Our ancestors understood that certain foods or odors were dangerous and must be avoided. Today we still use the sensations of taste and smell as warning signals to avoid problems.
Our ancestors understood that certain foods or odors were dangerous and must be avoided. Today we still use the sensations of taste and smell as warning signals to avoid problems.
A baby girl screams in pain as the plane is landing, while the passengers around her watch in empathy. Another says, “My ears feel blocked as if cotton is stuck in them.”
We’ve been there. Check in at the airport, pick up our boarding passes at the check-in-counter, board the plane, spot our assigned seat and place the carry-on-luggage in the overhead compartment. We sit down and fasten our seat belts.
IN 2015, the Zika virus outbreak in Recife, Brazil made international headlines. The Brazilian Health Ministry and the World Health Organization rang the alarm bell because pregnant woman infected with the Zika virus were suspected of giving birth to children with birth defects, most notably, microcephaly. (1, 2)
“A sudden, sharp increase in babies with ‘no foreheads and very strange heads’ was baffling doctors in Brazil. That set off a search for answers that led to a little-known pathogen, the ZIKA virus.” — NY Times, February 6. 2016.
Your voice is not healthy if it doesn’t sound right to you or others. The way the voice sounds is a clue, a symptom to an underlying problem which can be due to many causes; including vocal misuse, smoking, infection, cancer or neurologic (nerve) problems.
We all want a pleasant voice. Hoarseness is an abnormal, unpleasant change in the quality of the voice. It‘s a symptom, not a disease. It can affect the clarity, loudness and/or vocal effort of the individual. It’s a signal of an underlying problem that makes it more difficult to communicate with others. It’s never normal.
Sudden Hearing Loss (SHL) is an alarming medical emergency that is often a medical mystery. It’s devastating to patients and demoralizing for physicians.
One of the things we take for granted is a good voice, one that is strong, easily understood and of good quality. We have a problem when a voice disorder interferes with our ability to communicate personally, with family or friends – or professionally, to earn a living.
In a few seconds, with remarkable confidence, one can tell the sex of a person speaking on the telephone or radio. We can recognize almost immediately the voice of our favorite artist who is singing our favorite song. And in the middle of the night, a mother can tell which child is crying. What’s going on?