29:15
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• 32:09
  All right, welcome back from our brief little break.
• 32:12
  I am here having such an incredible conversation with my guest, Beverly Hansen, who is a retired nurse who went deeply down the rat the rabbit hole of white noise, something that we don't hear much about and the impacts on our children's brains.
• 32:30
  So uh we had a such a great conversation about what you have found and where it has been leading you, Beverly.
• 32:39
  And now I'd like to get more deeply into that.
• 32:42
  Uh so let's start this next segment with a conversation about um the languages form information.
• 32:50
  What is that?
• 32:51
  And how does it influence uh this this topic of white noise?
• 32:57
  Okay, no, I'm so glad you asked.
• 32:59
  I actually have a fact sheet and a white paper on this.
• 33:02
  I call it the language factory.
• 33:04
  And so all this is occurring in the background when your child is hearing sounds.
• 33:10
  And so that's um, there's an infant uh researcher at Rutgers, her name is April Benish.
• 33:17
  She has about 20 white papers or 20 research peer-reviewed research papers on the language and all the different phases of the brain.
• 33:26
  So, like the theta phase, you know, you're a little bit calmer, and you think about a child is asleep, and then that's when they're uh coalescing all the language and the words they learned that day.
• 33:35
  And really, it starts when they're an infant, it's the syllables.
• 33:38
  And so if you think about what we're talking about, the white noise masks syllables and the difference between da and ba is massive into the language acquisition.
• 33:50
  And so, you know, for these infants, they are making an and I know this is an unbelievable number, and people really forget this.
• 33:59
  One million neural connections per second in the infant brain.
• 34:04
  It is the most neuroplastic time in your life, other than in utero.
• 34:09
  But birth to three is when all this is happening.
• 34:11
  And then you get the pruning afterwards.
• 34:14
  So later on, you prune out what your brain is determined is not important.
• 34:18
  But if you have missed exposure, that's why I was talking about every hour of white noise is an hour of learning that was not able to uh occur.
• 34:29
  That's why this is so important.
• 34:30
  And if you look at what is happening with our children, and I know we talked about from 2016 on when they started noticing the problems from the 2010 use of white noise.
• 34:42
  About children in America have a speech and language disorder.
• 34:47
  That's pretty significant.
• 34:49
  And 10% have developmental language delay, so just language.
• 34:55
  And and again, I don't have the research to say unequivocally it is the white noise machine, but nobody is looking longitudinally.
• 35:00
  But nobody is looking longitudinally.
• 35:02
  And so one of the things I would love to have done is every clinician, when you have an assessment and a patient comes in, a pediatric patient, assess for white noise use.
• 35:02
  And so one of the things I would love to have done is every clinician, when you have an assessment and a patient comes in, a pediatric patient, assess for white noise shoes.
• 35:12
  Did they use it?
• 35:12
  Did they use it?
• 35:13
  So that we can start tracking that.
• 35:13
  So that we can start tracking that.
• 35:15
  I think it should be part of the medical record for when you're 15 and 16.
• 35:15
  I think it should be part of the medical record for when you're 15 and 16, you go back, oh yes, that child used white noise.
• 35:19
  You go back, oh yes, that child used white noise.
• 35:23
  But one of the things that I really want.
• 35:23
  But one of the things that I really want.
• 35:26
  And so the biggest thing is I want to make sure parents know.
• 35:26
  And so the biggest thing is I want to make sure parents know.
• 35:30
  So, you know, reading struggles really cause a lot of problems for children down the road.
• 35:36
  So think about, you know, you're in school and you're starting to get to get behind.
• 35:40
  So a white noise machine, if it impacts the ability to learn language, and it impacts your ability to read and perform at school, then you're going to have social connection problems down the road.
• 35:51
  There are studies that link that to more psychiatric conditions and drug use down the road because you aren't with your peers.
• 35:58
  So I think this has a lot of downstream issues that we're just not even thinking about.
• 36:03
  So we've got to really work on that.
• 36:06
  And so I want to make sure for the families, if they're going to use a white noise machine for this language piece, 15 minutes and turn it off.
• 36:14
  Music is much better.
• 36:15
  I have another white paper on music.
• 36:17
  It's called Music is Medicine, and there is tremendous research on the benefit of music.
• 36:22
  And that is because it has the beats.
• 36:24
  And so the brain likes to train and track its brain entrainment for beats and anticipates what's coming.
• 36:31
  And that's just standard neuroscience.
• 36:33
  And then that helps the brain set up the capacity for language learning, mathematics, and performance later in life.
• 36:39
  So I think music as a replacement.
• 36:41
  Anyone around here listens to this podcast, one thing takeaway, use music as a replacement.
• 36:47
  And if you think back to history, what did we do with babies?
• 36:50
  We sang to them, we sang lullabies.
• 36:53
  I mean, this is the historical framework for how we had successful child rearing through all of history.
• 37:01
  I definitely sang to my babies.
• 37:03
  Oh, yes.
• 37:04
  I did too.
• 37:06
  Yeah.
• 37:06
  It's so interesting to consider.
• 37:09
  Uh, there's so much robust data supporting music and its positive impacts on brain development.
• 37:17
  Um, I think that's pretty much well accepted and known to everyone out there that classical music increases your uh capacity to learn and increase in um increases your grades in college.
• 37:31
  So there's there's all kinds of support for that.
• 37:35
  And it's interesting to try and connect the dots between understanding noise is not just noise.
• 37:45
  There's noise that supports brain development, and there's noise that prevents it.
• 37:51
  And so that's really what you're getting at here is taking a deeper dive into understanding what are the is there substantial evidence to be able to prove that things like white noise actually decrease cognition and neurological development in our infants.
• 38:11
  It's such a um, we need the answer to this.
• 38:15
  So and think about that study.
• 38:17
  There's one study that shows that it's from 2003.
• 38:21
  So to the researchers out there, start stepping up and let's do more research on this impact of noise rather than just applying it to our children universally.
• 38:32
  Yeah, it drives me nuts.
• 38:34
  I remember in nursing school how we knew that it wasn't necessarily a high fat diet that led to heart disease.
• 38:44
  There were other more complicated, we knew that like 20 years ago, and it's still not mainstream.
• 38:50
  So we just got whole milk back in the schools, you know.
• 38:53
  Yes, I'm really um I'm really excited to see humanity as we transition into more respectful, honorable engagements, um, start just as a whole.
• 39:05
  Uh I I've been I've been under the um the conversation of of realizing that one of the biggest issues between humans in general is that we really just don't listen to each other.
• 39:21
  And being able to authentically connect and listen, and then apply that learned um component to our steps forward.
• 39:35
  I mean, these small simple things could just transform humanity in such a brief period of time.
• 39:40
  Uh, it's just taking that time to actually authentically listen and ask questions and then move forward from that informed place to ask more better questions.
• 39:52
  And that's exactly what you're doing here.
• 39:54
  So you're setting an example for our colleagues of the value of asking questions and then continuing to expand and propel our field into excellence through that act of deep listening.
• 40:11
  So uh, you know, we're we're you're changing the world here.
• 40:16
  Let's keep on it and get this message out to the rest of them.
• 40:21
  So there's more white papers.
• 40:23
  Is that true?
• 40:24
  There are research.
• 40:26
  Yeah, so um, they're distilled clinical research.
• 40:29
  Now they're in review right now from my science advisor, and so they're not on the white paper yet on the website yet, but I have condensed versions that are more applicable for a consumer market.
• 40:41
  So I have five of those out on my website right now.
• 40:44
  My website's been up three days, okay, guys.
• 40:48
  This is all I just formed the nonprofit.
• 40:51
  I'm getting that all up and going.
• 40:52
  I've got a board very committed to uh empowering parents to make good decisions for their children.
• 40:59
  So we're working on that.
• 41:01
  And uh, and then of course, I have the book.
• 41:03
  And yesterday, um, I think I was talking to you when we were setting this up.
• 41:08
  My book won the International Impact Book Award for Health as a book.
• 41:13
  But yesterday I was informed I'm a finalist for book of the year.
• 41:17
  And so if I obtain that uh category as well, I'm going to Hollywood.
• 41:23
  Now, this is why this is important because Hollywood looks for stories of massive interest to the public.
• 41:30
  And so I'm going, whether my book wins or not, I'm going there to meet with uh producer and and people who want to get a story like this out.
• 41:38
  So, how did we come to this?
• 41:40
  Um, what happened to me?
• 41:41
  What was my pain, you know, with speaking up for my grandchild, and then how did this transform into life altering information that is a nonprofit and can benefit humanity?
• 41:54
  So those are the things I'm focusing on and working on for the future.
• 41:58
  So, what's the um if you were to get um the attention of uh researchers, what are the top three things, papers that you want to see uh research on to start to really pivotally shift our understanding of the impact of white noise on our infants' brains?
• 42:00
  Um, if you were to get um the attention of uh researchers, what are the top three things, papers that you want to see uh research on to start to really pivotally shift our understanding of the impact of white noise on our infants' brains?
• 42:20
  No, that is great.
• 42:20
  No, that is great.
• 42:20
  I think um first and foremost, I want neuroscience and then audiology and pediatrics to all work together.
• 42:20
  I think um first and foremost, I want neuroscience and then audiology and pediatrics to all work together.
• 42:27
  I want a collaborative effort to hold.
• 42:27
  I want a collaborative effort to holistically look at the child, and I want us to look at children who have had white noise versus not, and right now I don't want to apply white noise to any child.
• 42:38
  I I even hate the construct of that kind of um evaluation, but I know people are going to use them.
• 42:45
  So maybe we do a retrospective on that.
• 42:48
  I think we look at language performance, that one in itself.
• 42:52
  You know, who are the really good language performers?
• 42:55
  I don't think we'd look at that, you know, you get into first or second grade and you've got a delay, and you go off to the speech pathologist, but they're not looking at the root cause.
• 43:04
  There's no ace like the adverse childhood events for speech.
• 43:09
  Let's develop one of those.
• 43:10
  And these are simple research projects, and then thinking more holistically around neuroscience.
• 43:17
  So emotional regulation.
• 43:19
  I want us to really, you know, the work my work with Evie and Dr.
• 43:22
  Ebian Gordon is pivotal in this.
• 43:25
  I mean, he has over 350 peer-reviewed papers in the world on emotional regulation.
• 43:31
  We're not looking at that at all in these children.
• 43:34
  And so I think that's a good easy starting point as well.
• 43:37
  Absolutely.
• 43:38
  Okay, well, that sounds so exciting.
• 43:41
  Uh so your book, so you've got your book out, you're self-published.
• 43:46
  Tell me about this book.
• 43:48
  Okay, yes, here's the book.
• 43:49
  So I mean, show me the cover.
• 43:51
  I know it's kind of hard to see.
• 43:52
  There we go.
• 43:53
  It's white noise, dark impact.
• 43:55
  Are we damaging children's brains?
• 43:57
  It's a full color book, so lots of pictures.
• 43:59
  This is written for parents and grandparents.
• 44:01
  And so this is an easy read.
• 44:03
  It's only 70 pages, so you can read it in an afternoon.
• 44:06
  And my goal with this book is to get people to stop and think.
• 44:12
  There are a lot of grandparents like me that know intuitively this white noise machine is can't be good, but they're not speaking up because they're not empowered to speak up because they don't have the information.
• 44:23
  So reading this book, they will have that information.
• 44:25
  It's available on Amazon, it's available on my website.
• 44:29
  I actually have an ebook too, that's only $3.99 if you want to just download the e-book.
• 44:34
  And then um, and then it is on Amazon.
• 44:37
  And so I think that piece, so empowering people with knowledge from the book, and then I want a takeaway for any clinician that is listening.
• 44:47
  I want speech and language pathologists, I want people evaluating white noise use in the pediatric population.
• 44:54
  We've just got to start thinking about that.
• 44:56
  And then, you know, what are the downstream risks of after using it?
• 45:01
  It's so easy to just ask that question to your to your patients who come in.
• 45:07
  Is this child being exposed to white noise?
• 45:09
  How often?
• 45:11
  That's like well, and interestingly enough, I had um I have a friend who is an ENT, and I gave him a signed copy of the book.
• 45:18
  And it's so funny, I won't say his name, but he looked at it and he went, I put tubes in every day.
• 45:22
  I think you're on to something, Beverly.
• 45:25
  And so that's my own personal ENT.
• 45:27
  So I think people are just not thinking about this.
• 45:31
  They go about their discipline and perform their tasks, and no one's looking again holistically, and that's what I'm trying to get people to do.
• 45:39
  And that's how it goes, right?
• 45:41
  We we deny until there's you know, the burning the burning the witches alive, the women who are giving herbal herbal medicine, you know, because we're afraid to acknowledge the truth, even with all of the things during COVID and post-COVID, you know, people were being destroyed for just telling the truth because it was outside of the paradigm of what we're taught is socially acceptable.
• 46:08
  So, what you're doing is you're asking people to try and step outside of what they think they know and look a little deeper, listen for a minute and try and look a little deeper and let's try and figure out uh how if these uh machines truly are causing harm and how much harm if they truly are.
• 46:34
  Uh, and that's what we should have done before we introduced these to the public.
• 46:39
  And unfortunately, I'm afraid this has become a trend in the healthcare field.
• 46:44
  Perhaps it's always been this way, that we always throw the things out into the field and then retract them later after the damage has been done.
• 46:54
  Uh, this is another uh human quality that I would like to see uh shifted in in my lifetime is that us as scientists when we have an ethical duty to protect and uh do no harm and also uh do our due diligence to guard and guide the field of medicine.
• 47:21
  Uh these are mindsets that we should all be following is let's actually stop and look at the harms before they're created.
• 47:34
  That's the entire purpose of research.
• 47:36
  And when that research isn't being done, what they did it with Teflon, right?
• 47:41
  So cigarettes and Teflon, another are two prime examples of um so of millions of lives being impacted.
• 47:51
  And think of how many children are exposed to this white noise every day, and no one it was slick marketing.
• 47:59
  No one stopped to go, oh, wait a minute, is this a good idea?
• 48:03
  So I think it will be more explosive than the cigarette smoking, the thalidomide and not even using baby seats.
• 48:11
  This affects almost every child in the world right now.
• 48:15
  That's how prolific these machines are.
• 48:18
  Right.
• 48:19
  It's it's so disheartening when you're a clinician now and you your eyes have been opened and you and so I I am on an evangelical mission now to inform everyone I can about the harms of white noise and just have them look at the information.
• 48:37
  The information is there and it's in my book and it's on my website.
• 48:41
  Yeah, so let's talk about um so the book.
• 48:46
  I want to just summarize that.
• 48:48
  This sounds like the perfect tool for parents and grandparents or um preschool workers, people who work with children in a uh educational um position where NAPs are still being used, and um these machines are being implemented, just to equip them with some of the preliminary information that we have that's available about what white noise is, how it impacts the children, and uh the differences in qualities of white noise.
• 49:00
  Educational position where NAPs are still being used and these machines are being implemented.
• 49:08
  Just to equip them with some of the preliminary information that we have that's available about what white noise is, how it impacts the children, and the differences in qualities of white noise.
• 49:25
  So um, this is such a powerful book.
• 49:25
  So this is such a powerful book.
• 49:28
  Uh, I'm gonna I'm gonna list.
• 49:28
  I'm gonna I'm gonna list it in the show notes and uh make sure we get people access.
• 49:34
  And then tell me about your website.
• 49:36
  Okay, so my website is clinicalbrainyacts.org.
• 49:41
  And so that has everything that I have going on it right now.
• 49:45
  I'm gonna have a list of resources for both physicians.
• 49:49
  So, you know, I'm gonna have parent resources and then grandparents for disseminating that on that platform or that venue.
• 49:58
  And then I also want to do it as well for providers.
• 50:00
  So OBGYNs and pediatricians.
• 50:03
  So have tools that when they come in and you know, these people recommend to use a white noise machine and they never think twice, and they'll say, Oh, just use it alone, don't use it very much.
• 50:13
  They don't give specifics and and I want that to be 15 minutes at less than 50 decibels and use music instead if you possibly can.
• 50:23
  Like that would be my three things for that one.
• 50:26
  That's such an easy shift.
• 50:28
  Like, what if we just switched to music and used and used it for 15 minutes max at that's right?
• 50:36
  The brain needs rest to coalesce what it's learned in the day, and we're just not giving the brain rest.
• 50:42
  So we need to do that too.
• 50:43
  And I don't even think pediatricians necessarily think about that either.
• 50:47
  No, I never have thought about it.
• 50:50
  Again, it seems to me like uh, you know, just keeping them uh away from the noises outside of the room that might wake them up, you know.
• 51:03
  Parents uh automatically consider that to be a positive thing.
• 51:08
  But of course, we are straining the tempanic membranes and the tissues in the inner ear with these sounds that are not rhythmic.
• 51:19
  And you're right, there's a huge difference between a rhythmic frequency and a not rhythmic frequency and the impacts that that has, not just on the membranes.
• 51:29
  And we know that even when we look at frequencies uh in in every sense of the use of frequencies, when there is a rhythmic uh waveform, it uh it creates uh synchronicity within the cells, right?
• 51:48
  Because they're made out of water.
• 51:50
  Like we understand these concepts.
• 51:52
  This is uh this is not complicated in terms of some of the science that every nurse will really understand.
• 51:59
  And um, and especially the doctors, but things like white noise that don't have a rhythmic quality to them.
• 52:08
  You just can imagine like what that would do to the membranes and like you know.
• 52:14
  Well, that's why I always like to play a little snip because you know, you think white noise, they don't really think about it.
• 52:19
  And then when you hear it, you think that is the most irritating sound.
• 52:23
  And so the brain is energy, as you said, it is the fluctuation of energy, and that's how it transfers knowledge from where it's learned to where it stores it as well.
• 52:32
  Yeah, it's exactly how my my tuning forks work as well.
• 52:36
  I've studied deeply about the impacts of frequency on waveforms in the brain, and it 100% uh makes it such an incredible difference, the types of frequencies that are applied and the way that they impact.
• 52:52
  I can just see, you know, those noises, like spazzing out the uh tempanic membrane.
• 53:00
  Um, and I never even considered it before.
• 53:03
  So thank you, uh, Beverly for exposing me to something that I had never considered.
• 53:08
  And I can't, I am so excited for your book to see it win that award and for you to move forward uh in um in Southern California with this festival and uh getting getting more people connected.
• 53:27
  Uh so where can people find you?
• 53:30
  You're all over.
• 53:32
  I am all over, so and thank you very much for that.
• 53:34
  So I am on all of the social media platforms.
• 53:37
  I did provide you a link so you can put that in the show notes.
• 53:40
  I primarily do uh Instagram, TikTok, X, and LinkedIn.
• 53:44
  You know, it's a healthcare consultant for years, so my biggest network is on LinkedIn, but I'm just getting started on this and learning that TikTok and Instagram are uh very important in the social media world, but I'm learning them.
• 53:55
  But um, that's how you can get it, and you can always info at clinical brainyacts.org.
• 54:00
  I answer that email uh address myself as well.
• 54:03
  And if there was um a final message to leave people with um in terms of really just learning learning something valuable from the information that you have and the deeper deeper impacts, the long-term impacts it can have on them.
• 54:22
  What would you what would you have to say to people?
• 54:26
  I think um this is kind of like from my book.
• 54:29
  It's like what we hear shapes who we become.
• 54:34
  And when a child's first soundtrack is this engineered monotony, you've got to ask yourself, are we tuning out the world at the very moment these children should be tuning in?
• 54:47
  I want them to take away with this because we are depriving our children of the richness of growth in the most important critical time.
• 54:57
  And so I think once people read the book, really start digesting and think about what I'm saying.
• 55:02
  There, most of the people I talk to go, oh, I had no idea I'm turning that machine off right now.
• 55:07
  I very rarely ever get anyone that says, I'm gonna keep using it, they go, I had no idea, Beverly.
• 55:14
  Thank you for sharing this.
• 55:16
  And that's what I hope everyone here leaves this today with a thank you, Beverly, for sharing this.
• 55:21
  I'm gonna make a behavior change myself and I'm gonna spread and spread the knowledge.
• 55:25
  That's the other thing.
• 55:26
  We're a clinicians here.
• 55:28
  We need to tell people and let this organically grow.
• 55:31
  And thank you for having me.
• 55:33
  Yeah, I can't wait to.
• 55:35
  So anybody who's interested in the white papers in the clinical research, go to your website, download that data and take a look at it because this uh this needs to be expanded on.
• 55:48
  Uh, we need more data, and we really at the end of the day just need to make sure that we're doing everything that we can to protect our children and to guard and guide them in ways that promote their highest well being.
• 56:00
  highest well being and so uh that's why I'm so happy to have you on here Beverly and the work that you're doing uh and how important it is because people who are looking out for our children are the kinds of people who are guiding humanity forward into the direction that it needs to go in.
• 56:01
  And so uh that's why I'm so happy to have you on here, Beverly, and the work that you're doing uh and how important it is because people who are looking out for our children are the kinds of people who are guiding humanity forward into the direction that it needs to go in.
• 56:19
  So thanks for being one of those people along with us today.
• 56:19
  So thanks for being one of those people along with us today.
• 56:22
  Thanks for joining us on the show, and everyone else, we'll see you next time.
• 56:22
  Thanks for joining us on the show and everyone else we'll see you next time.
• 56:26
  Have a great week.
• 56:26
  Have a great week thanks guys by it's time and this seems well
• 56:28
  Thanks, guys.
• 56:29
  Bye.