Your Health
When roadside bombs explode, the noise level can reach an eardrum-rupturing 180 decibels or higher (hearing damage can occur at 85 decibels.) Nearly one in 10 soldiers returns home from Iraq or Afghanistan with permanent hearing damage, according to a study in the March issue of Stars and Stripes magazine.
Custom-molded earplugs that allow normal hearing, but protect ears from damaging sounds, cost about $60 each and are not standard issue for troops. But throughout June, the Hearing Health Centers in Naperville, Elmhurst and Chicago is offering free custom earplugs to local soldiers or National Guard members who expect to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan.
The devices "allow soldiers to be alert and hear orders but help protect their hearing from roadside bombs," said Dr. Ronna Fisher, an audiologist and founder of the center.
To schedule an appointment for a fitting, call (312) 263-7171.
Heart healthy: Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women. More women die of cardiovascular disease than the next five causes of death, including cancer, combined.
The American Heart Association recently analyzed factors that make a city heart-healthy for women - from the smoking and obesity rates to the number of cardiologists per capita - and ranked Chicago No. 15 (out of 38 major metropolitan areas). Chicago got props for its passage of smoke-free legislation and as a standout in diabetes diagnosis.
The most heart-friendly? The Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The least? Nashville and its environs.
Visit www.GoRedForWomen.org for heart-healthy tips, recipes, a "Go Red Heart Style Guide" and a free magazine subscription.
Bug brain? The locusts that set the suburbs buzzing last summer may have a link to painful migraines. And no, it's not that the nonstop loud buzz gives people headaches.
Researchers in Canada are studying the way locusts respond to extreme heat by temporarily shutting down, the National Headache Foundation's May/June newsletter reports. When it gets too hot, the insects' central nervous systems cause them to breathe rapidly, then go into a coma. When the temperature falls, they come out of it.
This is similar to a process that happens to the human brain at the beginning of a migraine, researchers said. It's possible that "migraines provide a means of temporarily 'shutting things down,' in response to stress," said Mel Robertson of Queen's University in Canada.
To learn five strategies for effective headache management, visit the National Headache Foundation Web site at www.headaches.org.