Your hearing health is connected to many other health concerns, from depression to dementia. Your hearing is linked to your health in the following ways.
1. Diabetes Affects Your Hearing
A widely-cited study that examined over 5,000 adults found that people who had been diagnosed with diabetes were two times as likely to suffer mild or worse hearing loss when tested with low- or mid-frequency sounds. With high-frequency sounds, hearing impairment was not as severe but was also more likely. The researchers also found that subjects who were pre-diabetic, put simply, those who have blood sugar levels that are elevated but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes were 30 percent more likely to have hearing loss than those with regular blood sugar levels. A more recent meta-study revealed that the link between hearing loss and diabetes was consistent, even when controlling for other variables.
So an increased risk of hearing loss is solidly connected to diabetes. But why would diabetes put you at a higher danger of suffering from hearing impairment? Science is at somewhat of a loss here. Diabetes is connected to a wide range of health issues, and particularly, can lead to physical damage to the eyes, kidneys, and extremities. One hypothesis is that the disease may affect the ears in a similar way, damaging blood vessels in the inner ear. But management of overall health may also be a relevant possibility. People who failed to treat or manage their diabetes had worse consequences according to one study performed on military veterans. If you are concerned that you may be pre-diabetic or have undiagnosed diabetes, it’s essential to talk to a doctor and have your blood sugar checked.
2. High Blood Pressure Can Damage Your Ears
It is well known that high blood pressure plays a part in, if not accelerates, hearing loss. The results are consistent even when taking into consideration variables such as noise exposure and whether you’re a smoker. The only variable that seems to matter is gender: Males with high blood pressure are at a higher danger of hearing loss.
The ears and the circulatory system have a close relationship: Two of your body’s primary arteries go directly by your ears in addition to the presence of tiny blood vessels in your ears. Individuals with high blood pressure, often, can hear their own blood pumping and this is the cause of their tinnitus. Because you can hear your own pulse with this type of tinnitus, it’s called pulsatile tinnitus. The leading theory why high blood pressure would speed up hearing loss is that high blood pressure can result in physical damage to your ears. If your heart is pumping harder, there’s more power behind each beat. The smaller blood vessels in your ears can be damaged by this. High blood pressure is manageable using both lifestyle changes and medical interventions. But if you think you’re suffering from hearing impairment, even if you think you’re not old enough for age-related hearing loss, you need to schedule an appointment to see us.
3. Dementia And Hearing Impairment
Hearing loss might put you at a higher risk of dementia. Nearly 2000 people were analyzed over a six year period by Johns Hopkins University, and the research revealed that even with mild hearing loss (about 25 dB), the risk of dementia increases by 24%. Another study by the same researchers, which followed subjects over more than a decade, discovered that the worse a subject’s hearing was, the more likely that he or she would develop dementia. These studies also demonstrated that Alzheimer’s had a similar connection to hearing loss. Moderate hearing loss puts you at 3 times higher risk, based on these findings, than somebody with functional hearing. The risk rises to 4 times with extreme hearing loss.
It’s crucial, then, to get your hearing tested. It’s about your state of health.
References
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/symptoms-causes/syc-20373072
https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/741394/diabetes-hearing-impairment-united-states-audiometric-evidence-from-national-health
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/hearing-loss-common-people-diabetes
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23150692
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4632848/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1108740
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2018/8541638/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3889339/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1808869415310016
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1558452
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/802291
