Most of the times, hearing loss is associated with aging, noise, or injury. But several disease diseases can impair hearing. These diseases affect both the young and old. Surprising, these diseases are not ear-related, but they can affect your hearing.
Essentially, these diseases are treatable, and your hearing can get restored. However, in some cases, restoration doesn’t happen, giving you the only option of using Bluetooth hearing aids.
In this blog, we shall focus on six diseases that can impair your hearing.
- Heart Disease
Heart diseases cause approximately 54% of hearing loss cases. The delicate hair cells in the cochlea enable the brain to detect sound. The cochlea requires a supply of oxygen-rich blood to keep it healthy. When you’re suffering from heart disease, your pumping action is reduced, rendering the heart weak. Thus, pumping blood becomes problematic. When the pumping action is reduced, the cochlea will not get enough blood rich in oxygen. This will result in a sensorineural hearing loss.
- Influenza
Sneezing and sniffing during winter months is a common occurrence, and when not treated early, it can lead to severe influenza. Flu is a virus that affects ears and sinuses. In extreme cases, it leads to conductive hearing loss. The condition is reversible, but it can become permanent if not treated on time.
Influenza starts with a light headache, running nose, coughing, and sore throat. It causes a buildup of fluids in the Eustachian tube and the middle part of the ear. It leads to a drop in the hearing ability. When the middle ear is congested, sounds waves get blocked reaching the inner ear.
This is a temporary cause of hearing loss which can get treated with over-the-counter drugs.
- Otosclerosis
Otosclerosis is often a genetic disease where there is an abnormal bone growth inside the ears. It’s a typical case of hearing loss which makes the sound wave hard to be transmitted. The early symptoms of otosclerosis include a ringing sound in one or both ears and dizziness.
A surgical procedure or cochlear implant can fix this problem.
- Hypertension
High blood pressure is another leading case of hearing loss. When the pressure rises, the hearing gets impaired. Experiments have shown that hearing impairment speeds in cases of chronic hypertension. Hypertension puts pressure on the walls arteries. The small arteries and veins supply oxygen-rich blood to the ear. When these arteries are damaged, the blood supply is cut short leading to hearing loss.
- Obesity
Today, healthy awareness has increased across the globe. However, obesity is still a major concern. Fast foods, sedentary lifestyle, Apps, and automation have made life easy by reducing our physical activities. But, it always results in being obese.
Although it cannot directly affect the hearing ability, it has some impact on it. An obese person has arteries, and blood vessels clogged by fats. Therefore, blood will not get pumped sufficiently into the ears. It thus causes hearing loss.
A healthy lifestyle and proper treatment can manage most of these diseases. Meaning living an active life is one way of preventing hearing loss.
