Hearing loss and diabetics.
Diabetes can lead to nerve damage that affects many parts of the body, including your hands, feet, eyes, and kidneys. Diabetes can also cause nerve damage in your ears. Over time, high blood sugar levels can damage small blood vessels and nerves in the inner ear. Low blood sugar over time can damage how the nerve signals travel from the inner ear to your brain. Both types of nerve damage can lead to hearing loss. Hearing loss is twice as common in people who have diabetes as it is in people of the same age who don’t. Even people with prediabetes (blood sugar levels higher than normal but not high enough yet to have type 2 diabetes) have a 30% higher rate of hearing loss than people with normal blood sugar levels.
More than 38 million people in the United States have diabetes, and a recent study found that hearing loss is twice as common in people with diabetes as it is in those who don't have diabetes. Also, of the nearly 98 million adults in the United States who have prediabetes, the rate of hearing loss is 30 percent higher than in those with normal blood glucose (blood sugar). Right now, we don't know how diabetes is related to hearing loss. It's possible that the high blood glucose levels associated with diabetes cause damage to the small blood vessels in the inner ear, similar to the way in which diabetes can damage the eyes and the kidneys. But more research needs to be done to discover why people with diabetes have a higher rate of hearing loss.
Signs of hearing loss include
- Often asking others to repeat themselves.
- Trouble following conversations with more than one person.
- Thinking that others are mumbling.
- Problems hearing in noisy places, such as busy restaurants.
- Trouble hearing the voices of small children and others with quiet voices.
- Turning up the TV or radio volume too loud for others who are nearby.