This sounds a bit like the punch line of a bad joke, doesn’t it? But believe it or not, it’s true.

Dizziness can be caused by loose crystals called “otoconia” in your inner ear, which is known as BPPV. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, or BPPV, is the most common cause of vertigo, and is also the most common vestibular (inner ear) disorder. BPPV occurs when tiny calcium crystals are displaced from either one or both of the otolith organs of the inner ear and fall down into one of the semicircular canals, disrupting the flow of the fluid of that canal.

What results from that disruption of fluid is essentially a false sense of motion. People with BPPV will most often report experiencing short episodes of severe vertigo with change in head and/or body position, such as turning over in bed or getting up and out of bed, tilting their head back in the shower to wash their hair, or turning their head from side to side while driving. The onset of vertigo can be very sudden and very frightening. And while the classic sign of BPPV is episodic severe vertigo related to changes in head position, many people experience a more mild or low grade constant unsteadiness between attacks or episodes.

Why do those crystals come loose?

About half of the time, the cause is...

The American Academy of Audiology is dedicated to increasing public awareness of audiology and the importance of hearing protection. With October right around the corner, what better time than now to provide a little peak into how exactly our ears work. Check out this video, posted by Schooltube:

As you can see, our ability to hear relies heavily on a very precisely functioning fine-tuned system. But that fine-tuned system is also very delicate, and susceptible to damage. Hearing loss is the third most common health problem in the US, and more than half of Americans with hearing loss are under the age of 65.

Exposure to excessively loud noise is one of the most common causes of hearing loss regardless of age. And recent studies have demonstrated that the incidence of hearing loss from noise exposure has more than doubled among children and young adults in the past thirty years alone.

So what could be causing such a significant increase in hearing loss among our youth? Many researchers point to increased use of personal listening devices at dangerously high volumes. Prolonged exposure to any noise at 85 decibels (that of busy city traffic from inside a vehicle) or greater has the potential to cause permanent noise-induced hearing loss. Some mp3 players...

If your child is one of the 304 million people who currently utilize an iPod, they could potentially be damaging their hearing. Research in recent years has demonstrated the startling trend that noise-induced hearing loss is on the rise, especially among children and teens.

Today, one in eight children aged 6-19 years has some degree of noise-induced hearing loss, which is twice the rate as seen in 1971. But noise isn’t a new phenomenon for kids. Historically, children have worked on farms, cut down trees, or fired guns without hearing protection. However, personal listening devices, like the iPod, are one of the most significant changes in our culture in the past 15-20 years, and they are here to stay.

Walk around the local park, ballfield, or school, and you will see numerous children and adults connected to earbuds. The extremely popular iPod has the capacity to produce an output of as much as 115 decibels at maximum volume, which is about as loud as a jet airplane taking off. At that level, it takes less than a few minutes to cause permanent damage. Of course, not everybody listens to his or her personal device at that volume. But in many instances the volume is turned up to combat background noise, and those earbuds placed directly into the ear can boost the volume as much as 6 to 9 decibels.

The damage that noise exposure causes is cumulative, permanent, and totally preventable. So what can we do?

Hearing loss has been called an “invisible” health condition, as there are no outward physical signs associated with it. Hearing loss can occur gradually, often making it difficult to be aware of hearing loss if and when it occurs. Hearing loss negatively affects quality of life, the ability to communicate with others, and the awareness of one’s environment.

You could have hearing loss if: