People who can hear well tend to be healthier and enjoy a sense of well-being. They are able to connect and interact better with their environment and with people who matter to them.  Health conditions that directly impact on hearing are the following:

• Dementia: The benefit of hearing well is that your brain is able to process the sounds and the speech to the extent that you understand the meaning of it.

In a study that tracked 639 adults for nearly 12 years, Johns Hopkins expert Frank Lin, M.D., Ph.D, and his colleagues found that mild hearing loss doubled dementia risk. Moderate loss tripled risk, and people with a severe hearing impairment were five times more likely to develop dementia.

• Heart conditions: Doctors have known for some time that a healthy cardiovascular system –  your heart, arteries and veins – creates adequate blood flow to the blood vessels of the inner ear, and thus ensure better hearing.

Expert Charles E. Bishop, AuD, Assistant Professor in the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Department of Otolaryngology and Communicative Sciences, stresses the importance of considering your hearing health as an important part of your overall health. “Hearing health should not be assessed in a vacuum,” he says. “There is simply too much evidence that hearing loss is related to cardiovascular disease and other health conditions. It’s time we maximized the information we have in order to benefit the individual’s overall well-being.”

• Emotions and stress: Children tend to accept and adapt better to the diagnosis of a hearing loss, than adults. Adults tend to ignore their hearing problems, and undergo a lot of negative emotions and stress, before they address their hearing problems. The fear of losing one’s income, relationships or social standing can have a huge emotional impact, causing high levels of stress that then affect other areas of health.

Some very interesting findings about the relationship between stress and hearing loss were published by The National Library of Medicine in Washington.

The Emotional ear in stress: “The aim of the present review is to bring together data describing morphological or functional evidence for hormones of stress within the inner ear. The present review describes possible multiple interactions between the sympathetic and the complex feed-back neuroendocrine systems which interact with the immune system and so could contribute to various inner ear dysfunctions such as tinnitus, vertigo, hearing losses.”

• Parkinson’s disease: The absence of dopamine (an important neurotransmitter) is one of the factors that cause Parkinson’s disease. Dopamine also helps to protect the cochlea (inner ear) form noise exposure. Inadequate dopamine leads to damage to the cochlea, and results in hearing loss.

An article published by The National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine –  ” Auditory Processing Abilities of Parkinson’s Disease Patients”– has this to say in conclusion:

Because of the many physical, emotional, and cognitive challenges that PD patients will face as their disease progresses, it is vital to identify and remediate auditory dysfunction in this population as early as possible. It is imperative to implement rehabilitative strategies that will improve PD patients’ ability to hear and communicate. After these strategies are implemented, increased quality and enjoyment of life for PD patients should result from (a) improved ability to communicate with family members, friends, clinicians, and other people, (b) enhanced ability to hear music and environmental sounds, and (c) improved comprehension of telephone conversations, television and radio programs, religious services, and theater productions.

• Diabetes: The blood supply/oxygen to the nerves and blood vessels of the inner ear are affected by the prolonged high blood glucose levels in persons suffering from diabetes.  Continual diabetes contributes to the damage to the inner ear, and affects the ability to hear well. Read more about this.

If you suffer from any of these health conditions it is vitally important to have your hearing tested regularly.

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