HOW HEARING LOSS IS LINKED TO DIABETES?
Diabetes is a chronic common health issue that is marked by the presence of high blood glucose levels in a particular individual, and is reported to be one of the major causes of hearing loss. The condition, if left untreated, leads to destroying the individual’s auditory nerve endings or hair cells that affect the ability of auditory nerves to transmit messages to the brain. Due to this failure in transmission of messages, the brain is thus totally unable to interpret the sound waves and this leads to hearing loss.
Diabetes leads to elevating blood sugar level and if you are diagnosed with diabetes, you are twice as likely to develop hearing loss than the normal people. The condition is reported to negatively affect your blood vessels and narrow down them, causing blood blockage and thus the nerves with blood become malnourished with inadequate blood supply, leading to diabetic neuropathy. All the nerves in your body may be affected by this condition, leading to hearing loss. The damaged nerves are thus unable to convey sound signals to brain for interpretation.
Symptoms
If you are having diabetes of type 2, you are most likely to suffer form sensorineural hearing loss, as well as low and medium frequency hearing loss. The symptoms of hearing loss due to diabetes include:
》Difficulty in interpreting conversations
》Difficulty in distinguishing sounds
from background noise
》Asking people to repeat what they are
saying
》The feeling of fullness in ears The
sounds of whistling, hissing and
ringing in ears (tinnitus)
■ You need to get your hearing checked
by an audiologist.
▪ Avoiding loud sounds and noise
exposure
can protect your hearing.
▪ Wearing earing plugs in high volume
environments can save your hearing
for a long time.
▪ Avoid using ear buds for a prolonged
time period.
▪ There are certain medicines such as
intake of high aspirin doses can lead
to damaging your hearing.
▪ You need to maintain proper levels of
ear wax and avoid insertion of pins
and cotton buds in your ears for
removing
