Many men and women die each year from heart disease. What many people don’t know is that it’s also linked to hearing loss. However, when your cardiovascular system is healthy, your auditory system will also be healthy.
Understanding the Link Between Your Heart and Your Hearing
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says that heart disease kills about 610,000 people a year in the United States alone. This is about one American every minute and it’s especially prevalent among women. Heart disease is typically linked to damaged blood vessels and arteries resulting from hypertension or high cholesterol. These issues can result in spasms, blocks, and ruptures within your vessels that cause the chest pain that’s related to heart attacks and strokes. Heart failure can also occur resulting from problems with your heart’s muscles, valves, or rhythm.
Simply put, your heart and hearing both deal with blood flow. When you have good circulation throughout your body, research shows that you’ll also have good hearing. However, when you don’t get enough blood flowing throughout your body or your blood vessels have undergone some type of trauma, especially when it’s near your inner ear, you can suffer from hearing loss. This occurs because your cochlea’s delicate hairs which are responsible for translating noise into electrical impulses for your brain to translate into speech or sound requires good circulation. Having poor circulation in this area robs the cochlea of adequate oxygen, which causes them to become damaged or destroyed. Since your cochlea don’t regenerate, you’ll end up suffering from permanent hearing loss.
What Research is Saying
Unfortunately, most people don’t understand how serious the issue is or how closely intertwined it is with other health issues, especially your hearing. People really should learn more about their individual risks so they can take the appropriate steps to protect both their heart and their healing.
One study published in the American Journal of Audiology in June 2010 looked at 60 years of research. In doing so authors Stacy R. Kerschen and Raymond H. Hull confirmed that poor heart health does negatively impact your hearing, especially if you’re an older adult.
Another study was conducted by Charles E. Bishop, AuD at the University of Mississippi. He concluded that Americans really need to start taking their heart health more seriously because of its major impact on all other areas of your body. Additionally, he said that there’s strong evidence that your heart and hearing are connected – something he believes additional studies should be done in regard to.
Getting the Help You Need
One thing that may help you preserve your hearing is cardiovascular exercise. Researchers at Miami University discovered there’s a positive relationship here, especially for those who are over 50-years-old. Another larger study conducted by the University of Mississippi in June 2017 conducted by and published in the American Journal of Audiology looked at information from the 2003-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). This included over 1,000 participants who were at least 30-years-old. They concluded that those who were more physically active had better heart health. In specific, their triglyceride levels were lower (high triglyceride levels are associated with hearing loss).
When you’re experiencing any type of low-frequency hearing loss it’s important to get it checked out as soon as possible. This is because researchers believe that this can indicate a problem with your heart health. Start your journey to better hearing by contacting Countryside Hearing Aid Services to make an appointment with one of their professionals. If they detect any hearing loss, they will help you remedy it before it gets worse or causes any other damage to your body.
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