In Moderation
Providing health, nutrition and fitness advice in moderate amounts to help you live your best life.
Rob: Co-host of the podcast "In Moderation" and fitness enthusiast. Rob has a background in exercise science and is passionate about helping others achieve their health and fitness goals. He brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the show, providing valuable insights on topics such as calories, metabolism, and weight loss.
Liam: Co-host of the podcast "In Moderation" and new father. Liam has a background in nutrition and is dedicated to promoting a balanced and sustainable approach to health and wellness. With his witty and sarcastic style, Liam adds a unique flavor to the show, making it both informative and entertaining.
In Moderation
Earwax, Cockroaches, and Other Things That Go Bump In Your Canal
Have you ever wondered why your ears hurt on airplanes, what causes that annoying ringing, or why Q-tips aren't actually recommended for cleaning your ears? Wonder no more!
This episode features a professional audiologist (who happens to be a Twitch streamer known as Average Girl Games) diving deep into the fascinating world of ear health and hearing. From the intricate anatomy of our ears to practical advice on protecting your hearing, this conversation is packed with surprising insights that might change how you think about those two appendages on the sides of your head.
Did you know your ear contains the smallest bone in your entire body? Or that high-frequency hearing loss happens first because of how your auditory nerve is organized? We explore why human ears have their distinctive shape, how sound travels through your ear, and why those bumps and ridges actually serve important acoustic purposes. Plus, get practical tips for preventing ear pain during flights, managing tinnitus (that annoying ringing), and proper ear protection techniques.
The conversation takes some humorous turns too, from debates about pronunciation (is it "tinnitus" or "tinnitus"?) to strange objects audiologists have found in people's ears. Whether you're concerned about your hearing health or just curious about human biology, this episode offers a perfect blend of entertainment and education from a genuine expert.
Listen now to gain a new appreciation for these often-overlooked but incredibly sophisticated organs, and learn how to protect your hearing for decades to come. Your future self will thank you!
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Oh, hey, we're recording now. Hey everybody, cool. What's up? We can't hear you, so we're just going to tell you that we're fine. Are we fine, rob? Are you fine? How you doing Pass? How are you? Are you asking me or are you asking our guests? I can't tell.
Speaker 2:Well, I figured I'd ask you and then introduce the guest.
Speaker 1:Okay, I am doing the most amazing I've ever done in my entire life. Why? Because I'm here and that's great. Now you can go ahead.
Speaker 2:Well, and we have a guest here today. This is Doctor, you're Doctor.
Speaker 3:Yeah, doctor, I am a Doctor actually.
Speaker 2:Doctor Question mark. See, I actually, so I have met her through Twitch as a gamer. Oh, okay, and it was after meeting her that I learned that she was and her Twitch is Dr Gamer.
Speaker 1:Yes, dr Gamer.
Speaker 2:Yes, dr Gamer, yes, dr Gamer.
Speaker 1:Dr Gamer, that's actually pretty fucking good.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:It's not official. I'm trying to get a patent, but I would switch your Twitch handle now. That's all I'm saying. But anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 3:Dr Gamer. Dr Gamer, Can you look at this picture of something on my skin? What is that? And I'm like I don't know.
Speaker 1:Well, you made something up. You're an entertainer. Say something and you will get people. You'll get lots of people.
Speaker 3:And that's actually crusty-o-capulous and that you know that's really bad.
Speaker 1:You should get that checked out. Are they there for the games? Absolutely not.
Speaker 2:But that's all that matters exactly.
Speaker 3:No, that's fair yeah, but yeah, no, that sounds like a good way to solicit dick pics. Yes, oh yeah, can you look at that? Is that gonorrhea or is that herpes?
Speaker 1:and I'm like sweet twitch will allow a lot of things, but I feel like they have some standards, hopefully you know listen, I'll be like it's medical twitch.
Speaker 3:Are we? Are we really?
Speaker 1:really we're gonna do that no exactly.
Speaker 3:Come on, it's educational no, as as I'm like.
Speaker 2:Oh hey, no just kidding, I would never do that. But but no, yeah, no I am a doctor, so well, but I'm an ear doctor we have, so we have a doctor, rissa something, something I don't know. Her last name, also known as average girl, games on twitch, where she is uh, ironically, I think, won the award for the loudest person on twitch, even though that she is an audiologist? Yes, it's so they can hear me introduce yourself further yes, hi, I'm average girl games or dr games.
Speaker 3:Just kidding, that's not real, but if it is, it will be now after this podcast. Um, I'm a variety streamer and I play kind of a myriad of games, from first person shooters, adventure games, really whatever I want, because variety and standing still and doing the same thing over and over again just is not what I'm about. It just bores me and I have to be doing some type of something different or I just get stuck in a rut. So that's kind of where variety came from, even though I love truly I love a bunch of games. I think all games are good, uh, from retro to now current. Um, I'm having a good time. I know you're giggling and, yes, I do play adult content.
Speaker 3:No, I'm just kidding yeah, that's, I actually love that one yeah, I'm just kidding, but uh, well, I mean, am I, who knows, chat you, you decide out there you go and say chat on a podcast.
Speaker 1:I love it like hey chat, that's fucking great what do they call viewers, commenters, I don't know?
Speaker 3:community friends with whatever you used to yeah, so chat, you know, let me know. But uh, yeah, so I've been doing that. Uh, my profession is actually I'm an audiologist, so it is a doctorate degree, but it's only doctoral towards hearing and so it's not anything where, if you try to show me something, I don't know, but if you do have questions about your ears or hearing in general, I do have a really really good understanding about that.
Speaker 2:Can I ask you questions about my audio mixer?
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, actually yeah, because a lot of people who are like, oh, but I'm at negative 10 decibels, that's good, right, and I'm like, no, why are you at negative 10? That's bad. Don't mix it that way. No, decibels are important. You want to be at zero? That is a good, that is good. Plus three decibels, even though it's an orange and red, is not a big deal. You have to figure out your signal to noise ratio, which is really important, which your signal is your voice and your noise is your like gaming. Yeah, liam.
Speaker 1:Exactly. That's fine. Liam, here speaking, I have a question because before we started, you said the ringing of the ears, which is Tinnitus. And why is it not tinnitus? All my life I heard that and then, all of a sudden, they're like no, it's not pronounced that way and I hate it. I hate it so much. It's like Uranus. They're like no, it's Uranus. Oh, get the hell out of here. That's the way I've been saying it and that is the way I will continue to say it Fair.
Speaker 3:I think it's because a lot of people got like they're ringing, they're like, oh, tinnitus. Because tinnitus and tendinitis sound so similar, and so I think that's why they made that differentiation. I don't know for sure, but I'm a doctor, so believe me.
Speaker 1:I am a white man on the internet, so believe me when I say I think it's just tinnitus sounds better, hey you trumped me, man Crap Shoot. I am in no minority group.
Speaker 2:so you must listen to me now. Damn, Tinnitus just sounds better.
Speaker 1:It just sounds better. I like it more and I will continue to say it as tinnitus.
Speaker 3:I think you can say it, I don't think it matters, I believe both are accepted these days the doctors tend to use tinnitus Because it just sounds like tinnitus.
Speaker 1:It's like Reese's and Reese's. Reese's is correct, but we can say either one. That's basically the same thing.
Speaker 3:Hold on, back it up.
Speaker 1:What Back up where? Back up to tinnitus.
Speaker 3:No, which one's correct, reese's or Reese's?
Speaker 1:It rhymes with pieces. It's very clear. Okay, but the commercials say Reese's. I don't. The commercials aren't important. There's a candy called Pieces, so it's called Reese's Pieces.
Speaker 3:No Reese's Pieces it rhymes Reese's Pieces Reese's.
Speaker 1:Pieces, no, no. That's the alternative pronunciation that you can use in your life.
Speaker 2:This is going to be the entire podcast. Just to warn everybody listening. Just to warn chat.
Speaker 3:Okay, phonetically, if I use my major to say what the actual answer is. If the commercial says something and that's the source material, what do you mean?
Speaker 1:You think it's Reese's, just because?
Speaker 3:the guy's name is Reese. That's so dumb. I'm going to call you Liam. You can call me whatever you want, as long as.
Speaker 1:I can continue to say tinnitus and Reese's species. That's all that matters. Can continue to say tinnitus and rhesus species.
Speaker 3:That's all that matters. But Liam, it is. But if you're the source and you say no, my name is Liam, I say it doesn't matter, I'm going to call you Liam. People can call me.
Speaker 1:whatever they want to call me, I'm 100% okay with it, as long as I continue to say the correct rhesus species.
Speaker 3:Honestly chat. Put a one in chat if you think that it's Reese's Pieces, or put a two in chat if it's Reese's Pieces.
Speaker 1:It's Reese's Pieces, but like for ears are weird Ears like. I'm thinking of ears like immediately. I'm thinking like the outer ear and like there's all these like grooves and shit in it. But when I see like animals, they've got these big things like you can't see my hands, like if you're listening, but they got these big fucking like catcher things, like big catcher mitts, and they're out in the wild and they can hear everything and they can turn it. Yeah, why does ours have all these like weird lumps and bumps and shit?
Speaker 3:they also have lumps and bumps. Have you not looked into an animal's ear?
Speaker 1:well, not, I mean, depends on what about like those foxes, like the big ones that have, like the that stand up like it's just like a little cone into the ear.
Speaker 3:If you get all the hair out of the way you look in.
Speaker 1:It has bumps and grooves too oh, it just looks like a fucking flat surface to me. Like it looks like. It's just like sound funneling yeah it looks like it's just sound waves yeah.
Speaker 3:so when the sound waves hits whatever portion of the ear your ear, their ear it'll funnel in and they're really cool anatomically. There's reasons why you have like a helix and a concha and things like that, which are pieces of your ear that are like grooves in them for specific purposes. So like if there's a medical condition called atresia or microtia and it's either a small ear or the absence of an ear. So they just don't have it born without it and they don't either, don't have an ear canal, which is like pretty normal. With that. They don't just have cartilage there, they have conductive hearing loss, which means that sound can't conduct through the system to get to the inner ear because there is no outer ear. And so if they create an ear canal, which is great, that will improve their hearing, but it won't completely restore it because their actual anatomic body, the way that they were in utero, will not be present and so it'll be artificial. So, no matter what, they're always going to have hearing loss. Isn't that so weird to think about?
Speaker 2:So I feel like you just made up words there.
Speaker 3:You're like acoustics of your ear is so specific to you that that's how you're hearing, if we try and create it, it doesn't go so well, yes, worse.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well better, but still hearing loss. It worse than would be it worse than could be Worse than would be if ear there beginning. Yes, this we need short. Why use big words Worse than would be better than ears when you?
Speaker 3:use three words a trick? Yeah, exactly, exactly, so super cool.
Speaker 1:What if you're born with just like out, without the outside of the ear and you just have like that? You have everything else the middle ear, the inner ear, all that stuff yeah, the canal, so like you can still hear. Is your hearing different because you don't have these little catchers for like the sound?
Speaker 3:it's probably like slightly different. Your canal is really what's the important thing, because that conducts the sound, so like if catching the ear, great sound can go in. And they do make artificial ears, like they'll make one, not like made from. I don't think they have yet made like human ones, because I know like they're growing them on the backs of rats.
Speaker 1:I've seen that I was going to ask about that. Is that like that's a thing?
Speaker 3:right, like they're just like we grow ears. Yeah, and I'm like is that ever going to be transferred?
Speaker 1:Look up Google ear on back of rat, that's. It'll pop up, I'm sure, or don't? I don't blame you if you don't. No, do it. I say do it.
Speaker 3:Ear on back of rat.
Speaker 2:Ear on back of rat.
Speaker 1:I'm positive we'll bring up an ear growing on the back of a rack.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 3:I don't know if they can figure out how to attach the ear like capillary wise because, it is cartilage and I don't know if that's also going to be like a rejection, because there are organs that do get rejected. But your ear canal if you have your canal with the grooves in it that are normal, you could probably get a prosthetic ear. That's just like. It's mostly just like kind of really tough. I feel like that would work right, like they have like stuff that's. I think it would be better. I don't know if it'd be perfect. I haven't.
Speaker 1:I've yet to have a kid that has a, a no ear, but canal, oh really. So that's like super rarely no ear.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I usually get no ear completely, which is atresia. Or I get my crocia, which is small ear, or a notion is also what they call it atresia. Or I get microtia, which is small ear, or anosha is also what they call it atresia anosha, interesting so.
Speaker 1:But if your ear just got like lopped off, like you were back in like witch trial days, and they're like if we chop off your ear, you're a witch or whatever right, like whatever they came up with, then they're like oh, we chopped off something like that. I don't think it was any more sophisticated. That's exactly how it worked.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't think it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something I don't know, and then we throw it in a well and you have to dive and get it. But so like yeah, you would still. But like yeah, I was just kind of curious, like it does, like the ear, I feel like the outer ear does something to like catch the sound. Right, I feel like if I didn't have it, I feel like I'd be able to hear things behind me better because I have these ears pointing forward and now I feel like I'd be able to hear better going backwards. That's my dumb, stupid brain, I mean yes and no.
Speaker 3:Sound travels still behind you. Where it would hit your ear. It would just then get cut, essentially because the waves come in but they still go inward, so they travel in this space. That is like sound presence. And then it's omni, so it goes all the way around and then bounces off of walls or whatever path was there in its path. So it'll still exponentially grow to where it finally hits into your ear after it gets cut off by that back of the ear. But the most of the time, the why, I think I mean, I don't know, we'll have to ask whoever created the ear.
Speaker 3:You know, but it shouldn't be too hard to track down. You know just whoever. Whoever's wanted to do that and thank you for our ears, but whoever like if when it hits. I think a reason why we have our ears facing this way is because of background noise. It's because we don't necessarily conversations human conversations happen in front of us.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly.
Speaker 3:And so anything that matters is in front. Well they used to happen in front of us.
Speaker 2:Now you got so many people talking behind your back.
Speaker 3:Ooh, got them. That's a subtweet. I don't know who it's about, but you got subtweeted. Dang, that was.
Speaker 1:That was cutthroat are they still tweets? Are they exes?
Speaker 3:now, I'm so out of I have no idea who's gonna say sub-x'd I don't know like I don't even know if it's nobody, I, I, I I'm not in that world, no clue.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, so okay. And then like I don't know, I have no question with this, but like I've seen um like mma fighters, they get like cauliflower ear and then like I have no question that's. I just want to bring that up, I just want to say that and then, yeah, whatever you what, what are your thoughts on cauliflower ear?
Speaker 3:so keloids are usually from trauma. So if you especially like even piercings, if you get a piercing and it was a traumatic piercing which can be like a needle that was blunt or they like didn't stab you fast enough, or like X, y, z, a lot of things can happen and some people are more prone to keloids than others. But it's this trauma tissue that just grows and it grows and grows and grows. Sometimes it'll eventually stop growing and like just be stuck as a lump. So most of the time cauliflower ear is because of trauma. It's this massive hit and the cells are now trying to heal and then it gets this gushy, nasty looking thing. But then when they try to cut it off because it's scar tissue underneath all of the skin, it then creates another keloid because it's trying to regrow again it's a hydra of ear it basically ruins the pattern.
Speaker 3:It's like I don't know how to grow anymore. What do I do?
Speaker 1:when it just becomes nasty it's an ear hydra. That's strange. So your recommendation is not to get punched in the head repeatedly yeah, don't do that wear the little like protective ear thing that they ears drag on the mat where it's just like, and it just like tears it, oh, it's just yeah, don't get left hooked straight to the ear.
Speaker 3:Not great, not a good one, but just get your ear bitten off oh, honestly okay, but let's be kind of real for a second. Would that be kind of sick to have one ear with like a chunk bitten out of?
Speaker 1:it, it'll be a story think.
Speaker 3:Think like comic book teeth mark chunk out of an ear. That would be kind of cool. And there are body like mods now where people are taking out the concha of their ear, which is like the bowl, and they're taking it out.
Speaker 1:So it's see-through and it is weird that one I'm not sure about, but that is a thing I wouldn't do any of the crazy body modification stuff, but I always find it fascinating Somebody else do it. So I can see what it would look like.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, no same. I stuff, but I always find it fascinating like somebody else do it, so I can see what it would look like. Yes, yes, no same. I also want to know how like you function, like the people who get the full cut out of their bottom lip and they can like they put a plug in and then they can, like pop it out and then put their tongue through.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think I have seen that, but I'm like how do you, how do you eat?
Speaker 3:how do you drink food like oh yeah, I like you know what do you have to take it out and clean it after that's what I'm wondering. I don't know you'd have to right, because what if it gets like stuck in there? We need a lip doctor after this yes, oh, you guys should do a body parts like series, where it's ears, eyes, nose, head, shoulders, knees and toes, everything oh, so tell us.
Speaker 1:Oh, have you seen the photos?
Speaker 3:where they have like.
Speaker 1:So you know, obviously you have like piercings and then you have the gauges or whatever, like the big circles they make in the earlobe. There's the ones that are like massive right, they just keep growing, Like if you've ever seen them.
Speaker 2:They're like the size of a dinner plate and they're huge.
Speaker 1:It's nuts, so the ear just keeps growing like the ear lobe will just grow more. Yeah, it's just they're just stretching it. So okay, here my mind's messed with this. Like is it growing? Is the? Is the amount of cartilage the same after they've done that and it's just stretched, or is there more cartilage that was made?
Speaker 3:No, it's the same, because it was just stretched, because your skin is the one that's stretching. There's no like tissue in there, like there is, but there's not like. There's no like really. I mean there's blood and capillaries, but like there's nothing, it's just fat, ok, so it's just like it. As it stretches, it just stretches all the fat and the skin and just stretches it's, but it's wild how far they can stretch you, I mean you can't go from like teeny tiny hole to like dinner plate.
Speaker 3:You have to like take time to do that. But yeah, that's a real thing.
Speaker 1:Immediately, let me try, let's see what happens Bam.
Speaker 2:Just shove it in there.
Speaker 1:No, I'm saying like the fact that you can even do it over time is crazy.
Speaker 3:It is nuts. Yeah, it's crazy yeah.
Speaker 1:And then do it all over again. That's how you like prestige.
Speaker 3:And then they like take their skin. They make weapons out of it, start making whips.
Speaker 1:Whip it. So what's up with ears Like there's like the outer ear and then there's like the middle ear and I remember Okay, listen, going back to like school days, so there's like bones and there's like a stapes, there's the stapes.
Speaker 3:That's a bone. Another bone that's a bone, don't forget there's a hole.
Speaker 1:Where's the hole?
Speaker 3:on the side of your head oh, that one.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah right, I forgot about that one so then. But then you have this. There's the stapes, and one starts with a P an incus, an incus, you have the incus, malleus and your stapes yeah malleus. Okay, no, I only remember the stapes. For some reason the stapes just sticks with me.
Speaker 3:But the other ones Because it's the smallest bone in your body.
Speaker 1:Oh, is that? That's probably why it is small, because it's like a test on a quiz or whatever Like what's the smallest bone?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like that's the trivia answer. Yeah, it's the stapes. Yeah, it not even taking up like a percentage of it, it's like almost like as small as like the tip of your finger. It's nuts.
Speaker 1:It's so tiny. So yeah, when I asked like the smallest bone, I'm like do I pick the real answer or do I make a dick joke, Because both are just phenomenal answers.
Speaker 3:You're like aww, dang it. Why are we asking about it?
Speaker 1:Everyone's always asking, I quit, I made it all this way and I'm done now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, gosh, stop making jokes about it.
Speaker 1:Okay, listen, listen. Bones vibrate against or around, because sound is waves of things. Yes, sound waves and they hit those bones and those vibrate, yes, and that makes sound that brain understand.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's pretty much all I got.
Speaker 3:It's really cool if you want to know, like the big answer.
Speaker 1:Well, like the water down big answer yeah, yeah, we need like the yeah caveman answer hit eardrum, your drum.
Speaker 3:Yes, the three bones boop, boop, boop, also vibrate and they work kind of like a mechanism that vibrates like um, like an, an angle, if that makes sense, like a what's the word I'm looking for? But yeah, they move essentially to the sound. Now what's cool about this is that it also matches intensity. So if it's a little sound, they move just a little bit. If it's a big sound, they move a lot. Really cool.
Speaker 3:The state bees is set into this tiny little area in your inner ear. So your inner ear is actually bone, it's part of your skull that has fluid inside of it and it has endo-lymph and para-lymph Super cool. And it creates these waves. You have these hair cells, you have a lot of rows, you have inner hair cells and outer hair cells. Your hair cells, when they respond to these waves, will move and it's called being sheared, but that's like extra stuff you don't need to know. So they move right and they send these pulses or this information up the auditory nerve into your brain stem all the way to your brain to get understood. So it's these pulses and these like essentially like they're not really electric currents, but they're just like information as it sends up.
Speaker 3:Now, when we do like hearing tests, we look at every specific frequency, so like we look at 500 Hertz, 2000 Hertz, 4,000 Hertz, 8,000 Hertz, et cetera. And so as the sound travels, so let's say, cause your, your low frequencies are at the apex of your ear, your high frequencies are at the base. And so as these high frequency, or as this frequency comes in, if it hits the base, which is a high frequency, weird, because it's backwards I know It'll all make sense though in a minute when it hits the base and it vibrates, it's not going to go up higher, so the wave only stops at the specific frequency that the resonance hits, so weird. So then, if it's 500 hertz, which the out at the top of the ear, it has to go in your cochlea, which is like a little snail, goes all the way up to the apex and then resonates there and then it sends information in, so cool say more about this top and bottom situation high frequency and low frequency yeah, so your base, so your your cochlea.
Speaker 3:That looks like a snail shell.
Speaker 1:Yes, I remember that.
Speaker 3:The apex, low frequency, the bottom high frequency, and your nerve, which is your auditory nerve, is also something called tonotopically organized, so it has high frequencies. It's like a bundle. It has high frequencies on the outside, low frequencies on the inside. As you lose your hearing when you get older or you go to concerts, all that stuff, what is the first like bunch of frequencies that you lose? You start to lose high frequencies, so damage happens at the bottom first or on the outside of the bundle, which is really cool.
Speaker 3:And so when a lot of people that are like I hear you, I just can't understand you because high frequencies resonate in things like S's, like S high frequency or a SH high frequency, T, T, T, also high frequency, they start losing that clarity and they're like I can hear you, I just can't understand you because low frequencies are vowels, like mm. Buh, ooh, uh. So it's really cool to see when you start thinking about what hits first for the ear or the inner ear or the nerve, and how that also resonates or also applies to your hearing tests and how you understand communication is just like wild to think about, because you're like damage here equals damage here. When, like you visualize the graph of a hearing test, which equals why you can't understand speech or why you can't communicate as well. It's like all connected and really freaking cool.
Speaker 1:So, okay, I know that, like, as you get older, though, you're able to like hear different frequencies. Like, isn't it, like you know, a five-year-old can hear a frequency that someone who's 75 can't hear? Is that because, like the, the, the bones are getting like hardened or something like that? What's up with the? What's going on with the bones in there?
Speaker 3:You can have something called oh my gosh, it's not osteoporosis. Hold on, it's where your bones fixate. Oh my gosh, I know this, hold on.
Speaker 1:We have it happen all the time Osteofixation.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 3:I'm going to cheat Hold on Such a cheater.
Speaker 1:I remember there was little things. You could play something and it would play a frequency, Can you?
Speaker 3:hear this Otosclerosis.
Speaker 1:Otosclerosis, there we go.
Speaker 3:So yeah, otosclerosis is where your bones fuse, but that would cause conductive hearing loss, not sensory neural, because it's not a part of your organ of hearing, which is your inner ear or your nerve, because sound can't conduct through. So once it hits the eardrum the bones don't move, but whatever gets to the inner ear still can travel.
Speaker 1:So that's why old people know here so well ear still can travel.
Speaker 3:So that's why old people know here so well. Old people here know so well because of genetics, because they listen to noise a lot, and it's it's not like noise exposure, isn't like. One time I went to a car shop and like was in there for 20 minutes and now I have hearing loss. It is your entire life of noise exposure.
Speaker 1:Oh, so if me no hear anything until 75, ear still perfect, sound still good.
Speaker 3:If you have normal hearing now good, keep normal hearing wear, hearing protection. Got it so you can hear at 75.
Speaker 1:But if me no hear anything for 40 years still hearing as good now, why do don't hear anything for 40 years, still hearing as good now?
Speaker 3:Why do you not hear anything for 40 years? I think he means if he's not getting the noise.
Speaker 1:If. I'm not getting any noise for like 40 years.
Speaker 3:Then you're probably good, but you probably do have some hearing loss.
Speaker 1:I'm sure I do. My headphones are always like you're listening too loud. I'm like stupid technology doesn't know me. Yes, I Like you're listening too loud.
Speaker 2:I'm like stupid technology doesn't know me. I will say that I grew up in, like you know, the manly man area. No one wears a hearing protection.
Speaker 3:No one does.
Speaker 2:No one does. And I can't emphasize it enough If you're working with tools, wear hearing protection.
Speaker 3:Because that high impact noise can do a lot of things. One, like I said, if your eardrum vibrates the same as the loudness level around you loud you're using that tool for 20, 30, 40 minutes. And that time is also a factor in it. So it's like loudness level over time equals noise exposure.
Speaker 1:So if I go to like a concert or like a stadium or something super loud, like one time, not so bad, like could be bad.
Speaker 3:Because your ears can recover. So there is a recovery period. You do have something called a temporary threshold shift and that's where, I'm sure, after concerts, you get home, you lay in bed and it's like and you're like, well, that concert was so good, I can like not hear anything, it's nuts. And then the next morning you're fine. That is a temporary threshold shift. So you go to the concert, you have a shift, and then when you sleep and recover, your ear goes back into normal and that's the hope. But that damage is still there because your hair cells can't heal.
Speaker 2:What's damaged is there. I have some hearing loss in my right ear because of growing up working with tools and stuff and not being around people who stressed the importance of hearing protection and, oh yeah, I started, of course, wearing it since, like my 30s, I've never worn protection. That's why you have a child, liam that's luckily, it's only one.
Speaker 3:It's amazing that it happened that way it's because you figured out the pullout method. Good for you, buddy.
Speaker 1:We're so proud of you. You always have to have a backup.
Speaker 3:Liam's like shoot, how do you pull out again?
Speaker 1:Oh no Damn, all right.
Speaker 2:And that was how Oakley was born. You were.
Speaker 1:I want to ask something because my ears suck ass when I go on the plane, like so bad.
Speaker 3:Like they hurt.
Speaker 1:They are. They not only like hurt during the like flight. It makes me not want to take flights Mostly. The main reason I don't take flights is because of the hearing. Like it hurts on the plane for sure, and if I have a layover, fuck it Like if I'm getting back on the plane. It's the way I went to Jamaica and I had a layover and the entire day after I got there I could hear basically nothing. Like people had to shout into my ear, yeah, and like it was. I hate it. What do I? How make ear less dumb?
Speaker 3:Okay. So when you fly okay, here's your eardrum, this is, it's going to make sense. So your eardrum, when it vibrates, it moves back and forth, right, it's like woohoo, it does a little dance Like a worm. When you fly, you have a tiny tube. So if this is your outer ear and this is your middle ear, you have a tiny tube that connects to your throat, called a eustachian tube. Your eustachian tube should be opening and closing to change pressure. So, like you know how, if you guys ever swim, you go down. If you like scuba dive, you have to like do the nose thing so that there's pressure that goes into your middle ear. That's the same thing. So when you fly and you go up, and you're going up even though the cabin itself is pressurized, the pressure changes and so your ear. What happens is it goes like this For those listening fingers go backwards.
Speaker 3:It goes, we're in negative pressure, so it goes in towards your nose. So normally when they can kind of like kind of dance and move back and forth, it goes and it gets stuck. So it gets pulled in towards your nose and that's called negative pressure and negative pressure is so painful.
Speaker 1:It sucks, I hate like it's just the worst.
Speaker 3:The worst If you push air into your like. It's called a valsalva where you like. Hold your nose and you blow.
Speaker 1:Hold your nose and, you like, try and breathe out, basically.
Speaker 3:Like it helps a little bit. It'll push it where it goes, but it's still not equalized because it doesn't have enough of a time, I guess, to equalize back, or it'll always pull yourself in, and having your eardrum in a negative pressure will also give you hearing loss, but again conductive hearing loss, because it's all about your eardrum or your middle ears or your middle ear, so that's where you're probably like I can't hear because you have.
Speaker 1:Negative pressure Generally doesn't lead to like long-term hearing loss, going like on a plane and having that happen. Okay.
Speaker 3:Nah, you can use. So I have like sinus issues. I've realized now that I've gotten older, probably because I stuck my finger so far up my nose that now it's like all damaged up in there, but like my sinuses right here. When I fly I get this like bulging pain that I think I'm going to die and I think it's an air bubble trying to like move and pressurize, but it can't because my sinuses are so small, and so I've been taking like a nasal spray because it opens up everything, and then I take like an antihistamine so that it like really like opens everything up.
Speaker 1:Okay. And it helps a ton. Would that help with ears? Yeah, because your eustachian tube will open.
Speaker 3:Do you guys ever have moments where you like yawn and you can hear your own voice?
Speaker 1:that is your eustachian tube opening do you take the nasal spray after, like when you land, before? Oh, before. So you take it before you get on the flight and then like an antihistamine or something.
Speaker 3:That might help, because it'll take all my swelling out of my face.
Speaker 1:I might have to try that, because I hate flying, because of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's great. So if I don't have this problem, do you think it's because I either have a giant hole in my ear, or could it be an adaptation, because I am constantly? I grew up in a valley, so I was constantly changing altitude throughout my life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it could just be your anatomy, so like your eustachian tube is part bone, part muscle, and so the muscle might just be really good at opening and closing, and that's great. You also might not have small sinuses Again great. So you are able to have a good like change of pressure that your body can do on its own. So that's like good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, some people don't. Some people have what's called eustachian tube dysfunction and their eustachian tube is closed, so tight that, no matter what, it will not open, and they have to go get like a balloon put in it and like moved, essentially Cause you can't like work out your eustachian tube and like open and close it for practice. But yeah, they'll like dilate it and stuff which is super wild, and they'll like do a whole nasal scope. That I don't do. I'm not ear, nose and throat Like I don't, but I watch it because I think it's cool. And sometimes they do it before we do hearing tests. So like I get to like be in the room and be like, wow, look at that, that's so great. And then I do my portion.
Speaker 2:I was going to ask what the difference is between an audiologist and an otolaryngologist.
Speaker 3:Oh, otolaryngologist yeah, so an otolaryngologist is ENT. They are an MD, but they specialized in ear, nose and throat, so they have their 12 years of school plus a specialty, which is fantastic. I love ENTs, I applaud ENTs. They're amazing. They do so much more than I ever want to do. And then audiologists we are.
Speaker 3:You can have an undergrad in other things, like I have someone who did psychology and then went into audiology, but mine was a four year communication and science disorders uh, bachelor's and then I went into my grad school, which was my doctorate of three years and then a fourth year, clinical. So that's kind of where my doctorate comes from. Some people will also do PhDs while they're in school for audiology, which I think is great. I would love to go back and get my PhD. We'll see if, like time slash, money is allowing for that because school is expensive. But I would love if, like, my job was like hey, yeah, you want to do your PhD in tinnitus or in pediatrics, 100% go get it. And I'd be like okay, because I also love research. I think research is really fun and I think there's a lot of stuff coming out that's really interesting, that I would love to just be a part of and participate in, but money is also a factor for PhDs.
Speaker 1:I have another question Me when spin get dizzy that cuz PhDs. I have another question Me when spin get dizzy that cuz yes and hairs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you have three semicircular canals in your ear. That's your vestibular system. Well, your vestibular system is actually a lot. You have a somatosensory system which is like your touch and feel. It also includes, like your eyes, so like vision, like sometimes people who can't see, like if the lights are off, they get dizzy because they're so bad. A sensory system is off and they're like.
Speaker 3:So you have like a bunch of components that make up your balance. So one you could have a poor like something within your semicircular canals, where it's really sensitive to movement, because you have canals that go forward, backward, up and down and then like in space to keep yourself upright, because they want to have this level of fluid. That's like where it needs to be and that's where it like stays at its neutral. And then when you move, it'll move depending on which way that you start moving. And so that's why when, like, you spin in your chair and you like stop immediately and you watch your eyes tick, that's because the fluid in your inner ear is still moving, thinking that you're moving wild, super cool.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, if you get really dizzy when you spin, like almost to where you're like I'm getting kind of nauseous you probably have a really sensitive like vestibular system which is okay fine I see, like I saw an episode of mythbusters where they had like this nausea machine where it basically spin them around in circles and back and forth and they wear this thing on their head and, like some of them, would just like throw up immediately and other ones would be, like you know you know pretty, you know dizzy and whatever, but not too bad some people are very, very touchy does that go along with seasickness? Why seasickness?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, yeah, because they don't feel balanced and like the horizon line is moving and they're moving, so like everything's kind of moving in their vision and they're like I'm also moving because I feel myself move and there's nothing like flat to make me like look at and has no movement.
Speaker 2:So I'm constantly moving and then they're moving and the water's moving and so, yeah, so the reason I like spinny rides at amusement parks and being on the water is the same reason.
Speaker 1:Yes, how medication helped that how?
Speaker 3:is the anti-seasickness. Oh, they just. They do like a sedative.
Speaker 1:Oh, is that all? It is?
Speaker 3:Yeah they're like sedatives, because I've seen like the anti-nausea stuff and I'm like how would that work? There is actual like anti-nausea meds that you can take. I think Zofran is one of them. Okay, I can remember that before I totally-.
Speaker 1:And so there's different ones. There's one that's just kind of like-.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Zofran like anti-nausea, and then there's one that's just kind of more sedative.
Speaker 3:There's one that I wish I could remember Hold on. Is it called meclizine? Meclizine, yeah, meclizine is great because they also do motion sickness, but they also are used for people who have vestibular systems that are really sensitive. They'll give them meclizine. So like, if you wake up just dizzy and you're like, well, I just feel like I'm so dizzy, the room is spinning constantly, people will give meclizine. The hard part is is that that eventually, just either it over time kind of wears out on you where it is not as effective anymore, um, or that's just like your life and it kind of sucks. So yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to. I do want to ask, especially before we go, like how people uh, protect ears. How, like you know, how do we save what, what? What tips do we have? I'm assuming use q-tips on your ears, like that's what we're supposed to do?
Speaker 3:shove the q-tips.
Speaker 1:I always am told don't use q-tips here. I'm like you're not the boss of me, like I. It's like it gets rid of stuff in there. I like it can.
Speaker 3:It can also push it back. So like, if you have like your earwax and you try to scoop it and try, to push it, you're like it's not, it's gonna just go deeper in, which is fine.
Speaker 3:Earwax isn't really that big of a deal, like if you get impactions. Yeah it's a big deal, but you have to be producing a ton, a ton of wax and also have like small ears where it can't get out. Um, or, if you like, always put something internal in your ear like headphones that go really far in your ear. Sometimes that can cause impactions, but most of the time it comes out when you're like in the shower and your body's heating up, because it is like an oil-based substance.
Speaker 1:Oh, so sauna help.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh yeah, that'll heat that right up.
Speaker 2:And so you can like put a little towel on your ear and wiggle it and it'll be awesome.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're just another excuse to have a hot bath yeah, yep, you're candling bad right, is your candling not real? Not real, that's right. Because, okay, if you haven't seen like they put, they tilt their head and they put a candle in their ear and then they light the candle and the whole idea is it like draws something out of the ear and then they show it at the end, like look at all this wax. I'm like that's from the goddamn candle that was burning Like no shit.
Speaker 3:It's from the inside, because it'll like fall into itself and then it'll be like whoa and I'm like no.
Speaker 1:That's just the candle.
Speaker 3:But if it makes you feel good, fantastic I guess Candle your ear or whatever.
Speaker 1:Oh, I remember in Family Guy they're like trying to protect their virginity or whatever, so they start having ear sex. And then there's like a line in it. That's like he says there's a new trend starting Once you go black, you go deaf. Any thoughts on that one? Or like?
Speaker 3:Don't come in the ear. I feel like that's not super sanitary. I have yet to find cum. Trying to think what else I found an acorn, I found an orgy.
Speaker 2:I found play-doh. I found a pencil.
Speaker 3:I haven't found a bug yet. I'm still waiting on that. I know what's coming for me, but I haven't. I've yet to see a bug, but no, I found some weird stuff in the ear a couple of times that I'm like what is that?
Speaker 1:and I'm sure it's not as bad as like what's in people's butts, but like like there's definitely got to be some stuff, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:No, because you can't put a full car in your butt. I mean sorry, you can't put a full car in your ear, but you can't put a full car in your ear. You've seen those x-rays. People are like where's a toy car in my butt?
Speaker 1:And I'm like I fell on it.
Speaker 3:Or they're like just crawled right in there. That's cool. But have I found cocaine? Oh, not.
Speaker 1:Yet I have seen cerebral spinal fluid leak out of an ear. That was wild.
Speaker 3:That, oh, that is really yeah, because someone was hitting his head, because he was like having to. So, to be fair, he was a prisoner, so like they'll come in to do hearing tests if they have like concerns, and he would simulate himself by hitting his head against the wall. And he would simulate himself by hitting his head against the wall and he hit his head so hard that he had a temporal bone fracture and then it leaked his cerebral spinal fluid in his ear wow, I was like that's probably really important.
Speaker 3:You probably need that. I don't know how much your body has of that. Does it? Does it reproduce? Do I need to be worried? What is that?
Speaker 1:so yeah, that was fun I have seen ones where like a bug would crawl into someone's ear and then like hatch or what, like it was like a little one and it would get bigger and then it would be like it would have, like it would be like trying to fly in their ear and they think they're like crazy or whatever, like on those medical shows.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, that happens Like people will get. Like eardrum protects your inner ear, so like they're not gonna go anywhere. You know what I mean. But like I have seen or I have heard of people getting bugs in their ear, mostly cockroaches not the big ones, but the baby and they say like it sounds like a helicopter taking off in their head and it's like the bug trying to actually like move yeah, or that scratches them, which is disgusting about 13 of our audience is gonna have nightmares tonight yeah, everyone's gonna have to start scratching their ears.
Speaker 1:I'd rather have the ear sex.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'd rather have someone cum in my ear than a cockroach in it. I'm not going to lie, that's actually an open invitation, I mean if HeroX can make it out, oh God, if the Ear Factor comes to me and says cum or a cockroach.
Speaker 1:I'm suffer in their tents in their 38th season.
Speaker 3:God damn man. They have to mix it up. It's all. It's all snakes. They're like there's my life gone yeah, he's like. You know we're gonna do now come, I'm like sick oh nice, we also need to talk about um tinier.
Speaker 2:You guys call it, you can call it tinnitus, you can call it tinnitus, I'm gonna call it tinier oh look, I like it actually, that's pretty, it's pretty good, that's gonna catch on.
Speaker 3:So tinnitus is actually can call it tinnitus, I'm going to call it tinnier. Oh look, I like it actually, that's pretty, it's pretty good, that's going to catch on. So tinnitus is actually psycho. Well, it depends, it's not, it's not all psychosomatic, but like there are some things that when you hear this ring in your ear that no one else can hear sometimes it does it's a precursor to hearing loss, because your brain so badly wants to help you hear in your environment that it goes. Well, I'll just create what sounds you would hear. And you're like great brain, but you can't predict what sounds are going to be in my environment. They're random, it's spontaneous. But your brain's like no, look, I'm helping, I'm helping, see, like here's the sound that you're missing.
Speaker 3:And then our lymphatic system that controls like a lot of our emotions is like oh, what is this? Because they don't talk to each other, they're not on good terms, you know, they're an ex Long story. So your brain's like I'm doing this thing and your lymphatic system is like no, what is this? And it starts raising alarms and you start getting anxiety and you start to be like what's the sound? What's the sound? What is that? Do anyone else hear that? It's just me. What do you mean? It's just me, I'm the only one that hears that. But it's so loud. Why is it so loud? And then you start to get so anxious and it starts to become such a big deal that it cannot be ignored, and so that's how people start losing sleep over it or are like I can't hear, Like it's so loud that I just can't hear over it.
Speaker 3:And so what you really have to do, there's a couple of different therapies that people have done. One of them is trying low gain hearing aids Should you have hearing loss, because if you actually hear in your environment, your brain doesn't have to pretend to make a sound for you. Or if you have normal hearing and you and a hearing aid is not going to help you, they'll do a lot of distraction techniques. So they'll be like, hey, you hear this sound, great, I want you to do something else. Distract yourself, listen to music, put some white noise on, go do the dishes, like whatever you need to do, to just have yourself for a second. Forget about it, because if you don't focus on it, you won't hear it or it won't be perceived, and so they do a lot of that, which is pretty fun.
Speaker 3:And then some other things they'll do is they'll actually measure it, which is really cool. So like if you came in and you're like, oh, it's a high pitch noise, I'll find on my audiometer, which is how we play sounds, I'll find the exact pitch and then I'll try to match the intensity and then sometimes showing you where the intensity is on your audiogram, which is like your hearing, versus where your actual hearing is, can sometimes have people be like, oh, it's not that bad, because usually it's only about if anything perceived to be about 5 to 10 dB louder than your actual threshold of hearing. So it's actually not that loud, but people think it because it's so. It's so right there and I hear it. It's super interesting.
Speaker 2:So somebody that might listen to a lot of loud music and develops tinier they might. It's just the brain being like oh, I'm used to hearing all this loud music, so I'm just going to create the sound and it might help them to just put some white noise on in the background.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, a hundred percent. But like if again, going back to like noise exposure your whole life to really make sure that you're not going to have tinnitus, you're not going to have hearing loss, you're not going to have to wear a hearing aid, you have to, like, essentially, keep your volume at a certain level. And there's like some research that's like if you do it at 60 dB, which is like normal conversation level, for two hours you're in the safe zone. If you do it at 80 dB, okay, that time cuts in half. Now it's like an hour. 90 dB, it's 30 minutes and it's like it'll really show you at what point, if you have the sound this loud, where it starts to become the duration becomes the issue, and so that's like something I would highly recommend looking into, just because obviously that's important to protect your hearing.
Speaker 3:And then bone conduction hearing aids, which are kind of the new things where you see people have them, where it's like the little thing that like curls around their heads and like sits in front of their ears. Your eardrum actually helps stop high impact sound from coming into your inner ear, it protects it. So bone conduction devices or bone conduction hearing aids, because it vibrates your skull. It goes straight to the inner ear because of the ways and how the waves work and how sound works. So you can't like you. I highly recommend not using bone conduction hearing aids because everyone's like, well, I can hear other people talk while I'm listening and I was like that's great, but if you play that sound loud enough, it's going to directly impact your inner ear and then that's where you're going to get hearing loss.
Speaker 2:Good to know so interesting you got any other ones like that.
Speaker 1:You want people to know.
Speaker 3:No, oh, don't use Q-tips, but what about pulsatile?
Speaker 1:tinnitus, don't put things in your ear, basically.
Speaker 3:Oh, pulsatile, pulsatile tinnitus is really interesting. So pulsatile tinnitus actually comes from. You have a couple of nerves not nerves, I'm so sorry. You have a couple of veins within your ear no-transcript.
Speaker 2:I will get pulsatile tin ear Interesting.
Speaker 3:But that's just to shift my position. And then it's good. Yeah, yep, so you might have a vein that just drops down a little bit low, interesting, interesting.
Speaker 1:What do you put in your ear? Nothing, Nothing okay, don't put anything in your ear what?
Speaker 3:uh, water in ears sometimes get stuck. What, what that? Oh, that's because water is like you know how molecules like to hold together, so if it hits your eardrum it'll just stay on your eardrum oh, and you can't get it off because it's like so you put a q-tip in there to dry it no, so you just shake your head or you do a low, low, uh hair dryer, not on hot, low hair dryer, they'll take it right out.
Speaker 2:Interesting about using a hair dryer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I usually just tilt the head and go dunk, dunk, dunk yeah, just knock it off, it's fine, it'll little, it'll drop out okay, yeah so the thing that we do in the movies, that's actually like what you're supposed to do with weird yeah, because it knocks it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, every time I see something like I'm like oh, that's bullshit, like you're not actually supposed to do something like that.
Speaker 3:This is like the one time real movies are always everything you say, everything, everything you see in movies is real duh spiderman exists, so I knew it I knew it um yep, anything else you want to tell people about their ears, protecting their ears, something cool about their ear, anything you got.
Speaker 3:Oh, in-ear monitors, I think, are great because they do if you get ones that are custom, so an audiologist can do ear mold impressions for you and you can get custom in-ear monitors. You obviously still don't want to play them loudly, but they are really comfortable and great. For people who do have problems with, like, headphones holding onto their ears or their ears get too hot or like after a while, their ears hurt, ear monitors are great. You can ask an audiologist to get you some ear mold impressions and you just send them off to a company and they'll make custom in-ears for you, which is awesome, and that's the same for, like, hearing protection. You can also have custom hearing protection too, and they do filters for concerts, which are really cool, so you can like have custom ones that, like specifically for music you can use.
Speaker 2:That's kind of a problem. I have TMJ deviation, so if I have something in ear and I'm talking, it just pops out.
Speaker 3:You can do it where they do. They have a block that you bite and then they do the earmold impression, although I'm comfortable with the over year stuff. Yeah, some people. Yeah, which?
Speaker 1:is great.
Speaker 3:Some people aren't so like, yeah, there's just like a cool tidbit, but yeah, ears are weird, ears are so cool, it's so cool. Well, if people want to know more, about ears or a weird?
Speaker 1:you know just basic gaming. Where could they find you?
Speaker 3:oh my gosh, please. All my socials are the same. It's doctor. No, I'm just kidding. It's not um. It's average girl games anywhere um instagram, tiktok, twitch, you know any of those?
Speaker 2:and if you're watching on on twitch, turn her down.
Speaker 3:She's very I am very loud, and the reason for that is because I want people who are hard of hearing to be able to hear me and understand me because I am so loud. I think it's also comes from my job, because I talked to a lot of kids that are deaf and hard of hearing, and I also use sign language as well. I studied that ever since high school and have continued to study it through college and I love, love, love that community, but I will, uh, I have closed captioning. And then also, because I'm at my job all the time, I'm really, really loud, and so I think it just transfers over into that.
Speaker 2:Well, you're also very high energy, so it kind of translates into that too, yeah, yeah, it's a very very high energy stream.
Speaker 1:What's being high energy like? I've never experienced that before.
Speaker 3:It's a lot. Actually it's a lot. I'm kind of like the uh, what's the bunny?
Speaker 1:Energizer bunny.
Speaker 3:The energizer bunny, yeah, where I'm like go, go, go, go go. And then, as soon as I go to bed, I'm like gone.
Speaker 2:I feel like that sells our age People go into your stream to get hyped up and they go into my stream to take a nap.
Speaker 3:Exactly, which is good. They need the balance because they're probably like I can't handle this today. I'm overstimulated, I got to go to Rob.
Speaker 1:I'm like, yeah, please do Rob will put me to sleep.
Speaker 2:Hey, there's people that take naps to my channel. What can I say? Yeah, fair.
Speaker 3:Well, cool beans yeah.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me on you good oh, oh. And before we go, before we go.
Speaker 1:Liam doesn't know this yet. Liam, guess what chicken butt exactly? Okay, have a good night everybody.
Speaker 2:As of last week, as of last week, we hit 500 000 listens.
Speaker 1:Oh, let's go. That's half a million. I know math, you know math, know Not a little bit Sometimes.
Speaker 2:That's so cool, just before our we're, we're also, we're also on episode 96.
Speaker 3:Cheese, so you know what?
Speaker 2:500,000 listens. That's close to 69. I'll take it.
Speaker 1:It's funny, you say 69.
Speaker 2:We went for the longest time. We were like 69 plus seven, 69 plus 14.
Speaker 1:And then we kind of lost track and gave up on it, just like all the other. Counting we've done.
Speaker 3:It is now 96. That's actually my favorite position is butt to butt, so it's perfect. Yeah, that's great actually.
Speaker 2:It's not wang to ear.
Speaker 3:Wang to ear. Wang to ear? Nope, not yet. I'm going to try that tonight, though, I'm going to grab my husband. Be like hey, you want to.
