Health
Ear infections in young children could lead to delayed speech for them, study finds
Chronic ear infections could delay a child’s language development, new research suggests.
University of Florida researchers launched a study about how the common childhood infection could impact speech.
Early ear infections (otitis media) have the potential to impair hearing due to fluid buildup behind the eardrum, according to the study, which was published in the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology in November 2023.
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Researchers investigated the auditory processing and language development of 117 kids between 5 and 10 years of age, including those with and without a history of chronic ear infections.
Children who experienced several ear infections before turning 3 had a smaller vocabulary and found it difficult to match similar-sounding words.
Early ear infections could lead to a later delay in speech, according to a study from the University of Florida. (iStock)
These children also had a hard time detecting changes in sound, which could signify a problem in the brain’s auditory processing center.
Study co-author and UF professor Susan Nittrouer, PhD, discussed the findings in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“For most children, language development appears to unfold so effortlessly that it is easy for us to lose sight of what a remarkable feat this is,” she said.
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“And ear infections are so common among infants and toddlers that it is easy to view them as completely benign,” she added.
The study uncovered “two somewhat novel findings,” Nittrouer noted.
It’s important for guardians to pay attention to their children’s ear infection history, said the study’s lead researcher (not pictured). (iStock)
The first finding is the association of ear infections with poorer abilities to recognize patterns in the acoustic signals present in speech.
“The central auditory pathways develop after birth,” the researcher said.
“If enough auditory input is not available to the child – which happens with temporary periods of hearing loss due to ear infections – that development of auditory pathways is delayed and these listening abilities do not develop properly.”
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The second finding implied that this poor recognition of acoustic patterns impairs the ability of children to identify specific speech sounds, including elements like syllables.
“As they get older, the language they encounter, especially in school, becomes more complex and more dependent on that level of language structure.”
“This is a critical finding,” Nittrouer said. “During early periods of language acquisition, children do not have or need keen sensitivity to phonological structure – individual speech sounds.”
She added, “But as they get older, the language they encounter, especially in school, becomes more complex and more dependent on that level of language structure and the child’s ability to accurately and quickly recognize the individual speech sounds in words.”
One of the study’s “critical findings” was that ear infections can cause poor identification of speech sounds, the lead researcher said. (iStock)
This means that children who are delayed and challenged in their language development will “experience stronger challenges” as they get older, Nittrouer said.
“Contrary to the idea that the child will ‘get over’ or ‘outgrow’ the effects of early [ear infections], these effects may actually intensify,” she said.
“We must take every ear infection seriously.”
Nittrouer encouraged parents and caregivers to monitor children for “language-learning, academic and attentional difficulties,” including reading disabilities, as they age.
“It also means that we must take every ear infection seriously,” she added.
Other early health histories can delay a child’s speech as well, Nittrouer said — which means kids should be monitored for language development “well past the early school years.”
She also said that “the problems arising from such conditions may only present themselves as the language demands of school increase.”
Ear infections can delay the development of auditory pathways in early childhood, the study found. (iStock)
Cedars Sinai Guerin Children’s pediatric otolaryngologist Abhita Reddy, M.D., who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital she feels that in her view, the research is “under-powered.”
“The experiment had very few subjects studied and yet drew a broad conclusion from them,” the Los Angeles-based doctor said via email. “When a study has such few subjects in their experiment, often the conclusions can be easily skewed by confounding variables.”
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Reddy also pointed out that the chosen population of patients studied was “concerning,” as the study looked at children who reportedly did not have many ear infections as defined by parents.
“[This] can introduce a lot of concern regarding the type of otitis media the child had, as there are two types – acute otitis media and chronic otitis media with effusion – that can have very different effects on patients’ language development,” she said.
The effects of early ear infections could “intensify” as a child grows up, according to the researchers’ findings. (iStock)
The definition of patients who had experienced ear infections was “even more concerning,” Reddy said, since the authors apparently studied patients who had never received ear tubes.
“They did not mention whether the patient had ear tubes during the time of [the] experiment, how many sets they had or what the indications for their ear tubes were,” she said.
The specialist said that in her opinion, parents shouldn’t draw conclusions from this study and she does not believe the research will impact the future of ENT care.
“We know that recurrent acute otitis media in certain patients can be caused by eustachian tube dysfunction (a tube in our bodies that connects the middle ear space to the back of the nose) … [which], if not treated early, can lead to lifelong issues with hearing in the form of conductive hearing loss (ability for sound to transmit to the hearing nerve),” Reddy added.
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One woman’s uncomfortable reaction to alcohol led to a grave discovery.
Hollie Thursby, 28, a mother of two from the U.K., told Kennedy News and Media that after giving birth to her second son, Jack, she began experiencing unusual symptoms.
At a checkup for her son, who was a couple of months old, Thursby mentioned that she was experiencing “unbearably itchy skin,” which is known to be a post-partum symptom. The doctor suggested it was due to changing hormones.
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Thursby added that she occasionally drank a couple glasses of wine. Although she kept the drinking to a minimum, she described having “a lot of pain” down the side of her neck.
“Really quite painful and uncomfortable,” she said, according to the report.
A U.K. mom reported experiencing pain in her neck after drinking a glass or two of wine, which turned out to be one of the first signs that she had cancer. (Kennedy News and Media)
The mother also reported feeling extremely exhausted, which she assumed was due to caring for her children throughout the day.
“I also felt like when I got to bed that someone was sitting on my chest,” she shared.
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In July 2025, Thursby discovered a lump on the side of her neck that she described as “really quite big,” but wasn’t painful, Kennedy News and Media reported.
“It was hard, it didn’t move, but it was there,” she said. “When I turned my neck to the side, you could see it.”
Thursby reportedly began chemotherapy for Stage 2 Hodgkins lymphoma. (Kennedy News and Media)
Thursby’s symptoms turned out to be a form of blood cancer — Stage 2 Hodgkins lymphoma, which means it is in two or more lymph nodes, according to Cancer Research U.K.
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Common symptoms include swelling of the lymph nodes, heavy sweating, weight loss, itching, persistent cough or shortness of breath, high temperatures, and pain in the stomach or lymph nodes after drinking alcohol.
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“Pain when you drink alcohol is actually a known side effect of Hodgkin lymphoma,” she said, per the report. “It’s something about the acidity in the wine and not when you drink other alcohol.”
While alcohol-related pain in Hodgkins lymphoma patients has been “an accepted scientific consensus” since the 1950s, cases are rare, Healthline confirmed.
Hollie Thursby, 28, and her two sons are pictured above. The mother reported feeling extremely exhausted, which she assumed was due to caring for her children throughout the day. (Kennedy News and Media)
Thursby reportedly began chemotherapy in November, noting that the hardest part is not being able to care for her kids after losing her own mother to a blood disorder called myelodysplasia.
“I grew up without a mum, and it was horrendous. I can’t do that to the boys,” she told Kennedy News and Media. “We’re all devastated, but we all know now, and we’ve got a treatment plan, which is what we need.”
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“I’m just doing everything I can to get better for them. I keep telling myself this is only temporary, I just need to keep going.”
Anyone experiencing pain or other concerning symptoms after consuming alcohol should consult a doctor for guidance.
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Red light therapy has been shown to reduce brain inflammation, protecting people who experience head trauma from long-term health consequences, a University of Utah study has shown.
Brain damage from repeated impact over the years is known to cause cognitive symptoms, ranging from memory issues to full-blown dementia, particularly affecting soldiers and athletes.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive, degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head impacts rather than a single injury, according to Mayo Clinic.
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More than 100 former NFL football players have been posthumously diagnosed with CTE, according to the new study, which was published in the Journal of Neurotrauma.
Other research has shown that military personnel in active combat suffer from similar issues, as do first responders and veterans.
The treatment was administered three times a week for 20 minutes using specialized headsets and intranasal devices designed to penetrate the skull. (iStock)
In the new study, the researchers recruited 26 current football players to understand more about the impact of red-light therapy on brain injuries.
The participants received either red light therapy delivered by a light-emitting headset and a device that clips into the nose, or a placebo treatment with an identical device that doesn’t produce light. Players self-administered the therapy three times a week, 20 minutes each time, for 16 weeks.
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“My first reaction was, ‘There’s no way this can be real,’” said first author Hannah Lindsey, Ph.D., in the university press release. “That’s how striking it was.”
Specific wavelengths of light are believed to enter the brain and reduce molecules that trigger inflammation, potentially halting the path toward dementia and other cognitive conditions. (iStock)
Players using the placebo treatment experienced increased brain inflammation over the course of the season. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans taken at the end of the season showed significantly more signs of inflammation than at the beginning of the season, the study found.
For players who used red-light therapy during the season, their brain inflammation didn’t increase at all.
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Previous studies have shown that red light, if powerful enough, can penetrate the skull and reach the brain, where it may reduce inflammation-related molecules.
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“When we first started this project, I was extremely skeptical,” said Elisabeth Wilde, Ph.D., the senior author on the study. “But we’ve seen consistent results across multiple of our studies, so it’s starting to be quite compelling.”
Study limitations
The study was conducted using a small sample size, which led to different levels of inflammation in the treatment and control groups, the researchers acknowledged.
While the placebo group showed increased brain inflammation during the football season, those receiving red light therapy showed no increase in inflammatory markers. (iStock)
Future large randomized clinical trials will be “crucial to back up the results” in larger populations, they noted.
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“We’ve been trying to figure out how to make sports safer, so that our kids, friends and family can participate in sports safely for the long term while they’re involved in activities that give them happiness and joy,” Carrie Esopenko, Ph.D., second author of the study, said in the release.
“And this really feels like part of the hope for protecting the brain that we’ve been searching for.”
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The team plans to recruit 300 people with persistent symptoms from TBI or concussion for a randomized controlled trial in 2026, with a focus on first responders, veterans and active-duty service members.
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Drinking heavily and consistently over an adult’s lifetime could lead to a higher risk of colorectal cancer, according to a study published in the journal Cancer by the American Cancer Society (ACS).
The study analyzed 20 years of data from more than 88,000 U.S. adults to determine how long-term drinking impacted the risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC) or precancerous colorectal adenomas (polyps).
The participants reported their average weekly intake of beer, wine and liquor intake during four age periods — 18 to 24, 25 to 39, 40 to 54, and 55 and older.
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“Heavy drinkers” were identified as having more than 14 drinks per week and “moderate drinkers” had between seven and 14 drinks per week.
The observational research revealed that consistent heavy drinking over adulthood was linked to a higher risk of colorectal cancer, especially rectal cancer.
Researchers found a major association between colorectal cancer diagnosis and heavy lifetime drinking. (iStock)
Heavy lifetime drinking was associated with a 25% higher overall CRC risk and nearly double the risk of rectal cancer. Moderate lifetime drinking had a lower overall CRC risk.
Compared to light drinkers, the consistently heavy drinkers had about a 91% higher risk of CRC.
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For colorectal adenomas (precancerous polyps), higher current lifetime drinking did not show a strong pattern, although former drinkers showed a significantly lower risk of non-advanced adenoma compared to current light drinkers.
Out of the 88,092 participants, 1,679 were diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
Out of the 88,092 participants in the study, 1,679 were diagnosed with colorectal cancer. (iStock)
The authors noted that the research was limited, as it was observational and not based on a clinical trial. It also hinged on self-reported alcohol use.
The findings suggest that consistently heavy alcohol intake and higher average lifetime consumption “may increase CRC risk, whereas cessation may lower adenoma risk,” the researchers stated. Associations “may differ by tumor site,” they added.
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The link between drinking alcohol and cancer is not a new discovery, according to health experts.
In a recent episode of the podcast “The Dr. Mark Hyman Show,” Dr. Mark Hyman, chief medical officer of Function Health in California, detailed how even moderate drinking can impact “nearly every organ system in the body,” due to metabolic stress, inflammation, impaired detoxification and its effect on hormones.
The link between drinking alcohol and cancer is not a new discovery, according to health experts. (iStock)
Drinking has been found to increase the risk of many cancers, metabolic dysfunction, gut microbiome disturbances and mitochondrial toxins, Hyman said.
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“Bottom line, alcohol taxes every major system in your body, especially your liver, your brain, your gut, your hormones,” he warned.
Reducing or eliminating alcohol can lower the risk of several cancers, according to medical experts. (Getty Images)
In a previous interview with Fox News Digital, Dr. Pinchieh Chiang, a clinician at Circle Medical in San Francisco, shared that taking a break from drinking alcohol for longer periods of time can “reshape health more profoundly.”
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“Over months to a year, we see sustained improvements in blood pressure, liver function and inflammation,” she said. “Those changes directly affect long-term heart disease and stroke risk.”
Chiang added, “Reducing or eliminating alcohol lowers the risk of several cancers, including breast and colorectal, over time.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the study researchers for comment.
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