Our practice aims to prevent hearing loss in any way we can. We hope you take our advice this summer while enjoying water activities. Read future for part two of how to preserve your hearing while recognizing balance issues.
Water activities and ear health:
As we discussed last week, bodies of water pose many threats to your health. It is important for everyone to be aware of the hygiene issues at bay. Before allowing your children to enter any pool or hot tub this summer, confirm that the pool is well kept.
You may find a great deal at a hotel, but the pool and jacuzzi may appear questionable. Do not subject yourself to such bacterial problems. It is an entirely more severe threat once a person’s head is submerged into this water.
Any bacteria that is in the water can penetrate deep into the ears. As we mentioned before, it is crucial you do not expose your ears to dirty water. The bacteria can travel into your ears and nose and eventually to the brain.
All pools and jacuzzis should have the correct amount of chlorine and filtration. This is the only way you can avoid high levels of bacteria. If you are camping or taking a dive into natural bodies of water, avoid stagnant areas.
Also, avoid the hair dryer trick. This may dry off the outside of your ear, but it may actually cause more harm than it does benefit you. The loud noises from the hair dryer can be more dangerous than the liquid in your ears.
Fun games and fast rides:
Families may be headed to the theme parks this summer. A beautiful lake day out on the boat may also be enticing. The fair or other places which have fun rides may actually present threats to your hearing.
Have you ever felt dizzy or off-balanced after riding a roller coaster or the spinning tea cups? So have most Floridians. However, ignoring balance issues may result in greater harm than you would expect.
Symptoms of balance issues:
Visit our Central Florida office for balance testing after a rambunctious day or if you are experiencing normal aging issues. Balance issue are common in elderly, but they may be brought on by activity. If you are standing but feel like you are falling, you are experiencing one symptom of balance issues.
Balance issues may be felt standing or lying down. The muscles, bones, joints, vision, the balance organ in the inner ear, nerves, heart, and blood vessels must all work together properly in order for a patient to feel normal balance.
Most balance issues result from issues in the vestibular system. This system is comprised of the end organ in the inner ear. Some symptoms of balance issues may include the sense of motion or spinning when you are not.
You may feel faint or lightheaded similar to when a person stands up too quickly after sitting down for a period of time. A more obvious symptom is feeling a loss of balance or unsteadiness. A strange and even scary symptom is the sense of floating or dizziness.
Vision changes such as blurriness and confusion are other symptoms of balance issues. All of said symptoms can clearly make life harder. Driving, exercising, or simply walking can become very difficult or impossible.
Vertigo balance issues :
The sense of motion or spinning is referred to as vertigo. Vertigo can be associated with many conditions. BPPV, or benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, occurs when calcium crystals in the ear become dislodged from their normal positions and move elsewhere in the inner ear.
BPPV is noted as the most common cause of vertigo in adults. You might experience this from simply turning around. If the crystals are not in their correct place, you cannot control you balance well enough.
We hope you learned plenty today, and opt to join us next time for more causes of balance issues. We will further discuss the causes of vertigo and balance issues as well as how our doctors perform balance testing. Balance testing helps us get to the root, so solutions may be found.
Staff Writer
