Loud music can collapse lungs
Doctors working in the U.K. and Belgium reported this week that loud music can actually cause your lungs to collapse. The condition, known as pneumothorax, occurs when small pockets of air become trapped in the outer tissues of the lungs. Intense sounds cause the air to resonate, and the air can vibrate so much that it ruptures the tissue, creating a leak. If the leak is large enough the lung can actually collapse. Not all loud sounds are dangerous, just bass notes between 30 and 150 hertz. Collapsed lungs from loud music have been reported in men who stood next to loud speakers at clubs and in drivers who had their stereos on too loud.
-Zoe Cormier
Source: The Guardian
“Flesh-eating bacteria” on the rise
Cases of infections with group A streptococcus bacteria, or “flesh-eating bacteria,” are much higher than previously thought, finds a European inquiry. Cases in Britain alone have doubled in the past five years. Moreover, the scientists have found that there are now a wider variety of strains, meaning that the bacteria are evolving. This might make the development of a vaccine extraordinarily difficult. Infections with the bacteria are usually benign, resulting in little more than a sore throat, but sometimes infections turn dangerously virulent, causing a condition known as necrotizing fasciitis. The bacteria rip through soft tissues, literally eating through flesh, resulting in toxic shock syndrome, and kidney or heart failure. Nobody understands why infections change like that. Death can result within 24 hours, even with the use of strong antibiotics; between 20 and 30 per cent of such cases die. Lucien Bouchard famously lost his leg to necrotizing fasciitis, and Jim Henson, creator of the muppets, died from a strep A infection.
-ZC
Source: Nature
