Rush Limbaugh Has a Cochlear Implant

Infamous conservative talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, suffered from a rare hearing disorder called Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease.

This rare inner ear disease is principally characterized by progressive bilateral fluctuating hearing loss and occurs when the body's own immune system starts to attack the hearing mechanism of the ear... much like rheumatoid arthritis is when the body's immune system attacks the joints. Just as with any other auto-immune disorder, it is mainly treated with repeated courses of prednisone.

However, if the hearing gets poor enough, the patient may become essentially deaf for which even hearing aids are ineffective which is what happened to Mr. Limbaugh.

To restore his hearing, he underwent surgical placement of a cochlear implant at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles. It is truly a "bionic" ear in that a computer hears the world around him and directly stimulates the hearing nerve bypassing the cochlea.

Here's a transcript of him describing what it's like.

Source:
Questions on the Host's Hearing. March 18, 2011
Rush Limbaugh's Cochlear Implant Surgery A Success. Audiology Online. 1/3/2002.

Having Allergies Reduce Risk of Cancer!

Well maybe... According to a May 2010 study where questionnaire-based interviews were performed and encompassed self-reported history of prior medical diagnosis of asthma and eczema, medication use, and several covariates among 3,300 cancer cases and 512 population controls, a history of asthma was negatively associated with all cancer types combined (OR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.5-1.1) and similarly for a history of eczema (OR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.4-1.1).

Why would this happen? Well, allergies is due to a hyperreactive immune system that may lead to a more efficient elimination of abnormal cells, thus lowering cancer risks.

More study is needed to verify if this correlation truly exists.

What I would like to see is 3 groups (allergic group treated with meds only, allergic group on immunotherapy, and control group) followed out.

Reference:
History of asthma or eczema and cancer risk among men: a population-based case-control study in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2010 May;104(5):378-84.