
Diabetes and the Risk of Hearing Impairment
No one wants to hear that diabetes is correlated with a greater risk of hearing loss, but that is what researchers have found. Having diabetes may double your chances of experiencing some type of hearing loss.
It is another reason, though there are already more than enough, for people diagnosed with diabetes to maintain healthy-as-possible blood glucose levels.
Auditory Apparatus and Glucose
Many research studies on hearing loss and diabetes do not differentiate between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. There may be hearing-related issues connected to each type yet unknown. However, many experts theorize it is the effects of high blood sugar, and not the diabetes onset mechanism, which can harm our auditory apparatus.
High blood sugar is known to damage the body’s small blood vessels and the nerves those vessels feed. It makes sense to most scientists that the same type of effects can occur within the intricacies of our ear. The capillaries and cells involved with hearing are tiny and sometimes delicate, not designed to handle glucose-heavy blood flow.
Still, there could be other reasons for a diabetes-hearing loss connection. For instance, side effects from the drugs many diabetics use, such as blood pressure medications, may turn out to be involved.
Concerns About Hearing
Regardless of why diabetes is linked with hearing impairment, statistics in the U.S. show that more than 70 percent of those with diabetes, ages 50 to 69, have high-range hearing loss and about 33 percent have low- to mid-frequency loss. Auditory impairment also seems to begin at earlier ages in those with d
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