Hearing Aids And Assistive Devices
The basic function of a hearing aid is to amplify sound, but todays hearing aids use sophisticated technology to reduce background noise, the primary complaint of hearing aid users. However, this technology can also affect the quality of speech heard through the hearing aid. The processed sound is often unfamiliar. Some people may benefit from the more sophisticated, complex processing while others may do just as well with more traditional hearing aids. Your audiologist should have a wide range of hearing aids from which to choose, so that he can recommend the most appropriate device for your needs.
Prevention Of Temporary Hearing Loss
Build up your resistance to infections by eating foods that boost your immune system, getting enough sleep, and managing stress. Avoid alcohol and recreational drugs, especially if you have a weak immune system or stay near other people who smoke.
If you have allergies, avoid whatever triggers your symptoms. Install air filters to help control house dust mites, which can be a major irritant for some people.
If you’re exposed to loud noise every day such as engine noise, lawnmowers, or music at clubs and concerts take steps to prevent hearing loss. If your work involves loud sounds, wear ear protection devices specifically designed to filter out damaging frequencies or use earplugs.
Since many people with Lyme disease suffer from multiple symptoms, you may have to try several treatments before finding one that relieves your hearing loss and other symptoms. If home remedies or over-the-counter medications don’t help, talk with your doctor about stronger prescription drugs.
Sudden Hearing Loss As A First Complication Of Long
Sudden hearing loss as a first complication of long-standing Type 1 diabetesmellitus: a case report. Gawron W, Pospiech L, Noczynska A, Koziorowska E. University of Wrocaw, Faculty of Medicine, ENT Department, Wrocaw, Poland. The term ‘sudden hypoacusis’ describes a hearing loss of a rapid onset andunknown origin that can progress to severe deafness. Its pathophysiology is stillunknown, the proposed aetiological mechanisms being vascular disease orautoimmune reaction. We present the case of a 19-year-old woman with Type 1diabetes mellitus who experienced sudden hearing loss on her right side. She had no complications related to diabetes. After being referred to the hospital shewas diagnosed with sudden sensorineural right-sided hearing loss accompanied byhigh frequency tinnitus. After administration of vasoactive drugs, there waspartial improvement after 7 days, followed by gradual improvement over the next 4weeks to 5 months. The tinnitus did not disappear completely. We conclude thathearing organ disturbances can be present in Type 1 diabetes and represent anearly complication. Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1/physiopathologyContinue reading > >
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Types Of Hearing Loss
The term hearing loss refers to a partial or total inability to hear and affects approximately 1 in 6 people in the UK. This can be due to damage to the inner ear where sensitive hair cells of the cochlea transmit nerve impulses to the hearing centre of the brain , or impairment caused by a blockage or infection of the middle ear that prevents sounds being conducted to the inner ear .
The type and severity of the hearing loss can be determined by an audiologist who will examine the ear and perform a hearing test. If it is wax that is affecting your hearing, then this should be removed professionally by micro-suction due to the increased risk of infection with irrigation techniques if you are diabetic.
Degrees Of Hearing Loss
There are four clinically labeled degrees of hearing loss:
Mild
If you have mild hearing loss, you may hear some speech sounds, but will have difficulty with soft sounds.
Moderate
If you have moderate hearing loss, youll struggle to hear/understand speech when someone is talking at a normal level.
Severe
If you have severe hearing loss, you will hear little-to-no speech when spoken at normal levels, and hear only some loud sounds.
Profound
If you have profound hearing loss, you may only hear very loud sounds and no speech at all.
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If You Think You Have Hearing Loss Don’t Delay
The early signs of hearing loss can be tricky to detect, as hearing loss develops slowly. In many cases, people simply feel they “can hear but not understand.”
If you have a hunch you’re not hearing as well as you used toor a family member or friend has told you thisthen don’t delay getting help, as you’re putting yourself at risk of auditory deprivation and other complications.
As a first step, you can take the validated hearScreenUSA on The Audiology Project’s site, or see a provider near you.
Be sure to share your diabetes diagnosis as part of your medical history with your hearing care provider. This information, along with the results of your hearing test, will help the two of you determine the best course of treatment going forward.
Usually, the recommended treatment will be hearing aids or cochlear devices.
How Is Sudden Deafness Treated
The most common treatment for sudden deafness, especially when the cause is unknown, is corticosteroids. Steroids can treat many disorders and usually work by reducing inflammation, decreasing swelling, and helping the body fight illness. Previously, steroids were given in pill form. In 2011, a clinical trial supported by the NIDCD showed that intratympanic injection of steroids was as effective as oral steroids. After this study, doctors started prescribing direct intratympanic injection of steroids into the middle ear the medication then flows into the inner ear. The injections can be performed in the offices of many otolaryngologists, and are a good option for people who cannot take oral steroids or want to avoid their side effects.
Steroids should be used as soon as possible for the best effect and may even be recommended before all test results come back. Treatment that is delayed for more than two to four weeks is less likely to reverse or reduce permanent hearing loss.
Additional treatments may be needed if your doctor discovers an underlying cause of your SSHL. For example, if SSHL is caused by an infection, the doctor may prescribe antibiotics. If you took drugs that were toxic to the ear, you may be advised to switch to another drug. If an autoimmune condition caused your immune system to attack the inner ear, the doctor may prescribe drugs that suppress the immune system.
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Objective Hearing Improvement In Diabetes And Non
The 197 patients included 140 non-diabetes patients in which 63 were male, 77 were female, and mean age was 46.8 years. For the non-diabetes group, the average initial pure tone audiometry was 60.3 dB and final audiometry performed 1 month after treatment was 41.2 dB. There were 57 diabetes patients, comprising 34 males, 23 females their mean age was 57.4 years. Average initial pure tone audiometry for the diabetes group was 72.1 dB and final audiometry was 47.3 dB . By defining hearing recovery as improvement in pure tone audiometry > 10 dB, 76 patients in the non-diabetes group showed hearing recovery and 37 patients in the diabetes group showed hearing recovery. Hearing improvement was measured from the difference in the initial and final pure tone audiometry. Hearing improvement was 19.2 dB for the non-diabetes group and 24.8 dB for the diabetes group the greater improvement for the diabetes group was not statistically significant .
Fig. 1
Steroid Use And The Risk Of Ssnhl
Stroke patients who underwent steroid therapy during hospitalization presented an increased risk of SSNHL that was more than 5 times greater than that of patients without stroke . Conversely, stroke patients who did not undergo steroid therapy during hospitalization presented a lower risk of SSNHL than did nonstroke patients .
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What Are The Symptoms Of Hearing Loss
Common signs of hearing loss may include:
- Difficulty following conversations, particularly with more than one person
- Problems with balance when you stand up
- Frequently needing to turn up the volume on the TV, radio, or cell phone
- Trouble hearing over background noise, as in a restaurant or a busy store
Hearing Loss And Tinnitus
Tinnitus is not a disease rather, tinnitus is a symptom. Thus, there is no cure for tinnitus, but there are ways to manage it. Tinnitus is most commonly associated with hearing loss, but there are many causes of tinnitus, including side effects of some medications and drugs, or a traumatic brain injury.
However, usually, individuals who have tinnitus also have some degree of hearing loss. This is important information because, as already mentioned, diabetes is linked to hearing loss. So, in a way, diabetes is also linked to tinnitus.
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Tips To Limit Or Prevent Memory Loss
Follow these tips to improve brain cognition and prevent memory loss
Switch to a wholesome diet based on fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats. You should also limit your intake of high-fat foods. This is known as the Mediterranean diet. This diet has been connected to a lower risk of chronic degenerative diseases such as AD.
Add more omega-3 fatty acids your diet. Omega-3s have may help improve heart health and prevent cognitive decline.
Treatments from traditional Chinese medicine have had
The Connection Between Hearing Loss And Chronic Kidney Disease
The Kidneys clean up the toxins in the body. Toxins collect in the body if the Kidneys are not functioning normally. These toxins damage the sensitive nerves in the Inner ear. The tissue structure in the Kidneys is similar to the inner ear. The elements damaging to the Kidney tissue also cause damage to the ear tissue. Electrolyte disturbance is also a cause of Sensorineural Hearing loss. Certain medicines used for the treatment of CKD are harmful or Ototoxic to the ear.
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Diabetes Mellitus As Etiological Factor Of Hearing Loss
Volume 71, Issue 2 , MarchApril 2005, Pages 208-214 Open Access funded by Associao Brasileira de Otorrinolaringologia e Cirurgia Crvico-Facial Patients with diabetes mellitus often show symptoms such as dizziness, tinnitus, and hearing impairment. In general, hearing loss is sensorineural, which is sometimes confused with presbycusis, mainly because it develops in patients older than 40 years of age. Angiopathy and neuropathy caused by diabetes mellitus have been considered important factors for the vestibular-cochlear disorders found in these patients. However, there is controversy regarding the etiopathogenesis of hearing loss, as some researchers support that it develops due to neuropathy, others say it is due to angiopathy, or even a combination of both. Yet, some researchers believe diabetes mellitus and hearing loss are part of a genetic syndrome. We have conducted an extensive bibliographic review to determine whether there is cause-effect relationship between diabetes mellitus and hearing loss. We were able to verify that, despite the large number of studies performed, there is still a great deal of controversy, and new approaches are being studied, for example in the field of genetics, which shows that new paths can be followed to reach a conclusion on this issue.Continue reading > >
Study Design And Population
This research employed a study cohort and a comparison cohort to investigate the relationship between stroke and subsequent development of SSNHL. The study cohort consisted of patients who had been newly diagnosed with any type of stroke codes 430 to 438) between January 1, 1997 and December 31, 2005. For these patients, the date of initial stroke diagnosis was assigned as the index date. To enhance the precision of inclusion criteria related to stroke, we considered only the following: patients whose stroke had been diagnosed by neurologists, neurosurgeons, or internal physicians and patients with 2 ambulatory visits or 1 inpatient visits for stroke. We excluded subjects aged less than 18 years. Assembly of a comparison cohort involved the random matching of 3 patients who had not suffered a stroke to a patient in the stroke cohort based on age, sex, and index year. Patients who had a pre-existing diagnosis for stroke or SSNHL were excluded from both cohorts.
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The Mechanics Of Hearing
Hearing is a process in which the ear is only the beginning of the story. The chain of events starts when sound enters the ear canal and causes the eardrum to vibrate. The vibrations set in motion the three tiny bones that form a chain in the middle ear space that connects the eardrum to the cochlea a hollow structure that is coiled in the shape of a snails shell, containing three tubes filled with fluid. The last bone in the middle ear chain is connected to a membrane covering a small opening called the oval window at one end of the cochlea, and the vibrations of this membrane cause waves in the fluids inside the cochlea. This, in turn, causes movement of microscopic structures called hair cells, which are present in one of the tubes in the cochlea. The movement of these tiny hair cells creates an electrical signal that is sent to the hearing nerve, which connects the cochlea to the brain stem. The electrical signal travels up the brain stem and through a system of nerve pathways before arriving at specialized auditory centers of the brain where the message is finally processed. Amazingly, this entire chain of events takes only tiny fractions of a second.
What Causes Sudden Hearing Loss
The exact cause of sudden hearing loss is unknown. Nevertheless, we do know that circulation in the inner ear is reduced during sudden hearing loss. Therefore, one theory for its cause is stress. A hectic environment or severe time pressure at work could lead to circulatory disorders, potentially leading to sudden hearing loss.
Other possible causes of sudden hearing loss include:
- Viral infections or reactivations
- Arteriosclerosis and subsequent circulatory disorders
- Metabolic disorders, such as diabetes or high cholesterol
- A ruptured oval or round window
- Cervical spine injury
- Elevated platelet aggregation
- Occlusion of the inner ears vessels
- Autoimmune diseases
- Previous acute otitis media
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Maternally Inherited Diabetes And Deafness
Hearing loss can be a maternally inherited problem for some people with diabetes. In fact, 1% of all diabetes patients are diagnosed with a subtype of the disease known as Maternally Inherited Diabetes and Deafness , and of these 75% experience sensorineural hearing loss.
MIDD is a non insulin-dependent type of diabetes that usually develops before the age of 40 years as a result of a mutation in mitochondrial DNA.
Joy Victory Managing Editor Healthy Hearing
Joy Victory has extensive experience editing consumer health information. Her training in particular has focused on how to best communicate evidence-based medical guidelines and clinical trial results to the public. She strives to make health content accurate, accessible and engaging to the public.Read more about Joy.
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Can Thyroid Disease Cause Hearing Loss
The Thyroid gland in our body produces hormones. These hormones are responsible for metabolism and other body functions. In case of a Thyroid disease, there is a reduction in the production of hormones. The reduced production of Hormones is medically known Hypothyroidism. The thyroid secretes a hormone known as Thyroxine. Thyroxine is responsible for the development of the Cochlea.
Risk Of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss In Stroke Patients
aInstitute of Brain Science, National Yang-Ming University
eFaculty of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine
fDepartment of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Taipei Veterans General Hospital
jDepartment of Otolaryngology, Taoyuan Armed Forces General Hospital, Taoyuan
kDepartment of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
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Increased Risk Of Ssnhl In Stroke Patients
The results of KaplanMeier survival analysis 1) revealed that the 5-year SSNHL-free rate in patients with stroke was significantly lower than in the comparison cohort . In other words, the 5-year incidence of SSNHL in stroke patients was significantly higher than that of the control group. This finding is consistent with the results of Cox regression analysis, which indicated that the crude HR of SSNHL was 1.89 times higher among stroke patients than among those in the comparison cohort .3). After adjusting for potential confounders, stroke patients were 1.71 times more likely to develop SSNHL than patients without stroke .
Sudden sensorineural hearing loss-free rates among patients with and without stroke during the 5-year follow-up period.
How You Can Prevent Diabetes
Agrawal and colleagues looked at hearing and health information from 3,527 adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2002 to gain a greater understanding of diabetes effects on hearing. She found that hearing-loss risk increases as measures of blood sugar control, such as A1C results, get worse.
Our research suggests a dose-response relationship, Agrawal says. Having higher A1C results means a greater risk of hearing loss as well.
Even though many people experience hearing loss as they age, there is a lot you can do to reduce your risk and preserve hearing, including:
- Control blood sugar. Managing type 1 and type 2 diabetes can be hard work at times, but gaining and maintaining tight blood sugar control could keep your ears sharp longer.
- Dont smoke. Smoking speeds hearing loss on its own, but acts as a risk multiplier when combined with other hearing loss risk factors, such as poorly controlled diabetes, working in an environment full of loud noise, or frequently using firearms .
- Manage loud noise. When researchers look at hearing loss, they consider a noisy work environment to be one in which you have to raise your voice to be heard. This kind of environment increases your risk of hearing loss. If you cant switch tasks or jobs, consider using noise canceling or reducing devices to protect your ears.
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