Personal sound amplification products: For some, an affordable alternative to hearing aids
Growing up I had to wear glasses. Back then it was considered socially unacceptable, but necessary to be able to see. Sixty years later, everyone wears glasses and they are a fashion statement. Now as an aging adult, I need to wear hearing aids. This was and still is in many age groups considered socially unacceptable — a sign of being old and maybe a little senile. But it appears that hearing aids are in the process of a similar transformation. A pared down, more affordable category of products — personal sound amplification products (PSAPs) — may lead to greater use of hearing enhancers at a younger age.
Hearing ai...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 8, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: David M. Vernick, MD Tags: Ear, nose, and throat Health Hearing Loss Source Type: blogs
3 Questions to Ask Clients About Their Vocal Care
Our voice represents our rich inner world of thoughts, feelings, wants and needs. It is an instrument—and every instrument needs careful maintenance for optimal function
When providing voice treatment to my clients, I can’t stress enough the importance of a vocal hygiene protocol.
Some recommendations are standard, such as adequate water intake and using a humidifier at home. But to give my clients the best opportunities for improvement, I like to go beyond the basics. To accomplish this, I take a holistic dive into the diet, lifestyle and environment the client encounters daily. This insight can shed light on factors ...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - September 4, 2018 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tina Babajanians Tags: Health Care Private Practice Slider Speech-Language Pathology Speech Disorders Voice Disorders Source Type: blogs
4th of July: Holiday or hazard?
America is confusing. To celebrate the birth of our nation, we eat hot dogs first created in Germany, set off fireworks invented in China, and listen to European-style orchestras play Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture commemorating a Russian military triumph (i.e., not the one the United States fought in that year), replete with the precisely-timed firing of 16 cannons, a weapon which, incidentally, was first used in battle by — you guessed it — the very nation from which we dissolved our political bonds in the first place: the English. Perhaps as a nation of immigrants that likes to appropriate any and all cultural practi...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - July 2, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jeremy Samuel Faust, MD, MS Tags: Health Safety Source Type: blogs
Button Battery Update
LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog LITFL • Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog
Button battery ingestion is one of the leading causes of death in paediatric poisoning and this has sharply risen from 2016 despite manufacturing warnings and the addition of tape to cover the negative side (not very useful once you’ve removed that to place it in your device). See Poison.org for more statistics. What makes button battery ingestion more frightening is the fact that the ingestion may go unwitnessed, the child may have vague symptoms like ‘off...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - June 20, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Toxicology and Toxinology button battery tox library toxicology library Source Type: blogs
How to Break the Stress Reaction Cycle
As hard as it may sound to pull out of this stress reaction cycle, it is possible. The first step in creating any positive change is always raising your awareness of what the cycle is, how you participate in it, and what pains the cycle creates.
Why? Because you can’t change a habit you don’t know you have. And if you don’t recognize the pain the habit is creating, you won’t have the motivation you need to make new choices and break out of the cycle that has become familiar despite the fact that it is destructive.
The practice of mindfulness is an incredibly powerful tool to help you find that awareness. Mindfuln...
Source: World of Psychology - June 16, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Dr. Melissa Samartano Tags: Agitation Anxiety and Panic General Habits Happiness Mindfulness Self-Help Stress Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Stress Response Source Type: blogs
Device Helps Disabled Docs Perform Physical Exams
Doctors with disabilities managed to overcome a great deal of challenges to be able to perform their professional duties. The challenges keep on coming, though, because tools that physicians use were almost never designed with disabilities in mind.
A couple of folks at the University of Michigan wanted to help out a physician-in-training, that happens to use a wheelchair, to perform routine physical exams. They created a special device that lets her get close to the patient to examine the nose, throat, ears, eyes, and skin, all without having her nor the patient get into awkward positions.
It’s essentially a handheld...
Source: Medgadget - May 11, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Medicine Rehab Source Type: blogs
6 Ways to Stop Absorbing Other People ’ s Emotions
“Sometimes I think I need a spare heart to feel all the things I feel.” — Sanober Khan
I felt her agony and loneliness as if it were my own. Even as I write that sentence, my eyes well up and heaviness fills my heart. Then, I’m reminded to apply the advice I give others.
My mom was a special person, a sensitive soul just like me. Actually, I’m so much like she was, yet so different. One of the differences between us is that I had an opportunity to observe her life’s challenges. I saw her challenges reflected within myself and made a conscious choice to find healthy ways to cope.
You see, my mom was ...
Source: World of Psychology - April 21, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Psych Central Staff Tags: Parenting Personal Publishers Self-Help Tiny Buddha Boundaries compassionate Emotions Empathy Feelings Highly Sensitive Person sensitive people Sensitivity Sympathy Source Type: blogs
Does your child need a tonsillectomy?
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Tonsillectomies are one of the most common surgeries performed on children — but the decision to do one should not be taken lightly.
In 1965, there were about a million tonsillectomies (with or without adenoidectomy, a surgery often done at the same time) performed on children younger than 15 years old. By 2006 that number had dropped by half, and by 2010 it had dropped by half again.
Why the drop? Well, complications are common. In fact, one in five children who have a tonsillectomy has a complication. The most common is breathing difficulty, which can affect one in 10. Bleeding affects on...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - March 20, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Children's Health Ear, nose, and throat Parenting Surgery Source Type: blogs
aerSleep System for Obstructive Sleep Apnea (Interview)
TTP Ventus, UK-based developer of Disc Pump, a tiny, quiet, and very efficient pump, and Sommetrics, US-based creator of aerSleep negative-pressure treatment system for obstructive sleep apnea, teamed up to develop the slimmed-down tetherless aerSleep system. aerSleep has just recently been approved for marketing to patients in Canada.
Obstructive sleep apnea is caused by airway collapse during sleep, resulting in breathing impairment and long-term health complications. It has been estimated that there are 22 million sufferers in the US alone. Conventional treatment involves continuous positive airway pressure, where suff...
Source: Medgadget - March 14, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Cardiology Exclusive Medicine Source Type: blogs
The flu is here — and so is a new advisory from the CDC
In conclusion…
Maybe this year’s flu season will be milder than expected. But I wouldn’t count on it. I’ve had the flu and it’s not pleasant. Do what you can to lessen your risk. It’s worth the effort.
The post The flu is here — and so is a new advisory from the CDC appeared first on Harvard Health Blog. (Source: Harvard Health Blog)
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 10, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Cold and Flu Infectious diseases Source Type: blogs
The Secret Behind Our Powers of Perception
When you’re an eye doctor, and I’ve spent my entire career as one, you learn a lot about how people use, and misuse, the sense of sight to perceive the world around them. As humans, we’re constantly interpreting and occasionally manipulating our experiences to distinguish fantasy from reality. Some people are better at this than others. Some, for example, are consistently taken in by conspiracy theories or fake news stories, whereas others can quickly sniff them out as bogus.
A few years ago, I asked myself-what’s the difference between people with keen powers of perception and those with weaker powers? Is it educ...
Source: World of Psychology - December 22, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Psych Central Staff Tags: Brain Blogger Memory and Perception Publishers Fantasy perceptual intelligence reality Source Type: blogs
Will CVS-Aetna Merger Lead to “ Separate But Unequal ” Healthcare?
By NIRAN AL-AGBA, MD
Last week, pharmacy giant CVS agreed to purchase Aetna this week for an astounding $69 billion dollar sum. The company allegedly plans to reduce health spending by developing an integrated system touted as “a new front door for health care in America.” This merger is actually an acquisition, entailing transfer of ownership. The central aim of an acquisition is to increase market share, expand the scope of services provided, and improve financial stability. CVS hit the jackpot on all three objectives. While Wall Street investors celebrate, many of us knowledgeable in the delivery of healthcare servi...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 11, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Aetna CVS Niran Al-Agba Source Type: blogs
Medtronic Releases StealthStation ENT Surgical Navigation System
Medtronic is launching its new StealthStation ENT surgical navigation system for ear, nose, and throat procedures following both FDA and CE Mark clearances. The system works by setting up an electromagnetic field around the area being worked on, and then using this field as a coordinate system to accurately track the location of instruments. The field is established thanks to an emitter that is placed under the patient’s head, effectively staying out of the way of clinicians working on the patient.
StealthStation ENT sports a feature called “Virtual Endoscopy” that gives a view of the sinus cavities that ...
Source: Medgadget - September 14, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: ENT Neurosurgery Source Type: blogs
Think your child has a penicillin allergy? Maybe not.
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Allergies to penicillin are the most commonly reported medication allergy. This can be a real problem; if you are allergic to penicillin, it’s not just penicillin you can’t take. You can’t take amoxicillin and other antibiotics that are extremely similar, and it’s iffy whether or not you can take cephalosporins (such as cephalexin or cefdinir), a whole other really useful and commonly used class of antibiotics.
See, that’s the thing: with most common infections such as ear infections, strep throat, or skin infections, if we can’t give you penicillin we end up with limited choices....
Source: Harvard Health Blog - July 11, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Asthma and Allergies Children's Health Drugs and Supplements Infectious diseases Parenting Safety Source Type: blogs
Coffee Helmet for Better Nose and Throat Surgery
Engineers at Vanderbilt University have developed a silicon cap filled with coffee grounds to track patient head movements and orientation during delicate nose and throat surgery. The technology was recently presented at the International Conference on Information Processing in Computer-Assisted Interventions in Barcelona, Spain.
At present, patients undergoing nose and throat surgery wear a basic elastic headband studded with reflective dots that can be picked up by sophisticated tracking systems, allowing surgical systems to track where the tools are oriented inside the patient. “These are very delicate operations and...
Source: Medgadget - June 26, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: ENT Neurosurgery Radiology Source Type: blogs
