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Our ears are delicate instruments that can be affected by many environmental and internal factors. Everything from loud noise to poor diet can cause hearing loss, including smoking, too much caffeine, not enough exercise, various chemicals and medications, and perhaps even normal aging. Some audiologists do debate about whether “age-related hearing loss”—or “presbycusis”—is a real condition or a phenomenon that occurs due to a lifetime’s worth of other impacts on hearing. The Stanford Initiative to Cure Hearing Loss has found in their research that there is a genetic component to just about every type of hearing loss, as well.
Stress Can Cause Hearing Loss
Stress is another factor in whether and when we will develop hearing loss. It’s not that being stressed out has a direct relationship to your hearing ability, but the other physiological consequences of chronic stress can cause hearing loss, over time.
Stress is a normal response to our perception of environmental hazards. Our endocrine system puts us on “high alert” so we can handle the challenges we face, and then returns to normal so that we can rest and recuperate. Chronic stress happens when our endocrine system does not return to normal, as expected. There can be any number of reasons why our bodies stay on high alert for too long, but it’s important to address the issues in our lives that may be stressing us out whenever possible, and take steps to relax and reduce stress regularly.
Chronic stress can lead to cardiovascular problems like heart disease and hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses. These diseases, in turn, diminish your hearing ability by causing sensorineural hearing loss.
Sensorineural hearing loss is the kind of hearing loss we most often think about, where the delicate stereocilia (tiny, hair-like cells) in the inner ear are damaged or broken. These cells are responsible for converting the mechanical energy of sound into the electrical energy understood by our brains. Once they are damaged they do not heal, and their ability to perform their function never returns. Each stereocilium is responsible for a different part of the frequency spectrum, so as more and more of the stereocilia die, we lose more and more of our hearing.
The tiny blood vessels that deliver crucial oxygen and other nutrients to the stereocilia are among the first to be affected when we have a problem with our blood. If our heart is not pumping blood efficiently, our hearing will suffer. If our blood vessels are constricted due to inflammation or hypertension, our hearing will suffer. If our blood is too thick (as occurs in tandem with blood vessel constriction when we smoke cigarettes), our hearing will suffer. A healthy cardiovascular system is one of the most important things needed for our hearing to function properly, not to mention it generally helps our bodies feel better!
Stress and Tinnitus
Stress usually has very immediate effects on tinnitus. Even acute stress can cause tinnitus flare-ups, and chronic stress will make it worse over time. Stress also makes it more difficult to employ tinnitus habituation techniques.
Chronic stress that results in poorer blood circulation can also cause pulsatile tinnitus, where the tinnitus sound is accented by the heartbeat. If you have pulsatile tinnitus, you should see your doctor immediately.
Stress and anxiety can also make our ears feel stuffy, or full. Not everyone has this response, but it may be due to excessive yawning which upsets the pressure balance in our middle ears.
Coping Mechanisms
It’s important to reduce stress not only for the health of our ears but for our general health and sense of well-being. It is probably not possible to remove all the sources of stress in your life, but it may be worth thinking about what you can change to reduce stress for the longer term. In the meantime, there are a few techniques that can help reduce stress at the moment:
- Frequent Breaks – Taking a few minutes for yourself every hour or so can dramatically reduce stress.
- Exercise – 20 minutes of exercise per day improves both physical and mental health.
- Humor – Smiling and laughing helps relieve tension and bring a perspective that can be calming.
- Social Time – Talking meaningfully with someone who understands what we’re going through can be helpful.
- Meditation – Meditation can be difficult when we’re stressed out, but over time we can improve our practice and learn to calm ourselves from within.
- Mental Health Care – Seeing a therapist regularly is a good way to help achieve perspective on our emotions.
Hearing loss, itself, can also contribute to stress. This can create a vicious cycle where stress causes further hearing loss while hearing loss contributes to additional stress.
If you do have hearing loss, it’s important to treat it to help reduce stress, communicate effectively, and maintain a healthy lifestyle. If you or a loved one may have hearing issues, make an appointment for a hearing test today and find out what hearing aids can do to help you live a better life!