Heart decorations, heart balloons, heart-shaped candy; no doubt about it, love is in the air. Valentine’s Day is February 14th, so let’s talk about your heart and how it can have an effect on your hearing.
How Your Heart Affects Your Ears
In the inner ear, there’s an organ called the cochlea. The cochlea houses thousands of hair-like sensory cells that transmit sound waves into electrical signals that the brain can process as sound. Each individual hair cell specializes in a single pitch. These hair cells are tiny and delicate; any damage to them is permanent, and they will not grow back.
Cochlear hair cells need a healthy supply of oxygen-rich blood to function properly. A lack of this resource is like taking the hair cells offline completely, only there’s no way to turn them back on. This means that changes in blood flow, blood pressure or blood oxygen levels can all cause damage to the hair cells.
Because each individual hair cell specializes in a single pitch, if a hair cell dies, your ears will no longer be able to transmit that pitch to the brain. Whenever this happens, your brain generally does one of two things:
- Ceases to hear the missing pitch. This means that you’ll struggle to hear sounds of that pitch, which is hearing loss.
- Tries to fill in the gap. Your brain may attempt to make up for the missing sound information by adding sound where it doesn’t perceive any. This means you’ll hear a phantom ringing in your ears, or tinnitus.
In this way, both hearing loss and tinnitus can result from heart conditions or abnormalities.
Heart Conditions that Cause Hearing Loss
Any heart condition that affects your blood flow can cause the above effects. Here are some heart conditions that can change how blood flows to your inner ear, and thus are linked to hearing loss:
- High blood pressure
- Anemia
- Diabetes
- Coronary artery disease
- Heart disease
- Heart attack
- Stroke
Additionally, chronic stress or anxiety can lead to an elevated heart rate, which can also affect blood flow. These conditions aren’t specifically heart conditions, but they do influence the heart’s behavior.
How to Protect Your Hearing if You Have a Heart Condition
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is the leading cause of death in American adults. Because of this prevalence, it’s important to discuss the link between heart conditions and hearing health so you can be proactive about all aspects of your health if you have one of these conditions.
The good news is that living a heart-healthy lifestyle can have direct benefits on your hearing health, as well as your heart health. Some ways to do that include:
- Regular exercise
- Heart-healthy diet: fruits, veggies, whole grains and healthy fats; limit sodium and added sugars
- Get enough sleep at night
- Manage stress levels
- See your doctor regularly to monitor blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels
- Drink alcohol only in moderation
- Quit smoking and avoid secondhand smoke
Treating Hearing Loss Caused by a Heart Condition
If you have a heart condition and notice a subsequent decline in your hearing, don’t wait to seek help for hearing loss. Call Heuser Hearing Institute to make an appointment for a hearing test, where you can determine the extent and severity of the damage to your hearing and discuss hearing loss treatment.