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While medical science and the health community have huge problems and too often focus on death management rather than enhancing life, it is breakthroughs like this that give hope that all is not lost. A medical miracle of hearing for this end-of-February Feel-Good Friday.A novel gene therapy approach has given five children who were born deaf the ability to hear. The method, which overcomes a roadblock presented by large genes, may be useful in other treatments, according to researchers.The work, conducted in Fudan, China, by a team co-led by Zheng-Yi Chen at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Harvard...

A person’s hearing can be damaged by loud noise, aging and even certain medications, with little recourse beyond a hearing aid or cochlear implant. But now, UCSF scientists have achieved a breakthrough in understanding what is happening in the inner ear during hearing loss, laying the groundwork for preventing deafness. The research, published on Dec. 22, 2023, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight, links animal studies on hearing loss with a rare type of inherited deafness in humans. In both cases, mutations to the TMTC4 gene trigger a molecular domino effect known as the unfolded protein response (UPR), leading...

Worldwide, more than 750 million people have tinnitus. More than 50 million Americans suffer from the condition. Tinnitus is a common condition characterized by the perception of noise or ringing in the ears without an external sound source. Typically experienced as ringing, buzzing, hissing, or clicking, it can stem from various causes, such as age-related hearing loss, loud noise exposure, ear infections, or head injuries. Although tinnitus is often regarded as a symptom rather than a disease, it can significantly impact a person’s quality of life. Not a week goes by when I don’t see someone in my clinic complaining...

I have emailed NEWSMAX about the terrible closed captioning on their programs describing how President Reagan words to Gorbachev were rendered as: "Mr. Gorbachev, SHARE this wall." Yesterday, the ad urging people who had taken Zantac or the generic and developed cancer to call a number, the generic, ranitidine, was rendered as "RAN INTO DEAN." Just now Mike Huckabee was introduced as "MY CARD. MMM-HMM. Would appreciate it if others would complain about this gibberish. Otherwise I think NEWSMAX is terrific. But there are people out here that would like to watch it and are hearing impaired. So could use...

(Right to Life UK) – A Chinese biotech firm has declared “screening out” babies with Down syndrome is a “cash cow” funding the growth of the whole business. The admission comes from a spokesperson for BGI Group – a Chinese genetics conglomerate whose main business is offering non-invasive prenatal tests, primarily used to diagnose Down syndrome. In a segment from an Aljazeera documentary titled Genesis 2.0, the spokesperson gestures towards a digital map of the world and says: “You can see clearly, especially for Down’s syndrome, we have nearly two million samples all over the world. This part is, what...

When it comes to regeneration, some animals are capable of amazing feats. If you cut off a salamander’s leg, it will grow back. When threatened, some geckos drop their tails to distract their predator, only to regrow them later. Other animals take the process even further. Planarian worms, jellyfish, and sea anemones can actually regenerate their bodies after being cut in half. Led by Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Mansi Srivastava, a team of researchers is shedding new light on how animals pull off the feat, along the way uncovering a number of DNA switches that appear to...

Video: Police officer tasers unarmed black man in the back while the man is sitting on the sidewalk This video is from the Guardian’s YouTube channel.In the video, an unarmed black man is sitting on the sidewalk, and a police officer tasers him in the back.After this incident happened, the New York Times reported that the police officer would not be suspended, becausePreliminary findings showed that the officer complied with use of force and Taser policies, which allow an officer to use force when a suspect fails to respond to multiple verbal commandsThe incident happened in Pennsylvania.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i27bfjfdVGQ

Add this report to the growing list of grievances the American people have against the Obama administration. Washington Free Beacon says the extent of Cuba’s ‘mystery attack’ against U.S. diplomats in Havana may have been covered up by the Obama administration. Washington Free Beacon reports: The number of U.S. government personnel targeted by a mysterious illness in Cuba last year is greater than the Trump administration has publicly acknowledged, according to multiple U.S. officials who told the Washington Free Beacon the Obama administration may have misled Congress about the full scope and nature of the attack. U.S. officials disclosed earlier...

The two-year-old U.S. diplomatic relationship with Cuba was roiled Wednesday by what U.S. officials say was a string of bizarre incidents that left a group of American diplomats in Havana with severe hearing loss attributed to a covert sonic device. In the fall of 2016, a series of U.S. diplomats began suffering unexplained losses of hearing, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation into the case. Several of the diplomats were recent arrivals at the embassy, which reopened in 2015 as part of former President Barack Obama’s re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba. Some of the diplomats’ symptoms were...

From the "It's come to this" and the "What will they think of next?" department: The National Union of Students warned audience members at its conference that they must not clap or cheer during speeches because clapping and cheering make deaf people feel excluded. According to an article in The Telegraph, attendees at last week’s conference were warned that clapping and cheering could have a “serious impact” on deaf participants, and they were instructed to use “jazz hands” to show their support instead. “No whooping, it does have a serious impact on some delegates’ ability to access [the] conference,”...

Unaffected mice, at left, have sensory hair bundles organized in 'V' formations with three rows of cilia (bottom left). This orderly structure falls apart in the mutant mice (middle column), but is dramatically restored after gene therapy treatment. Credit: Gwenaelle Géléoc and Artur Indzkykulian ======================================================================================================================= In the summer of 2015, a team at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School reported restoring rudimentary hearing in genetically deaf mice using gene therapy. Now the Boston Children's research team reports restoring a much higher level of hearing—down to 25 decibels, the equivalent of a whisper—using an improved gene therapy vector developed at...

A new study conducted by researchers from the Oregon Health & Science University and the Veterans Affairs Portland Medical Center suggests that a transcranial magnetic stimulation system typically used for depression treatment could also help alleviate the debilitating effects of a condition known as tinnitus. ===================================================================================================================== Tinnitus is a debilitating condition wherein an individual often hears a ringing or clicking sound even though there are no external sources of the sound present. It currently affects an estimated 45 million people, mostly veteran soldiers, living in the United States, according to the American Tinnitus Association (ATA), and a proven cure for...

Ioanna Roumeliotis visits Signs, Canada's first restaurant staffed with deaf waiters.

<p>Mayor Bloomberg - who has already cracked down on smoking, trans fats, salt and super-sized drinks - is embarking on a new crusade: preventing New Yorkers from going deaf.</p> <p>Hizzoner's health officials are planning a social-media campaign to warn young people about the risk of losing their hearing from listening to music at high volume on personal MP3 players, The Post has learned.</p>

Ever find yourself sitting at a red light and all you can hear is the base of a sound system coming from another car? I mean you can actually feel the vibrations of the noise they call music. I never have been able to understand how someone could actually be enjoying whatever it is they are listening to, but to each their own. I do know that some day in the future those individuals will be wondering what everyone else is saying because they will be deaf. Now I could write a whole article, loaded with facts and figures of...

Ever find yourself sitting at a red light and all you can hear is the base of a sound system coming from another car? I mean you can actually feel the vibrations of the noise they call music. I never have been able to understand how someone could actually be enjoying whatever it is they are listening to, but to each their own. I do know that some day in the future those individuals will be wondering what everyone else is saying because they will be deaf. Now I could write a whole article, loaded with facts and figures...

I have no idea the standing of the late Sir Adrian Boult (1889-1983, if memory serves me correctly) in the world of music, other than that he was a famous symphony conductor, quite possibly one of the best of the past century. But by the time I met him, in February 1978 in London, he was nearing 90 years old, and had long ago passed the baton on to others. His appearance was a shock to me, because I had not realized how ancient he was at the time; I was seeing a white-haired crooked little man who in no...

TV's Carol Iovanna sells her 1st documentary "Journey Out of Silence" to PBS!

<p>Rush Limbaugh's attorney has issued a statement announcing a settlement of the Florida prosecutor's investigation into alleged doctor shopping by Rush Limbaugh.</p> <p>Details have been read by Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. Basically, the charge of doctor shopping is dismissed, with some conditions.</p>

Hear that silence? It’s the sound of America going deaf from an earful of technology. What’s that, you say? Popular technology — not just the iPod — threatens everyone’s hearing, especially children and teenagers, according to a new report by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). While much attention has focused on the iPod and other personal music players, the association randomly chose and tested nine devices that can be turned up to potentially damaging decibel levels. Among those tested were Bluetooth headsets that allow wireless communication and laptop components that let travelers listen to private concerts while blocking out the...