Bell palsy is an idiopathic, acute palsy of the peripheral facial nerve supplying all muscles of the face.¹ It is a rapidly developing unilateral facial weakness with an unknown cause. The condition results in a partial or complete inability to spontaneously move the facial muscles on the affected side.² Bell palsy is clinically easy to diagnose, does not affect a patient’s mortality and life expectancy, and usually has a good prognosis. However, patients experience mental stress until the condition resolves, which may take some time if sequelae develop. The exact pathogenic mechanism is not well known, and treatment methods for complete resolution of symptoms have not yet been established. Recent studies have demonstrated that the major cause of Bell palsy is the reactivation of the latent herpes simplex virus type 1 or varicella zoster virus within the geniculate ganglia.³ The pathogenesis by which these viruses can cause neuropathy may begin with a cytotoxic edema induced by neuronal inflammation.⁴ These hypotheses have justified the use of corticosteroids and antiviral agents, separately or together, in the treatment of Bell palsy.

Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is generally defined as a sensorineural hearing loss of greater than 30 dB across 3 contiguous pure-tone frequencies occurring within 72 hours.¹ Sudden sensorineural hearing loss has a prevalence of 10 per 100 000 persons in Korea and 5 to 20 per 100 000 persons in the United States, with about 4000 new patients in the United States annually.² The main pathogenic causes of SSNHL are viral infection and vascular disorders; other causes include cochlear membrane rupture, autoimmune disease, inherited tendency, acoustic tumor, head injury, and combinations of multiple factors.^3-5

Hearing loss (HL) is a major public health problem. Nutritional factors can affect a variety of diseases, such as HL, in humans. Thus far, several studies have evaluated the association between nutrition and hearing. These studies found that the incidence of HL was increased with the lack of single micro-nutrients such as vitamins A, B, C, D and E, and zinc, magnesium, selenium, iron and iodine. Higher carbohydrate, fat, and cholesterol intake, or lower protein intake, by individuals corresponded to poorer hearing status. However, higher consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids corresponded to better hearing status of studied subjects. In addition to malnutrition, obesity was reported as a risk factor for HL. In studies of the relationship between middle ear infection and nutrition in children, it was reported that lack of vitamins A, C and E, and zinc and iron, resulted in poorer healing status due to vulnerability to infection. These studies indicate that various nutritional factors can affect hearing. Therefore, considering that multifactorial nutritional causes are responsible, in part, for HL, provision of proper guidelines for maintaining a proper nutritional status is expected to prevent some of the causes and burden of HL.

Various medications are currently used in the treatment of tinnitus, including anesthetics, antiarrhythmics, anticonvulsants, antidepressants, antihistamines, antipsychotics, anxiolytics, calcium channel blockers, cholinergic antagonists, NMDA antagonists, muscle relaxants, vasodilators, and vitamins. To date, however, no medications have been specifically approved to treat tinnitus by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In addition, medicines used to treat other diseases, as well as foods and other ingested materials, can result in unwanted tinnitus. These include alcohol, antineoplastic chemotherapeutic agents and heavy metals, antimetabolites, antitumor agents, antibiotics, caffeine, cocaine, marijuana, nonnarcotic analgesics and antipyretics, ototoxic antibiotics and diuretics, oral contraceptives, quinine and chloroquine, and salicylates. This review, therefore, describes the medications currently used to treat tinnitus, including their mechanisms of action, therapeutic effects, dosages, and side-effects. In addition, this review describes the medications, foods, and other ingested agents that can induce unwanted tinnitus, as well as their mechanisms of action.

Conclusion: Compared with normal-weight individuals, obese young adults exhibited a significantly higher taste threshold for salty taste. Smoking also affected taste functions in this population. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in taste detection thresholds between normal-weight and obese young adults. Methods: Taste threshold was measured using electrogustometry (EGM) and chemically with sucrose, NaCl, citric acid, and quinine hydrochloride in 41 volunteers in their twenties, 23 with body mass index (BMI) 25 kg/m² (obese group). Results: BMI was significantly higher in the obese than in the normal-weight group (p < 0.05). The obese group exhibited significantly higher EGM thresholds than the normal-weight group on the right (p < 0.05) and left (p < 0.05) posterior tongue. In chemical taste tests, the obese group had higher thresholds for sweet, salty, sour, and bitter tastes than the normal-weight group, although the difference in threshold was significant only for salty taste (p < 0.05). Smoking had an impact on taste threshold, with smokers having higher thresholds than non-smokers, with significantly higher EGM thresholds on the right anterior and posterior and the left anterior tongue (p < 0.05 each).

Conclusion: Underweight and severe obesity were associated with an increased prevalence of hearing loss in a Korean population. Objective: The relationship between weight and hearing loss is unclear. This study, therefore, analyzed the relationship between hearing loss and body mass index (BMI) in a Korean population. Methods: The prevalence and severity of hearing loss were assessed in 61 052 subjects who underwent health screening examinations, including hearing tests. Subjects were divided into five groups according to BMI (underweight, normal, overweight, obese, and severely obese). The relationships between the prevalence and severity of hearing loss and BMI were analyzed, after adjusting for the effects of age. Results: The rates of mild or greater hearing loss in the underweight, normal, overweight, obese, and severely obese groups were 24.9%, 20.4%, 21.8%, 21.2%, and 24.1%, respectively. Mild severity of hearing loss was the most common in all five groups, followed by moderate, moderately severe, and severe hearing loss, in that order. Multivariate analysis, showed that the odds ratios of hearing loss in the severely obese, and underweight groups, compared with the normal group, were 1.312 and 1.282, respectively.