Stress and hearing loss

High levels of stress can be linked to a variety of health problems. Constant elevated levels of stress means the body doesn’t receive a clear signal to return to normal, as it does when the stress is acute or traumatic. That can lead to serious health problems such as; heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and other illnesses. In turn, these conditions can affect your hearing.

Conditions or actions that restrict your circulation including; heart disease, diabetes and smoking may negatively impact your hearing. That’s primarily because the small sensory hairs of the inner ear depend on good circulation to perform their delicate task of translating the noise your outer ears collect into electrical impulses for the brain to interpret as recognisable sound.

Each of these inner ear sensors are responsible for translating specific frequencies, so when they are damaged or die, the ability to send that message is affected, too. Hearing loss that occurs as a result of damage to these sensory hair cells is known as sensorineural hearing loss.

How to cope with stress

Although sensorineural hearing loss isn’t reversible in most cases, reducing the amount of stress in your life can protect your hearing from loss due to poor circulation. The NHS website is a great source of information on how to manage stress. For example:

• Be active - exercise reduces some of the emotional intensity that you're feeling, clearing your thoughts and letting you deal with your problems more calmly.
• Connect with people - a good support network of colleagues, friends and family can ease your work troubles and help you see things in a different way.
• Avoid unhealthy habits - don't rely on alcohol, smoking and caffeine as your ways of coping. In the long term, these crutches won't solve your problems. They'll just create new ones.

Your hearing healthcare professional can help

If you think you, or someone in your family, could benefit from getting advice about hearing loss the first step is to see a hearing professional. Only trained audiologists, like the experts at Mary Hare Hearing Centre, have the experience and equipment needed to perform a thorough hearing evaluation and prescribe the best solution to suit your specific needs.

Find out more about Mary Hare Hearing Centre's free initial hearing assessments.

Source: www.healthyhearing.com