Singer Ed Sheeran Suffers Traumatic Eardrum Rupture

Image from Wikipedia  by Eva Rinaldi Singer Ed Sheeran revealed that he traumatically ruptured his eardrum while vacationing in Spain earlier in 2015. He also revealed he will undergo surgery to fix this problem in early 2016. During a radio interview, the stated that: "I have to have an operation in January on my ear because I stupidly jumped off a yacht really high up and smashed it. I landed wrong, and it burst my eardrum so I have to go and get a graft, which means I'm no…

12/11/2015 0

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Is Suppressing a Sneeze Bad For You?

Image courtesy of stockimages at  FreeDigitalPhotos.net Also known medically as the "closed-airway sneeze," it may be socially preferable, but healthwise may be harmful if not dangerous. With a sneeze, tremendous air pressure is created in the lungs which ideally should be released out the mouth... but if internalized to prevent release out the mouth, can cause immense pressure to buildup internally which may cause significant damage ranging from minor to severe requiring hosp…

7/30/2015 0

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Why Do Mammalian and Reptilian Eardrums Look the Same?

Image by Bogdanov of Wikipedia From an evolutionary standpoint, reptiles/birds and mammals are as different as one can get among vertebrate animals. Given just how different the two animal classifications are, it is strange why the eardrums look SO similar. So similar that there has been a debate whether the ear in reptiles/birds and mammals evolved from a common ancestor OR... did the ear evolve independently to a similar appearing structure. Based on Japanese research , the argument is…

6/29/2015 0

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Are OTC Otoscopes Any Good? (Dr. Mom Pocket Otoscope, etc)

So I was hanging out at Walgreens one day and noticed that there are several models of otoscopes for sale in the pharmacy aisle. The cost of one ran anywhere from $25 to as much as $50 which is quite cheap compared to the "doctor" model which typically is a Welch Allyn and costs several hundred dollars. I was curious to see how good or bad these OTC otoscope models are compared to the Welch Allyn otoscope I use. Here are the models I decided to use for comparison (as seen on Amazon.…

12/03/2014 5

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Some Facts About Q-Tips and Ears

In this week's episode of " Girls " (Season 2; Episode 9 "Girls Gets Dark"), Hannah grappling with OCD, inserted a Q-tip deep into her ear canal and "heard air hiss out the hole" due to perforating her eardrum . Although this scene came out of a TV show, this scenario is not uncommon and results in many ENT office visits every month for not only eardrum perforations , but bleeding due to trauma to the ear canal skin. Some facts about Q-tips as it rela…

3/17/2013 1

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Negative Ear Pressure Causing Inability to Pop a Clogged Ear

Have you ever closed the lid on an air-tight container containing a left-over hot meal and stuck it in the refrigerator? And than when you try to open the lid the next day once that hot meal cools down, it is REALLY hard to open the lid because of the accumulated negative pressure? In essence, the negative pressure has "locked" the lid down. Well, something similar can also potentially happen inside the ear with eustachian tube dysfunction , especially with negative pressure (rather…

2/05/2013 4

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