Lou Ferrigno on His 'Life-Changing' Cochlear Implant

For Lou Ferrigno — star of the 1970s and ‘80s CBS series The Incredible Hulk and two-time Mr. Universe winner — physical strength has always been a defining aspect of his career. Just as the actor and bodybuilder, 69, has worked hard to build his iconic physique, he's put in major effort to overcome a lifelong obstacle: hearing loss.

After a series of childhood ear infections left him with profound hearing loss, Ferrigno began, at age 4, to rely on hearing aids. But recent hearing deterioration in his right ear prompted him to undergo surgery to insert a cochlear implant — an electronic device that helps restore hearing by stimulating the auditory nerve. The result, he says, has been “life-changing."

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"The best hearing aid in the world is not going to give me the clarity of the way I hear now,” Ferrigno tells AARP. “With a hearing aid, you have to force yourself to work hard to listen to the words, but the cochlear implant makes it much easier."

Ferrigno was motivated to get the implant after learning that a close friend's word discrimination — a measure of how well someone can understand what he hears — jumped from 12 to 98 percent after getting the device.

"That really put the message in my head,” he says, “that maybe I should give it a shot.”

After undergoing surgery earlier this year, Ferrigno committed to a program of hearing therapy and rehabilitation, to adjust to the device after it was activated (you can watch his reaction to the activation in the video below). The subsequent improvement in his hearing has been significant, he says: His word discrimination has increased from 18 to 65 percent so far.

Unlike traditional hearing aids, which amplify sound, cochlear implants transmit sounds as electrical signals that are carried from the auditory nerve to the brain. This allows people who, like Ferrigno, have sensorineural hearing loss (hearing loss due to damage to the inner ear or hearing nerve) to improve their understanding of the sounds and speech around them.