An estimated 37.3 million people in the U.S. have diabetes. The condition arises when the pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin or the body doesn’t use insulin effectively. When the insulin can’t do its job of moving glucose through the body, the glucose can build up in your bloodstream, causing high blood sugar.
Uncontrolled blood sugar levels lead to health problems like heart disease, stroke, nerve damage and eye issues. One lesser-known potential side effect of diabetes is hearing loss.
The Connection Between Diabetes and Hearing Loss
The NIH conducted a study in 2021, which revealed that people with diabetes were twice as likely to develop hearing loss as those without diabetes. Prediabetes, where blood sugar is elevated but not yet high enough for a type 2 diabetes diagnosis, can also impact your ears, leading to a 30% higher risk of hearing loss than those without prediabetes.
We need additional research to pinpoint the precise cause of the correlation, but some theories attribute it to cell damage and reduced blood flow. Just like diabetes can cause vision problems by damaging the blood vessels in the retina of your eyes, high blood sugar can stop the inner ear hair cells from receiving the healthy blood supply they’re used to, causing them to die off. If enough of the cells in the ear die, you will develop measurable hearing loss.
How To Minimize Your Risk of Diabetes-Related Hearing Loss
If you’ve recently been diagnosed with prediabetes, you may be able to reverse it through diet and exercise with the help of your health care team. Spotting prediabetes early is key to effectively reversing it; make sure you attend six-month checkups with your primary care provider for blood panels.
Some research suggests that you can also reverse type 2 diabetes by reducing your body’s insulin resistance by maintaining a healthy weight and limiting sugars and carbs through a healthy diet and exercise. In some cases, returning blood sugar to normal is considered a “remission” rather than a cure, as it’s difficult to determine how long the remission will last.
Type 1 diabetes does not currently have a cure, but there is research to suggest that stem cell therapy could offer relief in the future, though there are no guarantees.
Even if you cannot reverse diabetes or send it into remission, you can limit its impact through effective lifestyle changes and treatments—such as insulin shots or oral drugs.
What To Do if You Develop Hearing Loss
If you notice that conversations are harder to follow or the background chatter at Café Moonwater makes it difficult to understand the barista, call Amarillo Hearing Clinic for a hearing test. If you have a detectable hearing loss, we can fit you with hearing aids to help you manage it.
