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.
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