Archive for the 'ENT Disorders' Category

Occasional difficulty in swallowing is not at all a cause for concern and it usually takes place whenever you try to eat food too fast or when you don’t chew the food properly.

But, persistent difficulty in swallowing food can become a warning sign for any underlying illness in your body. This kind of difficulty in swallowing food is commonly termed as dysphagia.

If you have difficulty in swallowing, you can also feel some sort of pain in your throat, while swallowing the food. With this condition of dysphagia, swallowing food, saliva, or even liquids can become quite tough task for you.

As a result, eating can become a great challenge for you and more often, dysphagia makes it difficult for you to supply enough calories and fluids that are very essential in nourishing your body.

What makes it hard for you to swallow?

Dysphagia usually takes place when there is a problem with any part of your swallowing process. If you possess weak muscles in your cheek or tongue, it becomes a hard task for you to chew or move the food around your mouth.

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Is some deafness avoidable? Hearing loss is usually accepted as an unavoidable side effect of aging, but new research suggests that lifestyle has a greater influence than previously thought.

According to the largest study on age-related hearing impairment done so far, the recipe for keen ears well into the senior years may be simple: stop smoking, stay slim, and have an alcoholic drink at least once a week [Link between hearing loss and tobacco smoke].

Our take-home message is that hearing loss up to a certain degree is preventable. Environmental factors are responsible for about 50% [of age-related deafness] and we now know which ones to avoid,” says Erik Fransen at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, noise exposure, known to destroy the sound-transducing hair cells in the inner ear, was the biggest risk. More surprising is the apparent effect of smoking and overeating [Treating hearing loss].

These factors have been suspected as potential causes of deafness, but it has been hard to separate them from the effects of cardiovascular diseases that are also frequently suffered by people who smoke and overeat. This study has been able to do just that.

For more information, visit: NewScientist

Approximately 36 million American people are suffering from this tinnitus and among them 7 million American people consider this as a significant problem.

The perceived sensation of sound in the ear in the absence of external sounds is tinnitus. It is a common state that briefly afflicts many people at one or another time.

Tinnitus is not a disease, but it is a symptom of some underlying cause of ear problems such as ear infection, injury from loud noises, and foreign object or wax in the ear.

It can vary in pitch from low roar to high squeal or moan. It can come and go or you may hear the sound continuously. It can affect one ear or both the ears. Some people are so badly affected that they cannot even able to lead normal lives.

There are many reasons for affecting with tinnitus. Mostly, the tinnitus can result from damage to the microscopic endings of the inner ear hearing nerve. Injury to these nerve endings results in hearing loss and in most cases tinnitus.

In older people, advancing age results in some impairment of the hearing loss and leads to tinnitus. On the other hand, if you are younger, exposure to the loud sounds is the main cause of damage to hearing, leading to tinnitus.

A new report from Perth’s Telethon Institute for Child Health Research has found a strong link between childhood ear infections and exposure to tobacco smoke.

In Aboriginal children, these ear infections typically start at a younger age, are much more common and more likely to result in hearing loss.

Up to 20 percent of children have more than three ear infections between 1 and 2 years of age.

If their hearing is damaged, it can seriously affect their educational outcomes and social circumstances in adulthood.

Key findings from the project include:

• Otitis media was diagnosed at least once in 74% of Aboriginal children and 45% of non-Aboriginal children.
• 64% of Aboriginal children and 40% of non-Aboriginal children were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke.
• If we eliminated exposure to tobacco smoke we estimate that we could reduce ear infections by 27% in Aboriginal children and 16% in non-Aboriginal children
• The impact of passive smoking in the home on ear infections was reduced if the children also attended day care.

These results highlight the importance of reducing children’s exposure to passive smoking, and this is particularly important for Aboriginal people where the rates of both smoking and otitis media are high.

Rheumatic fever is a very rare but potentially life threatening inflammatory disease which usually results from untreated throat infection [Throat inflammation].

This inflammatory health condition is most common in children aged between 5 and 15. However, it can also be developed in adults and mainly causes severe damage to heart, brain, joints, spinal cord and also to your skin.

Never ignore a streptococcal throat infection!

Strep throat is considered as the main root cause for rheumatic fever. Many of you usually ignore throat infection, considering it as a minor problem. But, it is very important for you to know that the main root source for rheumatic fever is bacteria, which will host in your throat along with your throat infection.

If you are affected with rheumatic fever, then it can show all its potential effects to become a life threatening disease. You can experience painful and swollen joints; severe muscle aches and also fever, if you become a victim for rheumatic fever. For some people, a red lattice rash typically begins with in one or six weeks after a short period of strep throat. However, in some cases, this bacterial infection can be mild and becomes difficult for you to recognize.

Does your child frequently suffer with ear ache? This can be because of otitis media, inflammation in the middle ear of your kid.

This inflammation usually begins with infections responsible for cold, sore throat or any other breathing or respiratory problems.

Otitis media is the most common ear inflammation in children. It is believed that almost 75% of children suffer with this otitis media every year.

It is also considered as the most common cause of hearing loss in children. Although this inflammation in ear is usually seen in infants, it can also affect adults very occasionally.

Does this inflammation results in hearing loss?

The 3 tiny bones present in your middle ear mainly carry sound vibrations from the ear drum to your inner ear. If any kind of fluid accumulates in your ear, these sound vibrations fail to reach your inner ear efficiently and as a result your ability to hear is lost gradually.

Usually this type of hearing loss is not permanent. However, if otitis media takes place frequently, it leads to damage of various parts in your ear like eardrum, hearing nerve and also to the bone of your ear. As a result of this damage to main hearing parts of your ear, you can lose your hearing ability for ever.

Is your child more often complaining about discomfort and pain in his/her throat?

Pharyngitis is a very common inflammation of throat which is mostly seen in children.

This inflammation is mostly caused due to viral infection in throat and is mainly characterized with a severe pain, discomfort or feeling of scratchiness in throat.

Pharyngitis can be caused by a variety of micro organisms and in most of the cases, it is mainly caused due to viral infection in throat and the causes for this inflammation include common cold, influenza, HIV, mononucleosis and also there are many other causes for throat inflammation.

Bacteria responsible to cause severe form of pharyngitis (strep throat) include group-A streptococcus, which is the main cause for 15% of all strep throat cases.

Certain other types of bacteria which rarely form sore throat include arconobacterium, Chlamydia pneumonia, and corynebacterium and also neisseria gonorrhea. In some cases of throat infections, the micro organism responsible for the disease is difficult to identify.

The most common manifestations associated with pharyngitis include:

• Strep throat associated with fever, head ache, raw or sore throat, swollen lymph nodes in the neck and also some times you can experience earache.

Are you worried about rigorous hair loss? Then it is very essential for you to get tested for thyroid problem in your body.

For most of the people, severe loss of hair is also considered as one of the major symptoms for hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism.

Hair loss is usually associated with thinning of hair and falling of huge amounts of hair while you take shower.

These worst manifestations can be accompanied with certain changes in hair texture like your hair can become drier, coarse and can be easily scrambled.

How to handle hair loss due to thyroid problem?

It is very easy to handle this symptom of thyroid problem if you follow simple steps. Here are some of the important and simple steps related to hair loss due to thyroid problem.

• Proper evaluation: It is very essential for you to get proper evaluation by your personal dermatologist before confirming it as thyroid problem. Hair loss can be due to any reason like genetic problem, lack of proper care and can also be due to family history and hormonal imbalance. So, be sure about the cause for hair loss and proceed with the treatment. Don’t take your own decisions without proper evaluation.

Ear infection can lead to temporary hearing problems associated with transitory speech and language problems.

If the infection is not treated properly or proper care has not been taken, these problems may develop into more serious issues.

The untreated infection of the ear will cause permanent hearing loss.

The common symptoms of ear infection include fever, sharp pain, redness in the ear, tugging of the ears, and irritability.

In case of severe ear infection, drainage of yellow to red color may occur. It is the sign that the eardrum has ruptured.

If the child does not respond to the spoken words or if the child has difficulty speaking or paying attention to the directions, then the child might have hearing loss due to ear infection. As the children have immature immune system, it is difficult to prevent the ear infection in children.

Following ear infection, usually children will have slight hearing loss because of the accumulation of the fluid behind the eardrum. Commonly, the fluid goes away by itself, but in some cases the fluid will persist.

Scarlet fever is an exotoxin-mediated disease caused by group A streptococcus, which also causes strep throat.

This is a contagious disease. You can be infected with this disease if you get in contact with the sick person who has streptococcus infection, as this germ will be carried in the mouth and nasal fluids.

Keep away children from those who are infected with scarlet fever, which is similar to strep throat in order to prevent this disease.

Rash is the primary symptom of scarlet fever with high fever and chills. The other symptoms include swelling of the neck glands, flushed face with paleness around the lips, sore throat, and strawberry tongue.

It is a benign course to diagnose and treat scarlet fever. If it is treated appropriately and promptly, rarely you may experience serious complications. On the other hand, if you neglected to treat or if the treatment is unsuccessful, it may lead to have severe complications.

The major late complications of scarlet fever if untreated are rheumatic fever and glomerulonephritis.

Rheumatic fever and glomerulonephritis with untreated scarlet fever:

Rheumatic fever is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease which develops after infection with group A streptococcus like scarlet fever and strep throat. It is estimated to be three percent for development of rheumatic fever in the patients with untreated streptococcus infection.