HealthOnTrack

Archive for the ‘Living With Disabilities’ Category

Although New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg is fast approaching his swan song, he is currently making a concerted effort to educate citizens on how children’s hearing problems are directly correlated with increased exposure to loud music in close contact with the ears. He expressed a disdain for in-ear headphones and has established a call to action that centres on a general reduction in listening volume across the board.

Sounds of Silence

A new initiative, the Hearing Loss Prevention Media Campaign, addresses the people of New York, highlighting the empirical risks of listening to loud music and most notably the increased risk it poses to the development of hearing impairments in children who are reckless in their listening volume. Many people feel that if they aren’t born with issues such as conductive hearing loss then they are free from becoming hard of hearing and suffering future impairment.   Read more... (250 words, 1 image, estimated 1:00 mins reading time)

For those of us with good hearing, the idea of losing our hearing doesn’t really concern us too much because we think it takes an accident or a serious event for us to suffer hearing loss. Nothing could be further from the truth as Chris Cooper discovered one morning when he had his full hearing, went to work and had a normal day, and then came home almost deaf.  Read more... (420 words, 1 image, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

While the link between hearing loss and cognitive defects is nothing new, it remains one of the most untreated conditions in older adults. Further research has been undertaken recently by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine in the UK which explicitly shows elderly people with hearing loss symptoms are more likely to develop cognitive problems sooner; cognitive refers to memory and clear thought. Dr. Frank Lin is a hearing specialist and epidemiologist who has been at the subject for close to a decade with extensive written record of his observations over that period. Dr. Lin’s studies are hoped to encourage people to take care of and improve hearing to avoid cognitive disability setting in later on in life.  Read more... (367 words, 3 images, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Research into hearing loss has led to people suffering with mild hearing loss and disorders to admit that they generally switch off thirty seconds into conversations because it’s too difficult for them to hear anything. Struggling to hear the words and asking people to repeat themselves has led to a lot of frustration for sufferers.  Read more... (351 words, 1 image, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

It’s not something many people have heard of. In fact, it’s not something many people hear at all. We understand the whole concept of not being able to get a silly song out of our heads, but for those with Musical Ear Syndrome, the music never stops.

Do Stop the Music

The debilitating syndrome has not been diagnosed in too many and currently only one in 10 000 sufferers from Musical Ear condition, and it’s most prevalent amongst the elderly. One such woman, Cath Gamester, has been hearing the same songs play in her head, on loop, since 2010. Initially believing she was suffering with a possible hearing problem, she went to about educating herself on possibly losing her hearing and what could be done to cure hearing loss. Unbeknown to Cath, Musical Ear Syndrome has nothing whatsoever to do with hearing, but more with the conditioning of the brain.  Read more... (386 words, 1 image, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Cystic fibrosis is a life-threatening disease that is transferred across family generations and reveals itself in the form of sticky, thick mucus that builds in the digestive tract, lungs and other areas of the body. In a clinical research breakthrough, cystic fibrosis treatment is welcoming a new drug to the market that aims to alleviate mucus collection in the lungs.  Read more... (243 words, 2 images, estimated 58 secs reading time)

Most of us taking our health for granted. We can sympathise with people in wheelchairs, using crutches; disabilities that we can see, but what about disabilities such as hearing impairment? We don’t see it, so we don’t really understand it. One hearing aid shop owner decided to give his staff a chance to experience hearing impairment. The exercise made some very uncomfortable, but it opened a new world of understanding, and now they can empathise with those suffering hearing loss on a permanent basis.  Read more... (351 words, 1 image, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

Many people won’t be aware of the fact that the 2nd of April was World Autism Awareness Day, which naturally falls within world autism awareness month. The disorder affects one in one hundred people but there are few people aware of exactly what it is all about.

Autism can be a very isolating condition and it is only through awareness that people are able to empathise and treat those with the disorder more pleasantly. It is currently the fasted growing disorder on earth. Autism awareness is particularly important as it is the disorder is incurable. This means that autistic kids as well as adults will at times experience despair and a sense of hopelessness. If people do not understand this it can often exacerbate the problem. Regulatory affairs are needed in the treatment of autism but positive social treatment is also one of the most comforting approaches.  Read more... (331 words, 1 image, estimated 1:19 mins reading time)

When it comes to science, we haven’t even begun to dominate any singe practice; when it comes to medical conditions the evidence is even clearer of this. There are medical conditions that, at its core, we don’t even understand how they exist, what causes it or how wide-spread they are. It is even worse for medical condition insurance when they don’t even know what it is they are supposed to cover. Let’s go over some of these strange and scary medical conditions.  Read more... (403 words, 2 images, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)