Humming your way out of sinusitis

One measure of how well the sinuses are ventilated is the amount of nitric oxide being expelled. When the sinuses work properly, exhaled air contains a high concentration of nitric oxide. Less nitric oxide can indicate the presence of a problem, including asthma. Humming might end up as one of the easiest diagnostic tools available.

‘‘Measuring nitric oxide during humming could be a measurement of the size of the holes from the sinus to the nose and that could be of great interest to ear-nose-throat doctors, because one of the main promoters of sinusitis is narrow ostia,’’ said Dr Eddie Weitzberg, lead author of the study.

Another showbiz casualty: asthma

If you are a part of the entertainment industry, then your risk of developing work-related asthma is five-times more than those working in other industries, says a new US study published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. This increased risk might be because of exposure to chemicals used in art media, stage-set production, theatrical make-up and photography. The research, an analysis of a six-year national health survey between 1988 and 1994, also found that allergies were reported most frequently in the 30-49 year age group. Moreover, 3.7% of those surveyed had work-related asthma and about 11.5% had work-related wheezing.

More kilos, greater heart failure

Here’s yet another reason to keep that kilo count low: overweight people are much more likely to develop heart failure, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. For obese women, the risk of heart failure more than doubles.

For obese men, the risk is a little less. The study, led by Dr Satish Kenchaiah, who is affiliated with the Framingham Heart Study, was a long-term evaluation of the health of thousands of volunteers in Framingham, Massachusetts in the US.

The team found that for every one point increase in the body-mass index, the risk of heart failure rose by 5% among men and 7% among women. The body-mass index is the person’s weight in kgs divided by the square of their height in meters. ‘‘As compared with women who have a normal BMI, overweight women had a 50% greater risk of heart failure, and obese women had a doubling of the risk of heart failure,’’ researchers said.