Hearing Loss And Diabetes, What’s The Connection?

Woman testing her sugar to see if diabetes is affecting her hearing health.

Hearing loss can sneak up on you, it’s true. But there are times when hearing issues suddenly pounce you like a cat instead of sneaking up on you. Here’s a hypothetical: You wake up one morning and jump in the shower and when you get out you notice your hearing seems off or different. Muffled, maybe.

At first, you think that you have water in your ears, but when your hearing doesn’t improve as the day progresses, you get a little more worried.

At times like this, when you have a sudden drastic change to your hearing, you should seek out medical attention. That’s because sudden hearing loss can frequently be a symptom of a larger issue. It could be a simple matter of a blockage in your ear. It might be just a bit of earwax.

And sometimes that sudden hearing loss can be caused by diabetes.

What is Diabetes?

You’d be forgiven for not quickly seeing the links between hearing loss and diabetes. Your pancreas seems a long way from your ears.

Type 2 diabetes is an ailment in which your body has difficulty processing sugars into energy. This happens because your body either isn’t producing enough insulin or it’s not reacting to the insulin that you do make. This is why insulin injections are the most prevalent type of diabetes treatments.

What Does Diabetes Have to do With Your Hearing?

Diabetes is a common, sometimes degenerative (and complex), affliction. It needs to be handled cautiously, in most cases with the help of your doctor. So how is that associated with your hearing?

Well, it turns out that sudden hearing loss can often be a sign that you’re experiencing type 2 diabetes. The link is based on the ability of diabetes to cause collateral damage, typically to nerves and blood vessels around the extremities. These precise changes have a powerful affect on the tiny hairs in your ears responsible for your hearing (called stereocilia). So even before other more widely recognized diabetes symptoms show up (such as numb toes), you could experience sudden hearing loss.

What Should I do?

You’ii want to get medical help if your hearing has suddenly started acting up. Diabetes, for instance, will often be entirely symptomless at first, so you might not even know you have it until you begin to observe some of these warning signs.

Seeking out help as soon as possible will give you the greatest number of options, as is the case for most types of hearing loss. But you need to watch for more than just diabetes. Here are a few other possible causes of sudden hearing loss:

  • Tissue growth in the ear.
  • Autoimmune conditions.
  • Problems with your blood pressure.
  • Infections of various types.
  • Blood circulation problems (these are sometimes a result of other problems, such as diabetes).
  • Earwax buildup or other obstructions.

Without an appropriate medical diagnosis, it can be challenging to figure out the cause of your sudden hearing loss and how to treat the underlying symptoms.

Sudden Hearing Loss Treatment Solutions

Here’s the good news, whether your sudden hearing loss is caused by diabetes or infection (or any of these other problems), successful treatment of the underlying cause will usually bring your hearing back to normal levels if you catch it early. Once the blockage is removed or, with diabetes, once blood circulation issues have been addressed, your hearing will most likely get back to normal if you addressed it quickly.

But that really does rely on prompt and effective treatment. If they are not addressed in time, some conditions, including diabetes, will lead to permanent harm to your hearing. So it’s essential that you seek out medical treatment as quickly as you can, and if you’re experiencing hearing loss get that treated.

Keep an Eye on Your Ears

If you get routine hearing screenings, sudden hearing loss might be easier to detect and you might stop it from sneaking up on you by catching it sooner. These screenings can usually detect specific hearing problems before they become noticeable to you.

Hearing loss and diabetes have one other thing in common: it’s best to get them treated as soon as possible. Other issues, including degeneration of cognitive function, can result from neglected hearing loss. Schedule an appointment with us for a hearing test right away.

The site information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. To receive personalized advice or treatment, schedule an appointment.