The Better You Eat, The Better You Hear!

For this semester, final year students were divided into groups to present a topic for Audiology Seminar. Two groups did forums; the other two posters. Being the first group to 'register', my group did poster. The brilliant and beautiful people in my group are: Dalila, Muzlihah, Merlinda and Ee Ling. Our topic: Food and Hearing.

Haa. Food. That got your attention right?

Personally, this topic is so relevant. Everyone I met, okay, actually mostly the older adults that I met, would always ask on food that affect hearing. You'd think us audiology students would know. But we didn't. We weren't taught about this. But now ... thanks to ehem, my group's presentation ... we know. ;p

We worked our butts off for this presentation, seeing that nobody is an expert on this topic, including the lecturers. We strived to make the best presentation ever, and we really had fun doing it! It was the most enjoyable group work, thanks to the interesting topic. Kudos to Merlinda for suggesting it.

So. What are the food that affect hearing?

I'll just summarize what my group presented.

Firstly we handed out colourful pamphlets to everyone.

We presented on the BAD food. We explained mainly on two types of lipids - triglycerides and low-density lipoprotein - which research had proven are associated with hearing loss, as well as their underlying mechanisms.

Some of the examples of the BAD food are: alcohol, caffeine and high cholesterol food.



You need to eat well to hear well with the GOOD food. Food that can help reduce risks of hearing loss are categorized as anti-oxidant, vitamin B12, folate and herbs. The examples for these categories as shown on the poster are:
1. Folate: whole grain, spinach, nuts
2. Vitamin B12: broccoli, fish, milk
3. Anti-oxidant: blueberries, green tea, tomatoes, oranges, grapes
4. Herbs: ginkgo biloba



To help you understand better, here's a video. Enjoy~



The production crew caught in the act ;p (btw, the theme is pink, red and white, if you didn't notice)

Noise Damages Hearing

Upon working on a group assignment, one of my group members came across this video. I thought it's very cute, simple and straight-forward. You don't need to be an audiologist to understand it. It's less than a minute so do take a look. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b56kuLWPMQs

Conclusion: Take care of your hearing okay?! :)

Chicken Pox 101

As I have mentioned, I had chicken pox. It has been two weeks now. Today would be the 16th day. It has dried out but then some of the dead skin has not disattach itself from me.

The scar on my face. for MAS.
I decided to write in about the experience and what everyone has been advising me throughout the painless yet depressing ordeal.

The most important question: How did I get the chicken pox?

A day before the outbreak of the evil red spots, I hosted an open house for my dear friends. It was suspected initially that one of the guests brought the damned virus and spreaded it to me. It was further supported and theorized by the fact that i had an open wound (due to the lack of skill in opening lemang, which had become a joke for my father, tsk, tsk); so I was a sure-victim. The theory was acceptable to many especially odit, as he said I had the chicken pox because he couldn't come to the open house. Yes, odit, very funny.

It was also suspected that my eldest brother was the virus spreader as he had been complaining of having red spots all over his body. But then he confirmed that it wasn't chicken pox, just mild rash.

However, the theory was rejected totally by my friend, Nora who said I must have gotten the virus a week before the open house. Because the virus needs time to replicate. Therefore, I must have gotten it during the early days of Raya. I met a lot of people for Raya. Alas, the spreader could not be traced. Lucky for him/her for being spared from my wrath.

Anyway. I was given MC for a week. Thus, I spent much of the time in front of my laptop, telling anyone who bothers about my ailment. Some were always so thoughtful by asking how was I doing, which I very much appreciate. Thanks guys, you know who you are! Some even gave a nickname to it, two people to be exact, called it chicky. Quite geli but Mas and Mer seemed to enjoy saying it.

I had fruitful discussions as almost everyone I talked to contributed something in expanding my knowledge on chicken pox. Coincidentally that very weekend, Utusan Mingguan featured an article about chicken pox in the health section. But then the article was more to parents' awareness for their small children. Adults down with chicken pox like moi would not be affected much.

Apparently, there are some Dos and Don'ts in Chicken Pox as well.

The Dos:
1. Get MC as soon as you detect the red spots. Do not spread to other people. It is not nice and if somehow you spread it, the person who gets it will be very pissed off, especially if it's her second time (hrmm, this sounds a lot like me).
2. Use calamine lotion to cool down your body and ease the itchiness.
3. Use semambu leaves by blending it and rub it all over the dried spots. You can also bath with it. This helps to clear the scars.


The Indians usually use this leaves because they believed something about it that I don't know as my mother also did not elaborate (I think she also doesn't know but pretends she does! hehe). An acquaintance told me, use curry leaves as it is really effective in removing the scars. Duh, curry leaves? I think she meant the semambu leaves. Thanks anyway for your, erm. Thanks anyway.
4. Consume coconot drink. It was believed that coconut drink helps to recover back the fluid that you lost. Chicken pox is named cacar air in Malay after all. But this is not supported by research, according to the Utusan article.
5. Use Vitamin E oil as it also helps to remove the scars. I am using Natur E (Garden of Eden) and it has shown good results so far. Not immediately; nevertheless.
It can be purchased in pharmacies; don't expect it to be rm10 though.

Now, the Dont's:
1. SCRATCH. Period.
2. Eat oily food.
3. Eat seafood.
4. Eat chicken.
*These food are not good for the scars.
5. Eat soy sauce. It will make the scars black. Unpretty.
6. Go out or touch things or share food like you don't have chicken pox.
7. Cook or be anywhere near the kitchen when someone is cooking. The pox will pop if you do.

Hrmm. I think that's it. That's what I remember so far.

In relating chicken pox to audiology. If you have chicken pox while you are pregnant, your baby might develop hearing loss.

Chicken pox is so not nice.

Thesis Progress Presentation

If I need to describe it in one word: SUCCESS! :) (in the tone of that cartoon character, Dexter, hihi)
To quote my head of department, 'Well done, Nadirah.'
The Dynamic Duo of EduLink excelled once again, hehe.
Okay, enough of the bragging. Although I was praised, there were feedbacks as well from the lecturers.
Apparently, some of my lecturers are within the age range of 50 - 60 years old, which is my target population, which I sometimes refer as the elderly. They didn't like it. They didn't like to be referred as the elderly. Touchy much, hehe. So I need to always just say 'older adults' instead.
I need to review back the literature i used to support my thesis. I need to consider the age range of those studies. 50 - 60 year old is not the same as a 70 - 80 year old. Quoting Prof Kosta, 'In the Europe, 50 is the new 30, and 60 is the new 40'. Erm, yeah.
I need to refine my reference writing skills, apparently there's much to learn on the conventional way of referring journals.
My co-supervisor was concerned whether I have any problems in getting subjects. Proudly I explained on how my family members are very much involved so yeah, it's all good.
Basically nothing much, now need to focus on other presentations and clinical exams! Am freaking out here, people!

My First Part-Time Job

The Jedi Baby ;p


I was called in to help out in the Department of Speech & Hearing (DSH) of Sunway Medical Centre. I was appointed as a technician, coming as a locum to do Automated Auditory Brainstem Response to newborn babies.

SunMed is one of the major hospitals that has started the Newborn Hearing Screening Program (NHS). All mothers are advised to agree to have their newborns screened. Those who don't agree will be consulted until they agree. Of course some still don't.

FYI, NHS is really important in early detection of hearing loss, especially for high risk babies, where the high risk being jaundice, prematurity, low birth weight, low APGAR score, asphyxia, meconium aspiration and so on. With early detection there will be early intervention which will bring to great prognosis for the child.

Anyway, the DSH were short of staff and was estimating a big volume of deliveries on the very 'ong' date: 080808. I was supposed to come on Friday, 080808 and Saturday 090808. After much thought and messages between the powers-that-be, I didn't go for the Friday stint. Instead, I just came on Saturday.

There were 17 babies (if my memory serves me correctly) delivered the day before. Most of them Chinese of course. My supervisor-turned-colleague told me at SJMC, there were 15 babies.

How crazy was that?

Since it was my first day at work, I was pretty slow. And the babies were so uncooperative and being difficult. (To pass the screening, babies need to be quiet if not asleep to get nice waves and good results). I think I only managed to do only 5 babies during that 4-hours+ stint. But boy, was I exhausted. I nearly fainted due to long hours of standing! And I had no breakfast!

The next next Friday and Saturday, I asked the DSH people if I could come again. They welcomed me with open arms. I guess they really need the extra pairs of hands, regardless of my poor performance on my first day. I vowed to give my best.

I kept on coming on every Fridays and Saturdays onwards up to September. As the days go by I managed to do things pretty fast. However, there were days when the nursery was pretty packed, and the nurses there were all grumpy and they blamed me for being slow. Hello?! Do you think screening is easy? It's not okay! A lot of factors need to be considered.




Some days there were only a few babies, and I had to do data entry on the number of babies screened for the past few months. It was boring but I'm being paid, so whatever.

My First Paycheck :)


I only did two months as I was not progressing with my thesis and my studies, which should be my priorities in the first place. Besides, they hired an assistant, so it won't be the end of the world once I stop coming.

Out of Luck

I was all pumped out to shift into full gears for Wednesday, 15th Oct. I booked that date among my friends early, about 5 days before. I had 4 confirmed subjects coming and more to reconfirm.

But that was last Saturday.

On Sunday it all crashed down on me.

I'm down with chicken pox. I was given MC for a week.

I cried and cried and cried.

I bawled my eyes out.

When I discovered the red spots all over my body, my mother asked me, 'Why are you crying? It's only chicken pox.'

In my tears, 'I have two presentations and I have appointments to do my thesis this week. Next week I have to present my thesis progress. How am I going to do all that now? This is really not a good time to be sick. This is not a good time to get chicken pox.'

My mother laughingly said, 'Then go to them (your lecturers), and say, "I have chicken pox. What do you want me to do?"'

I retorted, 'It's not funny, Mak' and continued drying my tears out.

The next day, my face and whole body was full with red spots and it keeps spurting by the hour. It was really gross.

One of my subject who was yet to reconfirm before agreed to come on Wednesday to total the subjects at 5. Unhappily I cancelled him. 5 more could not make it on Wednesday and 1 more just kept silent. It didn't matter anymore. It's not like I could do the test anyway.

I told my thesis-mate to proceed with hers on Wednesday but alas, bad luck seems to pass around; the HINT (Hearing in Noise Test) box that we needed to test the subjects is broken. The technician came today and said they (the company) have to send to the US to repair since they don't have the expertise (how dependent are we?).

Good news is, they'll lend us one for temporary use, but the bad news is, they don't know how soon they can give it to us.

With only a few days before progress presentation, I wonder what can we present with little amount of data??

I think it's the curse of the HINT rooms. They don't like to 'shift places'. Or someone 'kacau' the spirit inside the room. What do you think?

Haha. I'm just joking, I don't believe in those kind of things, and mind you, I also don't believe in luck. I guess 'dah tak ada rezeki'. Plus, a certain si kacak always say to me, 'sakit pengampun dosa kecil'.

Do pray for the recovery of my pretty self ;)

Testing 1,2,3...

Campus S transmitter

EduLink receiver

I started my research! :)
My parents were the first two subjects. First, I did the diagnostic tests: Pure Tone Audiometry, Tympanometry and Acoustic Reflex test to check their hearing levels and auditory pathways (which proven that they are totally eligible to be my subjects, I am so proud of them!); Double Dichotic Digit Test to find out their ear advantage scores and proceeded with the testing on the benefits of EduLink.

the setup

the subject seats here

the tester's small, cute seat

For that, I needed to find their speech perception scores in noise without them wearing EduLink; wear it on the right ear; on the left ear; and on both ears.
My father was supportive all the way just following what I asked him to. Not to say my mother was not supportive, but i could see she was sceptical most of the time, INITIALLY, but then she got the hang of it and was fully cooperative.
The testing procedure was pretty straightforward. I was on a roll until my friend's mother came. I performed the diagnostic tests, and the results were not I wanted. She couldn't be my subject. I was dejected. I called up everyone that I could think of who is still in KL, but they were all busy with raya preparations. So I only managed to get two so far.
But, the best thing about raya is, I managed to collect more subjects when I went visiting! So yay for me, can't wait to get more results! :)
Anyone who has relatives or friends whom you think would not mind being my subject, please, please contact me. Refer to post 'Looking for Subjects' for more details.

P/s: Selamat Hari Raya everyone!