It may come as a surprise that there is actually a link between your cardiovascular health (the health of your heart) and your hearing health.
Amazingly, your ear could potentially be the first part of your body to discover any issues with your heart health. As the inner ear is so small, it is very susceptible to any changes in blood flow. This means that any changes in the way your heart pumps blood around your body could affect your ears. This is backed up by the fact that approximately 40% of people with hypertension also have hearing loss. Hypertension means having high blood pressure. Having high blood pressure means you are at a higher risk of developing heart disease or having a heart attack.
Keeping your heart healthy
It’s incredibly important to take care of your heart health as much as possible. You can do this by staying physically active and maintaining a healthy weight. Being a smoker will also negatively impact your cardiovascular health. Smoking also increases your risk of developing a hearing loss. If you are someone who suffers with high blood pressure, your GP will have already discussed with you how to keep it down with the correct medication or lifestyle changes. If you are classed as obese, this does greatly increase your risk of heart disease, as well as hearing loss. This is the same for people who do less physical activity than is recommended.
Getting regular exercise is important for the health of your heart
If you have diabetes, you are also at a higher risk of cardiovascular issues. Hearing loss is twice as common in diabetes sufferers as for people of the same age who don’t have diabetes. Even people whose blood sugar levels are higher than normal have an increased chance of developing a hearing loss. This is the case even if the individual hasn’t been diagnosed with diabetes.
Your cognitive health
It’s not just your heart health that is linked to your hearing health. Last year, a decade-long study was published which suggested that tackling hearing loss early could mean that your chance of developing dementia reduces to that of someone with no hearing loss. They found that those with hearing loss who decided not to wear hearing aids had their risk of developing dementia increase by up to 42%. The people who wore hearing aids had no increased risk at all. Researchers went on to state that this is equivalent to a 1.7% risk of dementia in those with hearing loss and no hearing aids. Those with no hearing loss or using hearing aids had a reduced risk of 1.2%.
Treating a hearing loss with hearing aids can help to reduce the risk of developing dementia
If you’d like to discuss any health issues in relation to your hearing health, please don’t hesitate to give us a call. As always, if you feel there has been any change in your hearing, it’s important to get yourself booked in for a hearing consultation.
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