A 71-year-old male presented with an approximately 10-year history of a gradually progressive right-sided hearing loss.
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A 71-year-old male presented with an approximately 10-year history of a gradually progressive right-sided hearing loss.
Most people will experience some degree of hearing loss as they age. Statistics from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders at the National institutes of Health (NIH) indicate that 30 percent of adults ages 65 to 74, and 47 percent of adults 75 years or older, have hearing loss.
Allergic rhinitis among the elderly poses a particularly difficult diagnostic challenge for the otolaryngologist. As people age, they undergo immunosenescence. The thymus, which produces T cells against new invaders, atrophies markedly after adolescence, and this decline results in a less robust immune response to bacteria, viruses and presumably allergens (J Pathol. 2007;211(2):144-156). Consequently, physicians have assumed that allergies should decline as people age.
Dizziness is a particular danger among the elderly, but extra care taken by physicians can help ease their problems and help keep older patients functioning, panelists said at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, held here Sept. 26-29.
People get face-lifts and other types of cosmetic surgery to look better. They exercise so that they’ll feel better. But few people consider a voice lift, which combines surgery and exercise to make them sound better.
With the crisis in the financial markets reaching what many call historic proportions, another crisis long brewing is threatening to surface that, if some experts are correct, could have even greater consequences than the financial crisis for the US health care system.
We all age, as our bodies unfailingly tell us. Muscles weaken, joints stiffen, hair thins, skin sags-the external signs are evident, albeit somewhat delayed and distorted in the increasing penchant toward masking time through cosmetics.