Diabetes and Hearing Loss: Some Possible Links

For years, the medical community has explored the connection between diabetes and its long list of complications. Diabetes is known to negatively affect the heart, kidneys, eyes, and skin to name a few. But what about a connection between diabetes and hearing loss? Does diabetes affect your ability to hear in the same way you may experience blurred vision from type 2 diabetes?

Recent research appears to confirm that diabetes and hearing loss are linked; however, it’s not clear to what extent. Animal studies of diabetes and hearing loss have shown that diabetes does have a negative impact on hearing. Surgery on animals with diabetes has revealed negative changes in the inner ear, but these types of changes would be virtually impossible to observe in the human ear. Human hearing centers are located deep within the brain which makes intricate studies of diabetes and hearing loss very difficult.

Considering how an excessive amount of sugar in the bloodstream injures cells throughout the body, it only makes sense that the sensitive nerves and blood vessels in the ears and brain would be damaged, too. Hearing is completely dependent upon blood and nerve tissues, so damaging those tissues has the potential to cause hearing loss. Hearing loss, however, is not typically listed as one of the signs of diabetes.

One study on 700 veterans found that under the age of 60, people with diabetes had a higher incidence of hearing loss than those who did not have diabetes. Over the age of 60, there appeared to be no correlation between diabetes and hearing loss. The study concluded that the hearing systems of diabetics may age faster than non-diabetics.