Most people know of only one type of hearing impairment deafness. Hearing no sound at all can be very difficult but looking at the opposite side of it, hearing too much may also prove to be as hard. Hyperacusis is defined as the intolerance to normal and everyday sounds. To give you a concrete illustration of hyperacusis, take for example a glass being put down on top of a desk. To ordinary people, the sound produced by such an act is hardly noticeable. For someone who is suffering from hyperacusis, such sound may be described as loud, even disturbing. Symptoms of hyperacusis include pain or pressure in the inner ear. Because of the added noise they hear, individuals with this ailment may find it difficult to adapt to the flow of everyday life and may be deemed as socially unfit. When someone suffers from hyperacusis it would be likely that he or she would soon develop tinnitus. Tinnitus is an odd sensation in your ear that is coupled with a ringing or whistling sound. Phonophobia is also a disorder that is associated with this condition. This is characterized with the...

It all started innocently enough. I went to my primary care physician complaining of dizziness and a pain in my back. A quick ECG or electrocardiogram revealed a very fine and operational heart muscle. Still, being at an age where heart disease is considered a possibility and having several increased risk factors, my doctor decided that a trip to see the cardiologist was in order. After all I thought, how could there be a problem with my heart. I just carried several 50 pound boxes down three flights of stairs only a couple of weeks ago. Still, I thought it better to at least get a baseline so we could measure any change as I got older. And the fact that the dizziness didn t go away was still troubling. The next test was a treadmill or stress test. Because of the dizziness and nausea however, the heart diagnostic group decided that a chemical stress test was in order. They inserted an IV and took pictures of my heart muscle before being stressed. The idea is that they could then place my heart under some strain and see the reaction. Kind of like a before and after type...

What is a herniated disc. You ve probably heard people say they have a slipped or ruptured disc in the back. Sometimes they complain that their back went out . What they re most likely describing is a herniated disc. This condition is a common source of back and leg pain. Discs are soft cushions found between the vertebrae that make up the spinal column your backbone . In the middle of the spinal column is the spinal canal, a hollow space that contains the spinal cord. The nerves that supply the arms, leg, and torso come from the spinal cord. The nerves from the neck supply the arms and hands, and the nerves from the low back supply the butt and legs. The discs between the vertebrae allow the back to move freely and act like shock absorbers. The disc is made up of two main sections. The outer part the annulus is made up of tough cartilage that is comprised of series of rings. The center of the disc is a jelly-like substance called the nucleus pulposus. A disc herniates or ruptures when part of the jelly center pushes through the outer wall of the disc into the spinal...

My wife has just come out of menopause, at 51. She has entered the glory of graceful aging, now that all problems of menopause are over for her. She feels brand new and it shows in her color, attitude and receptiveness. If you are right now in the age range of 45, below or above and feeling stranger than usual, do not panic. Symptoms of menopause are not pleasant, but are manageable. The word is manageable, not treatable menopause is not a disease so should not be medicalised The most traumatic of all the symptoms of menopause is hot flashes, and research has since revealed that hot flashes is the most widespread symptom faced by American women going through menopause - about 75 of women in the States suffer hot flashes regularly, especially at night If you are a woman of about 45 and you begin to feel hot in the neck and head, that is the symptom of menopause called hot flashes. My wife had panicked when she first experienced the hot flashes, then to worsen her state of mind, she noticed that her heart was beating irregularly. You can imagine our dilemma when a pattern...

Did you know that asthma can mimic other diseases or symptoms. Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that makes air passages bronchial tubes particularly irritant-sensitive. It is characterized by breathing difficulties, which range on a continuum from barely noticeable to extremely severe. The disorder has been increasing in frequency in recent years, and is especially noticeable as an increasing problem amongst children living in large cities. In North America, almost half of school children seem to carry puffers with them these days, and the incidence seems to be increasing each year. Asthma is a highly ranked chronic health condition in adults in most western countries. It is also the leading chronic illness in children. Asthma has no cure. Fortunately, for most patients the symptoms can be managed so that they suffer only minimal and infrequent symptoms and can live an active life. However, there are a number of illnesses which can mimic asthma symptoms and often result in misdiagnosis. One example of an illness that is commonly misdiagnosed as asthma is vocal...