Snoring is Bad for the Heart? Not so fast...

This past week, media has both aired and published a story regarding new research that suggests snoring WITHOUT obstructive sleep apnea may lead to potential increased risk of heart disease as well as stroke.Apparently, researchers in Michigan examined the data of 913 patients between the ages of 18 and 50 who had undergone a sleep study between 2006 and 2012. None had been diagnosed with sleep apnea, but did have significant snoring. These patients...

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Infographic: HPV from Oral Sex Causes Throat Cancer

I have blogged in the past regarding how HPV transmitted through oral sex (and potentially even French kissing) has now become the number 1 cause of throat cancer in individuals under the age of 50, even more than smoking and drinking alcohol [link]. Of course, smoking and alcohol further exacerbates this risk.Indeed, A 2007 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that younger people with head and neck cancers who tested positive for oral...

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Haptic Hearing Aids... The Next Generation of Hearing Aids?

If you think about it, current hearing aids are essentially just a volume knob to increase the sound volume for those hard of hearing.However, as any audiophile will tell you, sound amplification alone does not mimic "true" sound quality as perceived in the mind. True sound quality involves not just sound, but also "sensation." That's why people still attend concerts or spend thousands of dollars on audio equipment for home sound systems. It's not...

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MasterChef Hopeful Bonny Porter Has Congenital Hearing Loss

Bonny Porter is a chef who is competing to become the next MasterChef hopeful in Australia. She also has congenital hearing loss being completely deaf in her left ear by the age of 3 years old and with significant hearing loss in her right ear by the time she was 7 years old.Even with a hearing aid, lip reading is necessary and during the MasterChef show, did request the host and judge to wear special microphones to help her hear what they said better....

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Sinus Mass Chance Finding (Incidentaloma)

The New York Times published a great story on the dreaded incidentaloma on Jan 17, 2013. An incidentaloma is essentially a chance finding of a mass most likely benign, that was incidentally discovered on a CT or MRI scan ordered for a completely different reason.With such incidentalomas, it leads to patient anxiety causing physicians and surgeons to order even more tests and procedures (which themselves may lead to other incidentalomas). The vast...

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Another Egg-Free Flu Vaccine Approved by FDA

First there was Flucelvax introduced in 2012 and now there is Flublock, both considered egg-free for those concerned with egg allergy in traditional flu vaccines.Rather than being cultured in eggs, Flucelvax is cultured in mammalian cells and Flublock is grown in caterpillar cells injected by an insect virus containing the flu gene.Both vaccines are approved for use in people 18 years and older.Why the concern of egg-allergic patients with the...

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Sodium Alginate to Treat Non-Acid Reflux

Sodium Alginate specifically and by itself can be purchased to help treat non-acid reflux. This is in contrast to trying to obtain Gaviscon Advance which can be difficult to obtain for those living in North America. Skip the introduction for bottom line information...IntroductionOver time, I have received a number of emails from patients regarding the best type of Gaviscon Advance they should purchase for relief of NON-acidic laryngopharyngeal...

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UFC Boss Dana White Underwent Surgery for Meniere's Disease

Balance is very important in martial arts... So imagine have a condition like Meniere's Disease and being the boss of the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization.Dana White who is the president of the UFC organization apparently has Meniere's Disease since 2011 causing  symptoms of ringing, ear fullness, fluctuating hearing loss, and spinning attacks that last for hours to days at a time. Usually, one ear is the culprit though it can occur...

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Video of Epiglottitis

The normal epiglottis is a very thin flap of tissue that closes over the windpipe when swallowing preventing food/liquids from going down the wrong way. Shown by the blue arrow in the picture, when the epiglottis becomes infected, it can swell in size to even obstruct the airway leading to death by asphyxiation. Indeed, epiglottitis is what is thought to have killed our first President George Washington.Fortunately, epiglottitis is quite rare ever...

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How Long Does it Take for a Cough to Clear Up?

Hypothetically speaking, how long would it take for a cough to clear up if a person comes down with an acute respiratory infection?According to a telephone survey of 493 adults, the lay-public expect the cough to clear up in 7 to 9 days.Now, is this one week guess actually true?Not at all... In reality, it takes about 17.8 days on average.This number was determined on a recent study that reviewed 19 prior studies that determined how long a cough...

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Compact EMG System for Targeted Muscle Injections

An EMG system (ElectroMyoGraphy) is a critical piece of equipment when it comes to targeted muscle injections in and around the neck, especially when you cannot see or feel the muscle.This scenario is especially true when dealing with spasmodic dysphonia for which targeted botox injections are quite helpful. Given the muscles that need to be injected are contained inside the voicebox and not able to be seen and felt from outside the neck, accurate...

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Parkinson's Disease Diagnosed by Salivary Gland Biopsy

Taken from WikipediaCurrently, diagnosing Parkinson's Disease (a degenerative neurological disorder) is hard, usually a clinical exam and assessment of symptoms by a neurologist with at best about an 80% accuracy rate. There is no "test" per se that can diagnose Parkinson's Disease... until possibly now.According to a study released in advance of its presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, which will be...

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Anatomical Paintings on Living Humans

Came across this interesting blog article about artist Danny Quirk who specializes in scientific illustrations.I could say more, but better to show you some of his "work"...

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Pencil Drawings of the Aging Ear, Nose, and Mouth

Came across these beautiful pencil drawings of a collection of 60 ears, noses, and mouths arranged chronologically from ages 16 to 90.Drawn by Shawn Feeney, you can purchase your own 15" x 9" copy from his website.Check it o...

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Arena Stage 'My Fair Lady' Laid Low by the Flu with Performance Cancellations

It has been an early and bad start to the flu season in the DC metro area. It is just the beginning of the traditional 3 month flu season and flu numbers have already exceeded last year's.Although professional singers may feel they should have a special exemption from this debilitating illness which also adversely affects the voice, it is not to be...The flu has literally crippled performances of "My Fair Lady" at the Arena Stage this season with...

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How To Create a Customized Fancy Email Signature

Have you ever wondered how some people obtained those really fancy looking email signatures at the end of their emails? I've always wondered how they did that as well. And until recently, I just looked on with envy until I took the time to figure it out. Here's an image of one I created for myself:So how did I do it?Well, there's the free way and the not-free way.Of course, the not-free way is perhaps the easiest way to obtain a fancy email signature....

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New Webpage on Reflux Medications

Given the degree of ignorance I see about reflux medications, how they work, and limitations of such medications, our office has written up a new webpage that goes over the different categories of reflux medications with an explanation of how such medications help to address acid reflux. Such medications include:• Antacids• H2 Blockers• Proton pump inhibitors• Barriers• CombinationsWhat is also explained are the limitations of such...

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Dr. Chang Featured in Regional Newspaper Regarding Balloon Sinuplasty

Dr. Chang was recently featured inside a regional quarterly newspaper regarding balloon sinuplasty in the treatment of chronic sinusitis.Sinus surgery has come a long way compared to even just 5-10 years ago and great patient experiences after this type of surgery is not uncommon now.A few key features of sinus surgery of the 21st century that is provided at Fauquier ENT include:• Nasal packing rarely occurs• Most patients...

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Miss Oregon 2013 has Thyroid Cancer

Miss Oregon Gabrielle Neilan revealed that she had thyroid cancer for which she underwent a total thyroidectomy 2 weeks before winning the Miss Oregon beauty competition on 11/25/12. [link]She first felt the thyroid mass in September 2012. This was soon followed by a thyroid ultrasound and a biopsy (presumably via an ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration). The biopsy came back cancerous (unclear exactly what type of thyroid cancer). Given...

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Screwdriver into the Ear of Tennis Star Rafael Nadal

On a more humorous note, take a look at this picture from Sports Illustrated...As per the caption in SI, it is EXACTLY what it looks like except,A worker at Madame Tussaud’s puts the finishing touches to a model of Rafael Nadal in London last May. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo)I did want to point out that though a screwdriver inserted into the ear canal may be OK for a wax model, it is not OK for a breathing, living human bei...

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Forbes Critical of Patient Satisfaction Ratings of Physicians

Forbes on January 2, 2013 published a story critical of Press Gainey and other companies that obtain patient satisfaction scores.Please note that the following is a reprint of prior blog articles (2/19/12 and 6/8/12) written on this subject by Fauquier ENT.Indeed, much has been made about improving patient satisfaction in the healthcare industry in the belief that greater patient satisfaction equates with better health. To this end, patients...

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Obtaining "Authorship" for Improved Search Rankings

As most specialists in search engines know, good and original content is important for search rankings.  However, these two elements are sorely lacking when it comes to medically-related articles."Good"Medicine by its very nature is complex and full of jargon that is difficult for the lay person to understand. Furthermore, even if jargon-free many medically related articles are too ambiguous and often do not answer questions which people specifically...

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