Famous Spanish TV Host Reveals She Has Tinnitus and Ménière's Disease

A big online newspaper ran an article on tinnitus and Ménière yesterday ("That's what it's like to live with an ear beep 24 hours a day: "There are people who commit suicide.""). The article had a huge impact, even hitting Menéame's frontpage (sort of a Spanish Reddit) with 4000 clicks, 350 upvotes and 110 comments.

Later that day, extremely famous TV news host Carme Chaparro revealed to her 125k followers on Twitter that she has tinnitus and Ménière's and she's almost deaf in one ear:



"I live like this. With a constant beep, like a high-frequency emission. By day it's bearable. Not so much at night. From the right ear, I have almost no hearing. And there's no choice but to get used to it."

That tweet hit even bigger and the news is being featured in front page in all the big media (HuffPost, El Mundo, more here).

 

I’m sorry about Carmen’s tinnitus and also sorry for the rest of the people in the world afflicted with her (our) same condition. She’s in all the media because of her popularity, not because of her tinnitus.

The media couldn’t care less about tinnitus, they only care about the popularity of the person, and so, unfortunately, do the readers.

I would have liked to read that Miss Chaparro complains about the little support from the Spanish National Health System towards the afflicted individuals or the lack of funding on research from the Government.

She says that “we have to get used to it” , nothing new to us, and, from her words, I can assume that her tinnitus is not severe“ it’s bearable during the day, but not so much at night”, she said. Well, she now has the media at her feet, she could do a lot more than just using set phrases that we are all fed-up to hear.

In my opinion, it’s a pity that she doesn’t point out the poor interest on this matter from the Spanish Government, as the major responsible for the lack of funding on research in the public Universities and Hospitals.

But, never mind, media will soon forget about tinnitus, and so will the audience who would probably be more interested if Miss Chaparro’s revealed her beauty secrets instead of her non glamorous stupid hum.

Now, Spain and the world know that Miss Chaparro is afflicted with tinnitus, so what? Nothing at all! Things won’t change a bit for our belittled community after Miss Chaparro’s confession. What a pity.

 

Well said!
People like that could do so much more, instead they just continue with the well known trend of tinnitus being nothing but a minor nuisance.