Diabetes FAQ » Diabetes Q&A » I have been diagnosed with diabetes about 5 years ago. I am 55 years old. Lately I have been noticing that I cannot hear as well as I used to. Could this be a symptom of diabetes?

I have been diagnosed with diabetes about 5 years ago. I am 55 years old. Lately I have been noticing that I cannot hear as well as I used to. Could this be a symptom of diabetes?

Hearing Loss

Hearing loss is common in older people, but can result from several reasons. It could be the result of disease, it could be heredity and it could be caused by loud noise.

Yes, it is very possible that your inability to hear as well as you used to is due to your diabetes. Hearing loss is often a symptom of diabetes. Some people think that having a harder time hearing is just a sign of getting older, however, it is linked with type 2 diabetes and the quality of hearing loss is actually different. Due to fact that hearing loss and diabetes can go together it would be a good idea that you go for a hearing test once a year. It should be considered part of your regular routine diabetes follow up.

The unfortunate thing is that people do go to get their hearing checked, however they don’t tell the specialist that they have diabetes, and this is the key point to be mentioned. Since the causes and characteristics of diabetes related hearing loss is different if the audiologist does not know this he or she will treat the symptoms differently which in turn may not be the answer to your diabetes issues.

How diabetes causes hearing loss

There are in fact a number of ways the ears and hearing can be affected by diabetes.

Keratin protein forms a protective layer within the ear canal and this keratin protein facilitates the inner earwax to travel outward to the surface of the ear. The reason for the earwax travel is to protect the already sensitive ear canal from becoming over stimulated. However, diabetics tend to lack keratin protein. When there are lower levels of keratin protein or it is absent completely it will cause hearing loss.

Diabetes can lead to the deterioration of epithelial tissue, which is found in the ear canal. If the ear canal is lacking this protective covering it can become sensitive to foreign objects such as the plastics frequently used in the manufacturing hearing aids. When this happens the diabetic can end up with a yeast infection, fungus and infection and irritation inside the ear. The situation can become even more pronounced if the earpiece is preventing good air circulation within the ear.

The third link between hearing loss and diabetes is caused by neuropathy meaning nerve damage. Neuropathy involving any part of the body is a complication of diabetes. Neuropathy is the end result of high blood sugar levels causing chemical changes within the nerves. In turn, these chemical changes will interfere with the normal transmission of nerve signals. When nerve damage happens in the auditory system, people not only experience hearing problems, they may also experience problems speaking or understanding what is being said to them as well.

Hearing loss and Diabetes

It is often that that hearing loss is a sign of advancing age and that hearing loss is only associated with type 2 diabetes. Now research has shown that neither one of these assumptions are true. Children with type 1 diabetes have hearing loss symptoms as well. Diabetes hearing loss is not a symptom of age, it has more to do with how long a person has been diabetic and how well the glucose blood levels are controlled.

Type of hearing loss

Research conducted on a national sample of American citizens to test low, middle and high frequency sounds found that diabetics had hearing loss over all these modalities, but a greater link with higher frequencies. Even adults who were pre diabetic still had a 30 percent rate of hearing loss over the non-diabetic population studied.

Related Articles

• Diabetics Getting Younger
• I am diabetic and I am worried if I will still be allowed to drive my car?
• I am a 50 year old woman, I am obese, and as a child I used to wet the bed, I haven’t done it since, but lately I have trouble controlling my urine, I get up several times during the day to go to the bathroom and I don’t make it in time, I wake up sometimes during the night to go to the bathroom but even more recently I found I have been wetting the bed, is it a bladder infection because I don’t have any pain or could it be something else?
• Help! My hair is thinning and falling out. It seems my hair is coming out in my brush and it is about 3 times more than usual. I always had beautiful long black hair, but now I have diabetes. Is hair loss a symptom of diabetes and what can I do to keep my hair from continuing to fall out?
• Tips for Parents of Juvenile Diabetics to Prevent the Manifestation of Double Diabetes
• Weight Loss tips for Diabetics
• Tips to Understand the Physiology of Hypoglycemia in Diabetes