Diabetes can lead to nerve damage that affects many parts of the body, including your hands, feet, eyes, and kidneys. Diabetes can also cause damage to your inner ear and vestibular system.
Over time, high blood sugar levels can damage small blood vessels and nerves in the inner ear. Low blood sugar over time can damage how the nerve signals travel from the inner ear to your brain. Both situations can lead to hearing loss, and or balance issues.
Hearing loss is twice as common in people who have diabetes when comparing across the same age ranges. Even people with prediabetes (blood sugar levels higher than normal but not high enough yet to have type 2 diabetes) have a 30% higher rate of hearing loss than people with normal blood sugar levels.
How To Protect Your Ears?
You can’t reverse hearing loss, but you can follow these tips to help protect your ears:
1.Keep your blood sugar as close to your target levels as possible.
2. Get your hearing checked every year by your local Audiologist
3.Avoid other causes of hearing loss, including loud noises.
4. Ask your doctor whether any medicines you’re taking can damage your hearing and what other options are available.
( Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021)