Top Ad

Shareholic Button

March 31, 2012

Why Does My Voice Sound Different on Recording and Treatment Options

Every so often, I have a patient who presents to my office with a complaint that their voice sounds different on recording than what they themselves hear. In particular, singers who come in state specifically that their vocal recordings sounds slightly flat when they thought they were singing in perfect pitch. So why does this happen? Unfortunately, it is physics  and fundamentally integrated to how the ear, skull, and sound transmission work. In other words, it can't be "trea…
Continue Reading

March 29, 2012

Kissing the Ear Can Cause Permanent Hearing Loss

MSNBC reported 3/29/12 about a phenomenon called cochlear ear-kiss injury. This condition is when hearing loss occurs after a person kisses someone else over the ear, usually a mom over a baby's or child's ear. Right after the kiss, a person can suffer from immediate and potentially permanent hearing loss along with other symptoms including  ringing , sensitivity to sound, sound distortion, and aural fullness. How or why does this occur? With a kiss, a strong suction is create…
Continue Reading

March 28, 2012

Strong Sneeze Broke Woman's Neck

Fox News reported yesterday about an Australian woman, Monique Jeffrey, who sneezed SO hard that she broke her neck... literally. According to the neurosurgeon the patient eventually saw, her C1 and C2 vertebrae had dislocated and were displaced which resulted in her symptoms of excruciating pain with her head locked to her right shoulder and in too much pain to move anything but her right arm. Her left arm was also numb with tingling. She was placed in a halo traction for three months w…
Continue Reading

March 27, 2012

FDA Approves New "Dry" Steroid Nasal Spray

On March 26, 2012, the FDA approved of a new type of steroid nasal spray  in the treatment of nasal allergies that puffs powder into the nose rather than a liquid. Liquid formulations such as nasonex, flonase, veramyst, nasacort, and rhinocort has been until now the only delivery medium of administration. This new spray made by Teva Pharmaceuticals is called QNASL which puffs a steroid beclomethasone dipropionate. For those who know pharmaceuticals, it is the same active ingredient as (l…
Continue Reading

March 25, 2012

How is a Hole in the Eardrum Repaired?

If a hole in the eardrum does not heal closed and a decision has been made to pursue repairing a hole in the eardrum (also known as tympanic membrane perforation), it is not uncommon for patients to get confused among the different surgical techniques used to fix it. There are 3 major "flavors" of eardrum hole repair.  Paper patch: Paper patch technique involves putting a thin membrane (film paper, gelfoam, etc) OVER the eardrum hole. Medial or Underlay Tympanoplasty: In th…
Continue Reading

March 24, 2012

FDA Approves New Surgical Reflux Treatment

On March 22, 2012, the FDA approved the LINX Reflux Management System to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Developed by Torax Medical , the "LINX system is composed of a series of titanium beads, each with a magnetic core, connected together with independent titanium wires to form a ring shape like a bracelet of beads. It is implanted at the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), a circular band of muscle that closes the last few centimeters of the esophagus and prevents the …
Continue Reading

Celebrity Chef Grant Achatz With Stage 4 Tongue Cancer

Chicago news recently published a story about their very own celebrity chef Grant Achatz who suffered from Stage 4B squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. Grant Achatz, chef and co-owner of Alinea/Next/Aviary, approached multiple physicians throughout the country who essentially told him the  oral cancer  was terminal. In the end, he underwent treatment at University of Chicago successfully, though he certainly is not out of the woods yet. There are several approaches in the treatm…
Continue Reading

Recipe How to Make Snot Boogers

British researchers are at it again! The British Society for Immunology have developed a recipe  to make your very own authentic-appearing snot of various colors of tan thru green. Of course, you can make your own the natural way, but here's a more sanitary way with kitchen supplies. You need: 1 tbsp Gelatine powder 1 tbsp Hot water 2 tbsp Sugar syrup (corn syrup or golden syrup) Food colouring A plastic container/bag Paint brush or dropper To make your own snot: 1) In a…
Continue Reading

March 22, 2012

Government Sponsored Studies Not Getting Published

Yale researchers published a study on whether NIH-funded studies get published after research completion. The researchers examined all clinical trials after Sept 30, 2005 funded by NIH and registered within ClinicalTrials.gov maintained by the US National Library of Medicine. Shockingly, among 635 clinical trials completed by 31 December 2008, only 46% (294 studies) were published in a peer reviewed biomedical journal within 30 months of trial completion. The median period of follow-up…
Continue Reading

March 21, 2012

Tongue Taste Map is a LIE!

As children, we all learned about the 4 different taste qualities the human tongue can appreciate: salty, sugar, bitter, and sour. Savory or umami was added in 1985. " Calcium " has been proposed in 2008 as well as more recently, " fatty " taste (oleogustus). Along with the 5 (and possibly more) taste qualities we all had to memorize at some point, we also had to memorize the taste map of the tongue (yes... I know umami is missing): Well... what a waste of time to memori…
Continue Reading

How Many Infections in a Child is "Normal" Per Year?

Kids get a lot of infections... but at what point should a parent be concerned on how often these infections occur, particularly upper respiratory infections? A German study went about to determine the answer to just that question... They prospectively followed 760 children born in 1990 and followed them for 12 years. Parents recorded the child’s illnesses in a diary and answered structured questions yearly up to age 12. This is what they found... The mean number of infections per year f…
Continue Reading

March 13, 2012

TV Show SMASH Portrays Ivy With Vocal Issues

In last night's episode (Episode 106: Chemistry) of the new hit TV drama SMASH , the main character Ivy who plays Marilyn Monroe in the show developed laryngitis that affected her ability to sing clearly, especially in the high registers. However, her speaking voice did sound normal. To treat this condition, she was given prednisone which did help her voice, but suffered unfortunate side effects of mood lability, hallucinations, insomnia, etc. Did the show accurately portray what act…
Continue Reading

March 12, 2012

Singer John Mayer Has Recurrence of Vocal Cord Granuloma

In September 2011, grammy-award winning singer  John Mayer  announced the cancellation of a number of concerts as well as an album due to the development of a  vocal cord granuloma  of his voicebox. Read a  blog article  about this. On Oct 20, 2011,  he underwent surgery  to remove the granuloma and was on strict voice rest for several weeks with plans to resume live singing in the first quarter of 2012. Unfortunately, on March 9, 2012, it was found that his vocal cord granuloma has r…
Continue Reading

March 07, 2012

Best Drops for Earwax Removal

It's about time, but some researchers actually put to the test to try and determine what is the best solution to dissolve/remove earwax . The verdict was... WATER! Better than mineral oil, liquid colace, and over-the-counter cerumenolytics (ie cerumol). Hydrogen peroxide was not evaluated. How was this result determined? Using guinea pigs, the researchers first tested whether each of these substances were safe should a hole in the eardrum be present allowing for the solution t…
Continue Reading

How to Make Sudafed from Meth

Given the increasing difficulty in obtaining "over-the-counter" sudafed  (pseudoephedrine) to the point where it is easier to obtain the illegal drug methylamphetamine, a chemist has written a paper describing how to make sudafed from meth using reagants found in any well-stocked chemistry lab. For those who have been living in a hole, sudafed is a good nasal decongestant medication often used for nasal congestion and allergies that is now only found behind the pharmacy counter…
Continue Reading

March 04, 2012

If Computer Security Experts are Getting Hacked, Why are Hospitals/Doctors Expected to be Better?

As anyone knows from reading the newspaper recently, major computer security firms like RSA and Verisign have been hacked. Even the pentagon ! If companies that specialize in computer security get hacked, why are hospitals and doctors who do NOT specialize in computer security held to an even higher standard? Criminal penalties against healthcare professionals and organizations are steep for computer data breaches at $100 per record with criminal penalties that can include fines of $25…
Continue Reading

Pill Rather than Allergy Shots for Ragweed

If all goes well, in 2013 there will be a pill a patient can take rather than allergy shots to tone down the immune response to not only grasses ( Grazax ), but also ragweed. The active ingredient in this ragweed pill is Ambrosia artemisifolia, the chemical found within ragweed that causes allergy symptoms. Phase III trials with this pill taken once/day for 52 weeks conducted by Merck show a significant improvement in allergy symptoms by nearly 25%. Use of allergy medications like anti-h…
Continue Reading

Rush Limbaugh Has a Cochlear Implant

Infamous conservative talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, suffered from a rare hearing disorder called Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease . This rare inner ear disease is principally characterized by progressive bilateral fluctuating hearing loss and occurs when the body's own immune system starts to attack the hearing mechanism of the ear... much like rheumatoid arthritis is when the body's immune system attacks the joints. Just as with any other auto-immune disorder, it is mainly treated wit…
Continue Reading

Celine Dion Cancels Shows Due to Laryngitis

In late Feb 2012, Celine Dion who was to have performed in Las Vegas Feb 22, 2012, cancelled her show at the last minute at the Caesar's Palace due to laryngitis on the advice of her doctors. According to media reports , her doctors instructed her to rest for 7 days to ensure full recovery due to vocal cord inflammation caused by a virus. What does that mean exactly? When a virus infects the mucosa of the upper airway, it causes inflammation of the mucosa lining including the vocal …
Continue Reading

Unnecessary Sinus Surgery

A well-respected ENT surgeon, Dr. Salah Salman, recently wrote a book, " Scrubbed Out ," critical of the American health system with its links to corporation, powerful lobbies, administrators, and bureaucrats resulting in care driven by money rather than by medical necessity. In particular, he focuses in one part of his book on endoscopic sinus surgery in the treatment of chronic sinusitis . The excerpt from the book is quite lengthy and I encourage anybody interested to read a l…
Continue Reading

Banner Map

Pediatric Neck Masses

Adult Neck Mass Workup