Summertime and the living is noisy. It is a time for mowing lawns, riding motorcycles, going to rock concerts, and setting off firecrackers. Any of which are capable of causing tinnitus and hearing loss.

According to Andrew Cheng, M.D., an ENT and clinical assistant professor of otolaryngology at New York Medical College, “Noise is probably the most common occupational hazard facing people today, however, outside of work many people participate in recreational activities that can produce harmful noise that can result in tinnitus with repeated exposure.”

Decibels are the unit of measure for noise, rating on a scale from zero to 140; the higher the number of decibels, the louder the noise. “Tinnitus or hearing loss occurs with regular exposure at 110 decibels or more for periods longer than one minute.

Some typical summer sounds and their decibel levels are: mowing the lawn (80-90 decibels); riding motorcycles (110); rock concerts (120); exploding firecrackers (150); watching fireworks (130 to 190).

Protect your hearing by avoiding excessively loud noises when possible — but when exposure to loud noises or activities cannot be avoided you can take a few simple precautions:

• Alternate noisy activities with periods of quiet.
• Use earplugs or other hearing protectors when you know you are going to be exposed to loud noises for long periods of time (like while mowing the lawn or watching your town’s July 4th fireworks display).
• Limit lengthy periods of loud noise exposure, which includes giving your ears a break from iPods and other devices.
• Be a smart consumer: when buying outdoor equipment for the yard, for instance, look for those with the lowest noise levels.

There’s more distressing news concerning the hearing health of young adults… this time from down under. According to a  survey hearing loss and tinnitus among the “IPod” generation is reaching extreme levels.

Apparently more than 70% of young adults in Australia – between 18 and 24 – have tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, which is the first sign of hearing loss. According to a new survey from Australian Hearing, headphones are to blame.

According to News.com.au, Professor Harvey Dillon, director of the National Acoustics Laboratory at Australian Hearing, said that younger respondents had a poor understanding of hearing loss. 25% of them thought that damaged ears would repair themselves and hearing would return.

“Older Australians, I might add, were much wiser, almost none of them thought that,” said Dillon on Fairfax radio.

He said that when people go to noisy parties and concerts the damage happens in two stages – both in the inner ear. One is temporary, one is permanent.

“We tend to notice the temporary loss of hearing and we notice it come back over the next day or two. What we don’t notice is that at the same time, in the same place but through a different mechanism, there’s also a permanent loss going on. A few hair cells dying here, a few hair cells dying there and they add up from time to time.”

According to Dr John D’Arcy, headphones can be used safely. He urges people to set the volume at a level which allows the user to hear someone at arm’s length without them having to shout.

With Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s recent diagnosis of glioma, a malignant brain cancer, the debate about the use of cell phones has been reignited. Last week, three prominent brain surgeons told Larry King on CNN that they do not hold cell phones against their ears.

According to an article in the June 3, 2008 edition of the New York Times Health Section, the three surgeons, Dr. Keith Black of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in LA, Dr. Vini Khurana at the Australian National University, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta of Emory University and CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, all said they either use a headset or use the phone in speaker mode to remove it from their ears and reduce microwave radiation exposure.

CITA, the wireless association’s industry trade group states that “the overwhelming majority of studies…show that wireless phones do not cause a health risk.” However, the FDA has noted that the average period of phone use in the studies was about three years and they don’t address questions about long-term exposure. The studies also did not distinguish between casual and heavy use.

As we have pointed out in a previous article, cell phone use has been associated with acoustic neuroma, a type of brain tumor that causes tinnitus. The other types that are also suspected to be due to cell phone use are glioma, the type Sen. Kennedy developed, and cancer of the parotid, a salivary gland near the ear.

Last year the American Journal of Epidemiology published data from Israel finding a 58% increased risk of Parotid gland tumors among heavy cell phone users. Also, A Swedish analysis of 16 studies in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine showed a doubling of risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma after 10 years of heavy cell phone use.

Some doctors say the real concern is not older cell phone users, who began using phones as adults, but children who are beginning to use phones and face a lifetime of exposure. Young people are much more affected. Their brains are growing rapidly and their skulls are thinner.

It is highly advised for all people to use a headset or set the phone on speaker mode. And to restrict cell phone use among young people.

Barry Keate

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It’s summertime and for many that means vacation, and vacations often mean flying. As millions of Americans prepare to take flight this summer, taking care of you ears and hearing health ranks top on the list of things to remember.

According to a survey conducted by Deafness Research UK, 70% of those who fly will experience some kind of health-related problem and ear pain ranks number one, with a whopping 34% experiencing ear pain during a flight. Many ear problems are avoidable with good ear hygiene and regular check-ups,  Once on the plane, there are things you can do to minimize ear pain if you are unlucky enough to suffer any discomfort.

According to Vivienne Michael, CEO of Deafness Research UK, “Ear pain in the air can ruin many people’s holiday before it has even started. More worryingly, it can lead to much more serious hearing problems in people who have a bad cold when they fly. We want holiday-makers and regular flyers to be aware of how common this is and the simple things you can do, like yawning or swallowing regularly, to ease the pain.’ Most discomfort results from changes in cabin pressure and these are most noticeable as the aircraft descends. During descent, the air in the middle ear is at a lower pressure than the air in the cabin. The Eustachian tubes, which pass air from the nose into the middle ear when you swallow, may become blocked with mucus, and the small muscles in the throat which normally open them may not be able to do so. The eardrum is pressed inward and tensed, resulting in discomfort, and even pain.”

The top ten most common minor medical problems people experience while flying are:
1. Ear pain (34.3%)
2. Swollen feet or ankles (18.8%)
3. Aching joints or muscles (18.8% – as above)
4. Stress, anxiety or ‘air rage’ (14.9%)
5. Dehydration (10.1%)
6. Extreme fatigue (8.1%)
7. Dizziness or fainting (5.5%)
8. Sickness or nausea (4.9%)
9. Toothache (2.5%)
10. Hyperventilation (2.5%)
(28.6% of people have never experienced a medical problem while flying).

Brent Curtis – Editor

Students from Carnegie Mellon University have come up with a novel idea of a glove named Handtalk that converts hand movements into text,  allowing the deaf to better express themselves.

A long way from being perfected, Handtalk glove is worn on the hand by the deaf or mute person and depending on the variation of movement, the device will convert it intelligently into text and display it on a mobile phone for the another person to read.

The high-tech glove senses movements through flexor pads which detect the different patterns of motion and the way the finger curls. The device can sense carefully each resistance and each movement made by the hand. Currently the device can convert only 32 words, but depending on the success of this device few more additional words may be added later onto this expressive system.

Designed for individuals who cannot interpret American Sign Language the glove along with their cell phone would allow for rudimentary communication. Senior computer engineering students Bhargav Bhat, Hemant Sikaria and Jorge L. Meza , demonstrated the prototype May 8th at Carnegie Mellon’s “Meeting of the Minds” expo of undergraduate research projects. The Handtalk glove could be a big advantage” for hearing-impaired people, Mr. Bhat said. “It would cut out the need for an interpreter.”

The glove works in a unique way. When it is first held in the fist it greets ‘Good morning’ and when one extends the index finger, second finger and thumb, the device responds ‘I’m having a good time’ and hold out the index finger, little finger and thumb, The Handtalk glove will courteously respond as ‘Thank you for your time’. The inventors of this device give us a strong hope that this polite and humble invention can reach the hands of the needy as soon as possible.

Brent Curtis – Editor

Michael Seidman, MD and colleagues are conducting a clinical trial on the effectiveness of electrodes implanted directly into the human brain for the treatment of severe, disabling tinnitus. He has implanted the first two patients in a projected series of twelve surgeries. Results of the first two surgeries were reported in the March, 2008 issue of The Laryngoscope. The study is closed as all twelve participants have been chosen.

Patient 1 was a 50 year old male with hearing loss as the primary cause of tinnitus. The result of the surgery was sustained reduction to near elimination of tinnitus. Patient 2 was a 40 year old female who suffered tinnitus as a result of a motor vehicle accident. The surgery resulted in an unsustained reduction of tinnitus. The researchers have concluded that the perception and annoyance of tinnitus may be modulated or reduced through electrical stimulation of the auditory cortex.

A previous article on electrical stimulation can be seen in our Tinnitus Library. Interested people can sign up for our free monthly email newsletter, Quiet Times, located in the right-hand column of our homepage. The complete article on Electrical Stimulation for Tinnitus Treatment will be broadcast in the July, 2008 issue.

Barry Keate

An article from Media-Newswire.com reports that a professor of audiology and molecular pharmacology (who has tinnitus) is conducting research on, of all things, zebrafish, to learn if it is possible repair damaged hair cells of the ear. Ernest Moore, who teaches at Northwestern University, developed tinnitus twenty years ago in the US Army from exposure to artillery explosions and the crack of rifle fire (similar to Arches’ Barry Keate). 

Zebrafish have ears that are remarkably similar to humans. By exposing them to drugs that induce tinnitus, he then tracks their erratic swimming patterns on video. Moore then looks at the cells in their ears to see if the electrical firing has increased, an early sign of damage and tinnitus.  His early findings show an increased firing.

Then Moore attempts to block this effect with drugs to return the cells to their normal activity. In preliminary research, it appears the drugs he has tested do slow down the increased electrical firing or tinnitus-like behavior of the hair cells in the ear.

“If these drugs are found to be safe, and some are already on the market for other uses, and if they are found to have efficacy in humans, then they might be used to treat an individual’s tinnitus,” Moore said.

“If the hair cell is not totally damaged; just beginning to break down, and you administer these drugs, you might be able to prevent it from further damage and interfere with the cells’ ability to generate tinnitus,” Moore explained.

Based on his research Moore hopes to conduct clinical trials on humans to learn if these drugs may prove effective on patients with tinnitus. The  US Department of Defense has opened $50 million of funds for research on tinnitus due to the growing presence of hearing-related injuries now seen from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Moore has applied to launch the clinical trial with the drugs he has used with the zebrafish.

Half of the soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan exposed to explosive devices suffer from tinnitus. The major cause is exposure to loud noises, which can damage and destroy hair cells of the inner ear. It’s the number one war-related disability. This new funding increase is an important if belated acknowledgement by the US government for the need for more research. Despite the widespread suffering, there has only been $3 million allotted for public and private research.

Brent Curtis – Editor

Jay Neuhaus, DDS, has revealed that he uses neuromuscular dentistry to measure and correct imbalances in the alignment and efficiency of a person’s teeth.

He uses a Tekscan tooth pressure device which measures the pressure exerted by each individual tooth. Dr. Neuhaus believes, as a number of other medical professional do, that underlying muscular pathology, such as a poor bite, can have serious health implications.

He cites tinnitus, lockjaw, loss of hearing, inflammatory joint disease and arthritis as some of the problems that can be caused by poor bite, as well as the breakdown of natural teeth.

A related condition, Tempero-Mandibular Joint Dysfunction (TMJ), can have similar consequences and is a frequent contributor to tinnitus.

Barry Keate

May 18-24, 2008 is named as 2008 National Tinnitus Awareness Week (TAW) with the theme, “Moving the world toward a cure.” Sponsored by the American Tinnitus Association in order to bring "our nation together to build understanding and compassion for tinnitus patients everywhere." The ATA is planning activities throughout the month of May that will highlight the problem of tinnitus and the urgent need for research.

"Of the more than 13,000 health care providers who are members of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO)_, exactly three of them officially practice holistic otolaryngology as members of the American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA)…," according to the latest issue of ENT Today (April 2008).

The article goes on to describe the individual philosophies and work of these medical doctors and each uses natural supplements, meditation, and acupuncture along with standard conventional medical treatments. Where considered appropriate they will bring their holistic talents to bear basic hearing issues such as tinnitus, sinusitus, and allergies.

While there are only three otolaryngologists who are members of the AHMA, many ENT doctors are embracing so-called "alternative" treatments for a myriad of conditions including tinnitus. Arches Tinnitus Relief Formula® is recommended by nearly 1,500 ENT physicians for their patients with tinnitus.

Michael Seidman, MD FACS, considered by his peers in the AAO one of the preeminent tinnitus authorities, agrees, "I recommend Arches Tinnitus Combo Pack, a three-month supply of Arches Tinnitus Relief, Stress and B-12 Formulas. At a minimum, I tell my patients to take at least four bottles (three months) of Arches Tinnitus Relief Formula® to determine their total degree of relief." While firmly grounded in conventional medicine and surgery, Dr. Seidman’s believes it is important for a physician to avail his patients of "alternative" therapies when warranted. In addition to being co-director of a tinnitus clinic for a major healthcare system he was also named  the Chair of the Complementary / Integrative Medicine Program.

Two of the main active ingredients in Arches Tinnitus Relief Formula are Ginkgo Biloba Extract and zinc, chelated to improve absorption. And though these are considered "natural" and "alternative", both have been shown in numerous placebo-controlled studies to be effective for many in reducing tinnitus noise.

Brent Curtis – Editor

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