As the autumn air turns crisp during October, SIU Medicine is celebrating Healthy Lung Month . To help our entire community breathe easier, we're sharing five things you can do to protect your family's lung health and function. 1. Become or remain a nonsmoker. You guessed it: Quitting smoking—or never starting—is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your lung health. Smoking directly damages the lungs, including the small air sacs inside the lungs called alveoli. The alveoli is where oxygen from the air you breathe passes into your blood. Smoking is a leading cause of lung problems
The inner ear is lined with two types of hair cells that help us to hear and balance. The cells respond to sound waves for hearing and head and body movement for balance. As we age, the cells are injured or die off, and our hearing and balance suffer as a result. Studies have shown that the hair cells in fish, frogs and birds can regenerate naturally. New research by scientists at the University of Washington and Southern Illinois University School of Medicine indicates that the hair cells involved with balance—called vestibular cells—may also be replenished in mammals. This could have
