Hearing loss

hi Marti

Haven't heard of this but this is a good place to find out if others have.

Mary x

I already had severe hearing loss in both ears before becoming type 2 diabetic and wear two hearing aids but when I went to the nurse because my blood sugars were going haywire again and I mentioned my hearing was also playing up she laughed and said there was no connection - sorry but I beg to differ - if blood sugar can affect distal nerves in neuropathy and optic nerves it seems perfectly natural to me they can also affect aural nerves too so I would make sure you ask the ENT specialist - (I have been fobbed off by know it all podiatrists who have had to apologise on another matter) - the best people who know our bodies are surely us!!! I may be totally wrong and I am more than happy to hold my hands up and apologise if I am but this makes perfect sense to me!!!!

MaryJ said:

hi Marti

Haven't heard of this but this is a good place to find out if others have.

Mary x

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Hah Hah. Very good :lol:

kempa said:

I already had severe hearing loss in both ears before becoming type 2 diabetic and wear two hearing aids but when I went to the nurse because my blood sugars were going haywire again and I mentioned my hearing was also playing up she laughed and said there was no connection - sorry but I beg to differ - if blood sugar can affect distal nerves in neuropathy and optic nerves it seems perfectly natural to me they can also affect aural nerves too so I would make sure you ask the ENT specialist - (I have been fobbed off by know it all podiatrists who have had to apologise on another matter) - the best people who know our bodies are surely us!!! I may be totally wrong and I am more than happy to hold my hands up and apologise if I am but this makes perfect sense to me!!!!

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I also have hearing loss, partly due to glue ear, which I had surgery for once already and await more surgery. But my ENT tells me that my hearing is not so brilliant in my other ear, also have very nasty tinnitus, like you, I feel that since there are so many nerves in the ear how can anyone purely dismiss a possible link out of hand. Would be interesting to know if anyone finds out more on this subject.

I have mild hearing loss but I think mine is a symptom of hypothyroidism. I became hypothyroid at the same time as becoming diabetic but it's taken 5 years to get a diagnosis. I've only just started on thyroxine but I've been told the hearing loss should clear up once my TSH gets sorted out. My TSH has generally been around 4 (which is classed as normal) and yet I get all the hypothyroid symptoms and it was only when they tested for thyroid antibodies that I got a diagnosis. So thyroid can affect ears as well and is something to bear in mind.

I'm sure that there are lots of reasons for acquiring deafness, most of them unrelated todiabetes, however there is a form of diabetes called maternally inherited diabetes and deafness.

Maternally inherited diabetes and deafness (MIDD) is a rare form of Type 2 diabetes that accounts for about one percent of all diabetes cases. People with MIDD generally develop the disease at 25 to 30 years of age and are, on average, less likely to be obese than other people with Type 2 diabetes. MIDD diabetics also tend to require insulin to control their blood sugar levels at an earlier age than other Type 2 diabetics. About 60 percent of people with MIDD develop some mild hearing loss (especially of high-frequency tones), though it does not generally progress to total deafness

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http://www.genetichealth.com/dbts_genet ... midd.shtml

Phoenix is spot on, about MIDD. I've recently been diagnosed with this after a genetic test. Fortunately I only have the diabetes for now, but I'm likely to develop hearing loss at some point.

Kempa and Marti,

Your nurse was absolutely in the wrong to laugh at you for suggesting there may be a link between your deafness and your diabetes. My sister has hearing loss in both ears and wears hearing aids, and she's also likely to go on and develop diabetes in the future bacause of the MIDD mutation. It is relatively rare though, so HCPs tend not to be aware of it, but a family history of diabetes, deafness and normal to low body weight on your mothers side is usually a good indication that MIDD could be a possiblity. If either of you seem to fit into this category, it may be worth asking for a genetic test.

Hello, new to this forum, also new to the diabetes.
I have recently been diagnosed with diabetic type 2, but prior to this I went to the GP to try and get a problem with my ear sorted out , in as much as all of a sudden my right ear will click and I will get what I call " loud ear",everything in that ear becomes so loud, there are certain things I can do to make it go back to normal, but it is frightening when it happens because it can bring on feeling claustrophobic, then I get depressed . When it first started it was every now and then----- now it is more frequently and it really gets me down now. Has anyone suffered with this or something similar , my GP has said it should right itself, but instead it is getting worse !!