A still from Raithatha’s video shows how badly the woman’s ear canal was backed up.
(The Hear Clinic)
An audiologist in the U.K. who goes by the moniker “Wax Whisperer” has shared a gruesome clip featuring a patient whose earwax was so backed up that it had become infected. Neel Raithatha, who owns and operates The Hear Clinic, said the patient’s hearing aid had caused the wax to build.
“It would be impossible to self-remove,” Raithatha told The Sun, without identifying the patient. “The client in this case wore a hearing aid which can cause earwax buildup as it can prevent the natural migration of ear wax out of the canal.”
Raithatha said the buildup was so bad that the patient could no longer hear and had developed a fungal infection surrounding the wax. He did not say when the extraction occurred, nor for how long his patient had been suffering.
Neel Raithatha, who goes by the “Wax Whisperer,” said the wax had caused a foul odor in the woman’s ear.
(The Hear Clinic)
“The patient had a fungal infection, otomycosis, which developed on the dead earwax and skin and also otitis externa of the ear canal and eardrum,” he said.
It took about 10 minutes for Raithatha to completely remove the wax, which he said had caused a foul odor in the ear. The video shows him tugging at the wax to free it while cleaning the surrounding area.
He said the procedure lasted about 10 minutes, and that he was glad to help the woman who had become depressed after losing her hearing.
(The Hear Clinic)
“I had to be very delicate when peeling the dead infected skin off the ear canal and eardrum," he said. "It usually takes half the time.”
He told The Sun that the patient required follow-up appointments to treat the infection.
While old age does play a factor, over 1 billion young people have a high risk of damaging their ears earlier due to the toxic levels of noise around them.
What did you say? If you have any wise, aging friends or loved ones in your life, you have probably been asked to speak up once or twice. While you lovingly oblige them, you may want to stop and think about your own ears. Take a look at what you might be doing to damage your own hearing right now.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 360 million people worldwide are suffering with a disabling hearing loss, including 32 million children.
While old age does play a factor, over 1 billion young people have a high risk of damaging their ears earlier due to the toxic levels of noise around them. Here are several top sources causing this problem:
1. Your job
While work in general is not a real cause for hearing loss, the noise involved might be. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), repeat or prolonged exposure to sounds above 85 decibels can damage your hearing permanently.
To put this noise level in perspective, a normal conversation is about 60 decibels, the noise from heavy traffic is around 85 and guns or firecrackers are at a higher 150. The longer you are exposed to these high-frequency sounds, the more your hearing can be impaired.
For many, this long exposure happens on the job. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, normal on-the-job tasks are already above safe levels.
For instance, a jack hammer from 3 feet away is rated at 120 decibels, and even a large truck operates at 90 decibels.
As a general rule, if you have to yell to be heard at work, you should be protecting your ears. Construction workers, farmers, airline ground workers and military soldiers are all at risk because of their jobs.
2. Your music
Following along the same lines as your noisy job is your noisy entertainment. In fact, WHO says that the 1 billion young adults in danger of hearing loss have that danger because of personal audio devices or entertainment venues.
Depending on the choice of entertainment, you could be listening to sounds that are 100 decibels or more, a level only safe for a few minutes. According to WHO, you should limit your tunes to just 60 minutes total within a day. In addition, stay away from noisy venues or wear earplugs.
3. Your medicine
Have you ever suspected your medication as a cause for your hearing problems? They can be, and experts even have a name for them —— ototoxic drugs.
These medicines commonly damage hearing by impairing the inner ear:
Some antibiotics
Diuretics used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure
High doses of aspirin or ibuprofen
Cancer-treating medicines
Older people and patients taking more than one of these medicines have a higher risk of experiencing hearing loss. You may notice symptoms like ringing in the ears and vertigo rather quickly after starting the medication. If this happens, let your doctor know right away so that he can work out an alternative.
4. Your smoking habit
As you might know, smoking cigarettes can raise your blood pressure. It does so by constricting the blood vessels, narrowing passage for blood to be pumped through your body. The main culprit for this effect is nicotine.
What you might not know is that this constricting can have effects on other areas of the body too, including your ears. As you smoke, the blood vessels in the ears get constricted slightly, and this can lead to a decrease in hearing over time.
In one UK study published in 2014, the researchers confirmed their suspicions on the topic after studying over 150,000 adults. For both current smokers and those exposed to secondary smoke, the researchers found a decrease in participants’ hearing ability. This fact is just one more reason why you might want to reconsider before pulling out another cigarette.
5. Your car or bike
Last, you might be damaging your ears just by driving around your fancy car. Traffic in general can produce a high amount of noise, but when you put the top down on your treasured convertible, you are actually increasing that level.
According to one study of the noise levels in convertibles, drivers may be exposing themselves to levels between 82 and 92 decibels. At the maximum noted in the study, drivers even went as high as 99 decibels, certainly outside recommendations for safe hearing.
While the convertible study was very small, experts are concerned about the dangers of wind noise at high speeds. In a recent study on cyclists, researchers found that the athletes were experiencing 85 decibels even at normal 15 mph speeds. Once they reached downhill speeds, they were dealing with levels over 100 decibels.
How to Prevent Hearing Loss
Now that you know what you might be doing to damage your hearing, you have the responsibility of protecting it. Try these ideas to keep your noise level in check:
Turn down your smartphone.
Whether you’re talking on the phone, watching a video or listening to Spotify, you should never turn your smartphone on its maximum volume. Some smartphones even have a feature that will warn you if you are using it at an unsafe level.
Get earplugs.
Whenever you go somewhere with or do something around loud noises, you should value your ears. You can even find some more sophisticated-looking earplugs, rather than the neon colors you normally see on construction workers.
Choose noise-cancelling headphones.
Whatever you do, stay away from earbuds that aren’t meant to cancel out ambient noise. Instead, spend a few extra dollars on headphones that will block other noises so that you are not turning up the volume.
Take a break.
Once you have listened to music for 60 minutes, take a break. Give yourself space in between the noise to let your hearing get back to normal. Likewise, if you have gone to a loud venue, spend several days in more quiet surroundings.
Get away.
If the loud noise around you is out of your control, get away from it. The more distance between you and the noise, the less harmful it will be to your hearing.
Without meaning to, you are probably causing damage to your hearing in one or more of these ways. The fact is that your hearing is something you cannot get back once it’s gone. Protect it now, and you will be thankful later.
Dr. Manny Alvarez serves as Fox News Channel’s senior managing health editor. He also serves as chairman of the department of obstetrics/gynecology and reproductive science at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. For more information on Dr. Manny’s work, visit AskDrManny.com.
A toddler’s trip to Disney World turned into a dream come true for his family when Mickey Mouse surprised them with sign language during a dinner at one of the resort’s restaurants. Bethany Rodgers, whose son Jay is deaf, shared a moving clip of the interaction on her Facebook page.
“This is why I love Disney!” Rodgers wrote alongside the May video. “This Mickey Mouse made his rounds and found out the little guy is deaf and knows some sign, so he came back to the table later to sign to him! This seemingly small gesture is really so monumental for the little guy!”
In follow up comments, Rodgers explained that her parents told the Disney photographers that Jay was deaf so that they wouldn’t call his name to look for pictures. The staff returned with an interpreter who was ready to communicate with him, followed by Mickey Mouse.
“The fact that Mickey Mouse went above and beyond like that when he didn’t have to, makes this momma so beyond happy! This person deserves to be recognized for this amazing gesture!” she posted.
Mickey Mouse and Jay can be seen hugging in the video and waving to each other after Mickey signs that he loves him. Rodgers’ clip has been viewed nearly 3,000 times since being posted May 21.
Celebratory fireworks at a wedding led to the rupturing of both of a man’s eardrums, according to a brief report of the man’s case.
The 30-year-old man went to the emergency room in Switzerland after an explosion from the fireworks accidentally went off close to where he was standing, according to the report, published today (May 10) in The New England Journal of Medicine .
The eardrum, which is also called the tympanic membrane, is a thin membrane inside the ear canal. When sound waves hit the eardrum, it vibrates. However, very loud noises , which produce very large sound waves, can cause the eardrum to tear, according to the Mayo Clinic .
Eardrum ruptures are not uncommon, said Dr. Patrick Dubach, an ear, nose and throat doctor at Solothurn Hospital in Switzerland who treated the man. Dubach said he sees a ruptured eardrum about once every two months, but in most cases, fireworks are not the cause. A more common source of the injury is when a person inserts a Q-tip too far into his or her ear, Dubach said.
7-year-old Leo Rose was born with a hemangioma. It’s a vascular tumor that traveled through her brain and down her airway.
(Fox 5 Atlanta)
FOX 5 I-Team reporter Dana Fowle shared a heartwarming message on Facebook this week about her daughter’s brave decision to show off her hearing aid and large, red birthmark at school.
Dana’s 7-year-old daughter Leo Rose was born with a hemangioma. It’s a vascular tumor that traveled through her brain and down her airway.
When Leo Rose was just three weeks old, doctors told Dana and her husband David that Leo Rose’s hemangioma would possibly cause her to be blind and suffer serious brain damage. Fortunately, it stopped short of that. But, as hemangiomas do, it stopped growing then reversed itself, and when it did it took some of Leo Rose’s ear bones with it.
In kindergarten, she got fitted for a hearing aid. And, Leo Rose had a choice: She could get laser surgery to reduce the appearance of the hemangioma, which covers one ear and wraps around her neck. She said no.
"This is who I am, mommy," Dana recalls.
Dana says Leo Rose was still embarrassed by it, but this week she made a very grown up and brave decision.
"The kiddo has always been quite a tomboy eschewing things like pigtails," FOX 5 I-Team reporter Dana Fowle said on her Facebook page. "Or so we thought. She admitted she really wanted to wear them, but she was too embarrassed."
Well, this week, she went for it.
A family friend who watched Leo Rose walk to school on Tuesday said that she walked slowly, paused at her classroom door, took a deep breath, then "she went in and looked so brave."Leo Rose never expected anyone to make fun of her, but she also didn’t expect the outpouring of support from her classmates.
"Her teacher spontaneously put her hair in pigtails," Dana posted.
The next day, Leo Rose’s classmates wore pigtails, and all week other children have been walking into her classroom in pigtails in solidarity.
“The energy in our classroom is something I can’t explain with words," Leo Rose’s first grade teacher Ms. Patricia Derrico told Dana Thursday morning. "Three boys had come to the idea to wear ties as they can’t do pigtails."
Ms. Derrico said she’s going to make every Tuesday until the end of the year "Pigtail/Bowtie Tuesday."
"This is less a story about my daughter, who would have eventually come to terms with her situation, than it is about her classmates and her teacher. My heart is so full," said her mother.
Randy and Max were both underwent cochlear implant surgery.
(Fox 5 Atlanta)
Randy Adams and his son, 16-month-old Max, have the same hair, the same eyes and the same hearing impairment.
When the 35-year old Canton construction worker met his wife Michelle at a party four years ago, he typed out messages on his Phone to introduce himself.
The son of two deaf parents, Randy had been born profoundly deaf.
Randy and Michelle didn’t realize their son would be born with the same genetic inner ear defect as his dad.
"I was very upset at first, and I know it sounds weird because I’m fine with Randy being deaf," says Michelle Adams. "But, it just made me really sad because I thought of all the things he wouldn’t experience."
When double hearing aids didn’t help, Michelle began researching a cochlear implant for Max, which caught Randy off guard.
"He got very upset," she remembers. "He said he likes him the way he is, he doesn’t want to change him. And why don’t I like him the way he is?"
Michelle says it took time to agree on what to do, if anything.
"It really took a lot of time," she says. "He did his research as well. And we’d talk about it all the time."
With Randy’s reluctant blessing, Max underwent cochlear implant surgery in October of 2016 at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
The change, Michelle Adams says, was striking.
"And before that he’d not been responsive at all," she says. "It was just like he was bored all the time. He was a different baby when he could hear."
"He saw how happy Max would get," Michelle Adams says. "He literally would start laughing and giggling and just getting so excited whenever we’d put it on him and say, ‘Hi Max!’ And he’d just start going crazy."
The change in the now 16-month-old was so profound, that on March 1, Randy underwent the very same surgery. Nearly a month later, the couple went back to Emory University Midtown Hospital, to have Randy’s cochlear implant activated.
Through a sign language interpreter, doctor of audiology Jenna Frasso, explains the process.
"I’m going to put the magnet on and it’s going to test the implant." Frasso tells Randy.
She plays a series of beats, asking Randy if he can feel a vibration or sound. He nods, but says it’s like "a tense feeling" on the side of his head.
Then, for the first time, Randy hears Michelle’s voice, and she begins to weep.
It’s a powerful moment. Max, sleepy because his is missing his afternoon nap, is quiet.
Both father and son will continue to work with an audiologist, who will fine tune the implant. The learning curve for Randy, hearing for the first time in 35 years, may be steep.
"In the beginning, it’s almost like you’re hearing a different language. It’s a different way for the brain to hear," says Frasso.
Frasso says it takes at least 6 months, maybe a year, for Randy to receive the full benefit of his cochlear implant.
Two weeks later back home in Canton, Randy, signing, with Michelle interpreting for him, says "It’s going good."
Randy feels like a door is opening, for him and for Max.
"I want to hear many things," he signs. "Learn different languages, talk more with people."
And Randy Adams can’t wait for a follow-up story in a year, to show how far he and Max have come, together.
Scientists have coaxed sound-sensing cells in the ear, called "hair cells," to grow from stem cells. This technique, if perfected with human cells, could help halt or reverse the most common form of hearing loss , according to a new study.
These delicate hair cells can be damaged by excessive noise , ear infections, certain medicines or the natural process of aging. Human hair cells do not naturally regenerate; so as they die, hearing declines.
More than 20 million Americans have significant hearing loss resulting from the death or injury of these sensory hair cells , accounting for about 90 percent of hearing loss in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the new study, scientists at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported that they isolated stem cells from a mouse ear, discovered how to get them to multiply in a laboratory setting, and then converted them into hair cells. Their previous efforts, in 2013, produced only 200 hair cells. With a new technique, however, the research team has increased this number to 11,500 hair cells that were grown from one mouse ear.
To super-charge a specific virus as a gene carrier into the inner ear, the team used a form of the virus wrapped in protective bubbles called exosomes (tiny bubbles made of cell membrane). Those cells naturally bud off exosomes that carry the virus inside them.
(Harvard Medical School)
In a small study on deaf mice, researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital used a novel gene-delivery technique to help the animals make gains in hearing and balance, but cautioned that the therapy is years away from use in humans.
Working with mice born without a gene critical for hair cell function, researchers injected a modified adeno-associated virus (AAV) with the missing gene into the inner ears of mouse pups shortly after birth. One month after treatment, nine of 12 mice had some level of hearing restored and could be startled by a loud clap, a standard behavioral test for hearing. Four of the mice could hear sounds roughly the equivalent of a conversation in a loud restaurant, 70 to 80 decibels.
Mice with damaged or missing hair cells show balance abnormalities and the mice treated in this study showed notably improved balance compared to their untreated counterparts.
Previous gene-delivery techniques have been unable to reach crucial hair cells, the delicate sensors in the inner ear that capture sound and head movement and convert them to neural signals for hearing and balance.
The new model reached a subset of hair cells that had been largely impenetrable by using AAV. Scientists grew regular AAV virus inside cells, which then budded off tiny bubbles made of cell membrane that carry the AAV virus inside them. This membrane virus is coated with proteins that bind to cell receptors, which may be why the bubble-wrapped version of AAV binds more easily to surfaces of hair cells and penetrates them more efficiently, scientists said in a news release.
"Unlike current approaches in the field, we didn’t change or directly modify the virus. Instead, we gave it a vehicle to travel in, making it better capable of navigating the terrain inside the inner ear and accessing previously resistant cells," co-senior author and co-investigator Casey Maguire, Harvard Medical School assistant professor of neurology at the Mass General, said in a news release.
Their approach will not be ready for use in humans anytime soon, but gene therapy carries the promise of restoring hearing in people with several forms of both genetic and acquired deafness, the team said in a news release. Every year, about one in 1,000 babies are born with a hearing impairment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
When people have low levels of iron in their blood, they may develop a condition called iron deficiency anemia, which is known to have wide-ranging effects throughout the body, and now, a new study suggests that this condition may be linked to hearing loss as well.
In the study, adults who had iron deficiency anemia were more than twice as likely to develop a specific type of hearing loss, called combined hearing loss, compared with those who did not have iron deficiency anemia, according to the study.
In the study, published Dec. 29 in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, the researchers looked at data from the medical records of more than 300,000 adults in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The participants’ ages ranged from 21 to 90; the average age was 50.
Based on the medical records, the researchers identified the people in the study who had iron deficiency anemia as well as any diagnoses of hearing loss.
Hearing loss was divided into three categories: sensorineural hearing loss, which results from damage to the inner ear, damage to the nerve that runs from the ear to the brain, or damage to the brain; conductive hearing loss, which occurs when sound cannot travel through the ear properly; and combined hearing loss, which is a combination of the two.
The researchers found that the people with iron deficiency anemia were 2.4 times more likely to have combined hearing loss compared with those who did not have iron deficiency anemia. The people with iron deficiency anemia were also 1.8 times more likely to have sensorineural hearing loss. There was no link, however, between iron deficiency anemia and conductive hearing loss, according to the study.
Earlier research suggested several potential reasons why iron deficiency anemia may be linked to hearing loss and, in particular, to sensorineural hearing loss, the researchers, led by Kathleen Schieffer, a doctoral student at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, wrote in the study.
Sensorineural hearing loss can develop when damage occurs to the tiny blood vessels in the ear, and iron deficiency anemia can put a person at risk for such damage. For example, iron deficiency anemia has been linked to several blood disorders that can cause such damage to these delicate blood vessels. In addition, the condition has been linked to problems with myelin, a sheath that surrounds nerve cells, including the nerve that runs from the ear to the brain, the researchers wrote.
Indeed, the researchers had hypothesized that iron deficiency anemia would be more likely to be linked to sensorineural hearing loss than to conductive hearing loss. An earlier study from Taiwan, for example, found a link between iron deficiency anemia and sudden sensorineural hearing loss, a type of hearing loss that develops in less than 72 hours, the researchers wrote.
Long-term use of pain relievers like Advil have been linked to hearing loss in women over 60, researchers say.
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
Regularly popping a dose of Advil or Tylenol could compromise your hearing. A new study that examined the long-term use of over-the-counter pain relievers found that women who took certain meds steadily for six years were 10% more likely to experience hearing loss, reports the New York Times.
The pain relievers in question were nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibruprofen (Advil) or naproxen (Aleve). Those taking acetaminophen (Tylenol) for the same period were 9% more inclined to report hearing problems.
The team did not find diminished hearing associated with aspirin use. While the mechanism behind the hearing loss is unknown and the study did not prove causation, a press release notes it adds to a growing body of evidence that these sorts of drugs are linked to auditory problems.
Writing in the American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers compared long-term users with women who took the same pain meds two or more times per week for less than one year.
David Dakake got a “Halloween do-over” after neighbors rallied to hand out candy to him two days after Halloween, as the special needs boy had been hospitalized during the holiday.
(Fox 5 Atlanta)
David Dakake trick-or-treating with his mother, Leann Dakake.
David Dakake wasn’t able to go trick-or-treating Monday because he was hospitalized, but he was still able to partake in the holiday’s festivities. That’s all thanks to dozens of strangers and neighbors who rallied to throw the 12-year-old special needs boy a “Halloween do-over” on Wednesday, after David was discharged, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.
David’s mother, Leann Dakake, of Paulding County, Georgia, said her son was heartbroken when she told him he’d have to miss Halloween. The Dakakes adopted David from Latvia in 2007 when he was a toddler. David was born premature, and suffers from deafness and a mild form of cerebral palsy, which affects his movement, the news station reported. These needs sometimes require extra care.
Moved by her son’s reaction, Leann shared news of their predicament on social media and reached out to a neighbor.
Although the Dakakes only moved to their new neighborhood of Seven Hills a few days ago, Leann said the outpouring of support was overwhelming, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Dozens of neighbors agreed to open their doors with candy for David. Next, another person proposed a trunk-or-treat idea, which the community organized Tuesday.
On Wednesday, mere hours after David was discharged from the hospital, the boy got to fill up his bag with Halloween treats just as he wanted. He wore a Batman costume that his mom bought him only Tuesday.
"People will come together when there’s something that touches their heart," Leann told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Retired and separated service members who meet U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs requirements are eligible to apply for hearing aids as part of basic health care services. The hearing aid benefits apply only to registered veterans, not to their spouses or dependents. According to the VA, the simplest way to register is through its New to VA website (link in Resources).
Establish Eligibility
VA guidelines say that a veteran who has a documented service-connected hearing loss or a disability rating of at least 10 percent for a condition unrelated to hearing is eligible to apply for hearing aids. A registered veteran who does not meet these requirements, such as a person with special needs, might still qualify with a referral from a primary care VA physician.
Getting Hearing Aids
Veterans with a service-connected hearing loss can schedule an audiology exam without a referral. All others must first see a primary care physician for a referral. Following an examination, an audiologist decide whether hearing aids are necessary and if they are, places the order. The VA furnishes both hearing aids and replacement batteries and makes any necessary repairs, free of charge to eligible veterans.
