Be kinder to your ears,
please!
Our ears at all ages are in danger from thesounds of the modern world. Look around and you'll realise that we are personally responsible for most of it — MP3 players, iPods, nightclubs,hair dryers, and motorcycles inflict injury on our delicate and sensitive hearing apparatus. Sound waves entering the ear set off vibrations in the flexible eardrum. Loud noise can test thismembrane to ear-splitting points.
Here's how it happens
A chain of tiny bones transmits the vibrations to
the cochlea in the inner ear where fluid carries them to rows of hair cells. These
stimulate fibres in our hearing nerve along which impulses travel to the
hearing centre in the brain, and we hear sounds. The most sensitive bit of this
whole chain is the hair cells in the inner ear.
Very loud noises over an extended period actually kill off the hair cells and once dead, they stay that way. They can't be replaced. This damage to the hair cells further adds up.
So, every loud Friday night at the club inflicts cumulative damage and you can't go back. Damage in your teenage years shows up as deafness in middle age.
Doctors say, we measure sound in decibels and hearing loss begins at 85 decibels. That is the noise a hair dryer or a food mixer makes — MP3s or iPods inflict worse, mainly because we tend to over use them. In fact, a study in 2006 showed more than one third of adults and more than half of teenagers listened to MP3s with the volume turned up high. It is too loud if other people can hear what you are listening to.
Avoid cap guns, talking dolls, walkietalkies, squeaky toys. They are cute but extremely damaging. Toy sirens and squeaky rubber toys can make sounds of 90 decibels — as loud as a lawn mower and just as damaging. At a nightclub, make sure you are standing far away from the speakers and enjoying the music.
23.05.2013
Iodine deficiency in pregnancy affects
kids' IQ
Researchers
have claimed that mild iodine deficiency during pregnancy could be dimming the intellect of
some babies born in the UK.
Their study of 1,000 families showed lower IQs and reading scores in primary school pupils whose mother had had too little iodine while pregnant.
Academics advise women of child-bearing age to maintain iodine in their diets by eating dairy products and fish.
Women were warned not to take seaweed pills, as they contain too much iodine.
Iodine is essential for the development of the brain as it is needed to build some of the body's hormones.
A severe deficiency is the leading cause of preventable brain damage in the world.
Researchers at Surrey and Bristol Universities looked at iodine levels in urine samples taken from pregnant women in south-west England.
It showed that iodine deficiency was common - affecting two-thirds of women.
Their children went on to have slightly lower IQs at the age of eight and worse reading ability aged nine.
"We saw a three-point IQ difference between children who were born to mothers with low iodine in early pregnancy and children who were born to mothers above the cut-off," Dr Sarah Bath told the BBC.
The researchers said this "may prevent a child reaching their full potential" and was an "important public health issue."
The study is published in the journal Lancet.
23.05.2013
If everyone is moving forward together, then success
takes care of itself
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