How Much Urine in Swimming Pools?

Image courtesy of Exsodus at  FreeDigitalPhotos.net In 2013, I wrote a blog article about how much fecal matter (i.e., poop) is typically found in swimming pools (up to 2.2 pounds in a typical pool if 100 different people enter the pool). We now have an estimate of how much urine (i.e., pee) is found in a typical pool. According to Canadian researchers , a 220,000 gallon pool, which is about one-third of an Olympic-sized pool, had 75 liters of urine while another smaller pool (110,000 ga…

3/02/2017 0

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Why Does the Ear Hurt with Cold Air or Cold Wind Exposure?

Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Not uncommonly, some people complain about ear pain (or otalgia ) that lasts about 15-60+ minutes after the ear gets exposed to cold air or wind. The pain always resolves after the ears warm up, even if nothing is done. The pain is typically described as sharp or an ache deep within the ear canal. However, the pain may radiate around the ear and even below the ear into the throat. Wearing ear plugs or ear muffs when in cold air prev…

1/08/2017 7

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Suction Powered Nasal Irrigation

Most sino-nasal irrigation systems currently in use require passive drainage after flushing... typically into a sink. You squirt the saltwater into one nostril and the flush drains out the other side passively. However, there is a new system called " Navage " made by RhinoSystems that adds suction along with the flush. The upper chamber is where clean water is held. There are two nasal pillows that goes into each nostril. By pushing a button, the water gets mixed with salt and fl…

9/25/2016 0

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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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Dyson Humidifier - Best Humidifier on the Market?

Hot steam showers are often helpful in alleviating symptoms of  upper respiratory infection  with  cough . It can ease the  nasal congestion  and calm the coughing down. Due to these beneficial effects and the fact that dry airways can make a cough worse, a humidifier is a helpful device to have in a room. Humidifier use when the air is dry during the winter can also help prevent upper respiratory infections from happening as well as minimize nosebleeds . Keep in mind that although humidi…

10/10/2015 0

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A Single Sneeze Can Spread Throughout Entire Building

MIT researchers using high-speed cameras and applying fluid dynamics have discovered that although ejected droplets from a sneeze typically fall to the ground, the "cloud" of moisture from a single sneeze actually floats and can enter ventilation ducts and can potentially spread throughout an entire building or airplane. Watch video below. These findings have profound implications as to how infections may travel within buildings and other contained structures like cruise ships a…

5/03/2014 0

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Flushing Ears with Cold Water Can Treat Somatoparaphrenia

Somatoparaphrenia is a condition whereby a person denies that a limb or an entire side of the body belongs to them, even if provided with irrefutable proof. This condition usually is accompanied by left-sided paralysis and anosognosia (denial or lack of awareness) of the paralysis often due to a parietal stroke. What is interesting is that flushing the left ear with cold water (caloric vestibular stimulation) can temporarily treat/resolve somatoparaphrenia. Specifically, the protocol is fl…

3/03/2014 0

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Does Drinking Alkaline Water Help With Reflux?

Image by WJ Pilsak from Wikipedia Treatment in some reflux-sufferers may require addressing not just the acid in reflux, but also the pepsin. In one tantalizing  research paper,  alkaline water (pH 8.8) was found to instantly and permanently inactivate pepsin in vitro (ie, in a test tube). Pepsin is a stomach enzyme that can cause inflammation and mucosal damage when in the throat area. This peptic enzyme can be deposited outside the stomach due to laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) and ca…

7/07/2013 1

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Mal de Debarquement Syndrome - Rare Cause of Dizziness

The BBC recently printed a story describing a rare condition called mal de debarquement which causes  dizziness , typically after a boat cruise, though can occur with airplane flights and even a long drive in a car with switchbacks (going up/down a mountain). Two signs that a patient has mal de debarquement are if they feel a rocking sensation for weeks or months starting AFTER a cruise and two, if they're much better when in motion like vigorous exercise, but feel much worse when sta…

3/17/2013 0

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Why Did Hair Turn Green for Residents of a Certain Town?

In 2011, in a certain township called Anderslov in Sweden, formerly blonde residents' hair mysteriously started turning green. Was it a biological problem? Was it a disease? Was it contagious? Nope... Actually, suspicion initially was towards the drinking water and in particular, the copper levels since copper is known to dye things green via a complex oxidation process. When copper oxidizes, it forms minerals that are green (and/or blue) including: brochantite (hydrated copper…

9/21/2012 0

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To Ear Plug or Not to Ear Plug

Seems like a fairly simple question... but oh what controversy it stirs up when regarding a patient with ear tubes who wants to go swimming. There are two schools of thought... 1) Based on evidence and research, no need to wear ear plugs... ever. The argument... Well, here's the research: A meta-analysis of swimming and water precautions. Water precautions and tympanostomy tubes: a randomized, controlled trial. A meta-analysis of swimming and water precautions. The effect of w…

7/20/2012 2

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Amoeba Deaths from Neti-Pot Use and How to Minimize Risk

In the past few weeks, there have been numerous stories about the 2nd death in Louisiana from Neti-Pot use leading to an amoeba infection of the brain. The culprit organism Naegleria fowleri causes a life-threatening encephalitis after passing thru the nose and up into the brain where the organism eats neurons for food. As such, recommendations have been issued to use water as instructed with the Neti-Pot packaging... water should be boiled, distilled, or filtered. However, before the mi…

12/22/2011 1

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How Long Can You Survive Without Water or Food???

Well, according to a New Scientist article , with at least a supply of vitamins and water, you can survive over a year without eating. However, with vitamins but no water, survival time is sharply reduced. "A human can be expected to survive for weeks without food, but a thirsty person deprived of water would last a matter of days. Without water, the volume of blood in your body drops, and with it your blood pressure. Blood becomes thicker and stickier, making it harder to pump around …

4/22/2010 0

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Our Office Now Carries Ear Band-Its Swimming Headband!

Due to numerous patient requests, our office now carries in stock the swimming headband called Ear Band-Its that helps keep ear plugs in and water out when kids go swimming. Too often during swimming, the ear plugs get knocked out or in spite of a parents' best efforts, water seems to get by the plugs. Though swimming caps over the ears would work/help, most kids refuse to wear them. However, kids don't seem to mind wearing headbands as it apparently is "cool." Made of 3mm…

8/05/2009 0

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Video on How to Perform a Saline Sinus Flush

Given the dearth of video on the internet showing exactly how to perform a saline sinus flush using the NeilMed Sinus Rinse bottle, our practice has gone ahead and made one for educational purposes. It has been posted on our YouTube channel, but can be viewed below as well. Click here to go directly to the YouTube video. This link can also be found on our website here . Instructions on making your own saltwater using home kitchen supplies can be found here . Saline sinus flushes are gener…

12/05/2007 0

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