Contributed by Debbie Clason, staff writer, Healthy Hearing Last updated
Many Americans cope with high levels of stress and anxiety,which are linked to a variety of health problems.Long-term, thephysicalchanges from chronic stress can even triggerhearing lossand other inner ear problems.
Can stress affect hearing?
Yes. When you are constantly stressed, the body doesn’t receive a clear signal to return to normal like it does when the stress is acute or traumatic. That can lead to serious health problemssuch as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and other illnesses. In turn, these disease affect your hearing.
Just about anything that restricts your circulation—heart disease, diabetes, smoking—is going to 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 recognizable 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.
What about stress and tinnitus?
Stress can trigger a flare-up in tinnitus or make it harder to ignore via your normal habituation techniques. Stress management is very important when it comes to tinnitus.
Poor circulation can also cause pulsatile tinnitus, a condition sufferers commonly describe as a rhythmic ear noise that pulsates, beats or pumps in time with the heartbeat. Underlying causes of pulsatile tinnitus include high blood pressure, which stress can exacerbate. This kind of tinnitus, known as pulsatile tinnitus, should receive prompt medical attention.
For some people, anxiety can also make their ears feel full or stuffy. Part of this can be due to yawning a lot because you haven't slept well. The excessive yawning shifts around the pressure inthe ears, making them feel full.
How to cope with stress and inner ear problems
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 American Psychological Association lists these five tips for reducing stress:
Take a break. Even 20 minutes away from the cause of your stress can give you perspective and make you feel less overwhelmed.
Exercise. Just 20 minutes each day provides health benefits for both your body and mind.
Smile and laugh. Moving those facial muscles in particular eases tension and sends a corresponding happy signal to the brain.
Get social support. Talk to someone who can understand what you’re going through and provide positive feedback.
If those methods aren't helping, seeking mental health care is recommended.
Your hearing healthcare professional can help
If you’re not hearing as well as you used to, make an appointment to see a hearing healthcare professional. One of the very first things they will do is get to know your personal hearing health and medical history, along with any concerns you may have. After your hearing health history is complete, they will administer a non-invasive hearing evaluation to determine whether or not you have hearing loss. Based on your history and the results of your hearing evaluation, you’ll work together to create a customized treatment plan based on your budget, lifestyle and hearing expectations.
The fragile hair cells in the inner ear rely on a constant flow of blood to receive the right amount of oxygen and other nutrients. When daily stress builds up day after day it can disturb blood circulation throughout the body and without a constant blood flow, the hair cells can become damaged sometimes permanently.
Unfortunately, the cells in your ears are fragile and rely heavily on a steady blood stream to receive oxygen and nutrients. Without this steady blood flow, the cells become damaged, affecting your ability to hear. Chronic stress can lead to gradual hearing loss, sudden hearing loss, and even tinnitus.
A person should consult a doctor if they are experiencing continuous or severe symptoms of stress, such as chronic headaches, sleep disturbances, digestive problems, and frequent illnesses.
Stress that lasts for weeks or months indicate chronic stress. Chronic stress can impact your overall health. One risk is high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. For example, studies have shown that chronic stress is associated with a hypertension (or high blood pressure).
How to cope with stress and inner ear problems. 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 American Psychological Association lists these five tips for reducing stress: Take a break.
Extended periods of anxiety can wreak havoc on your health, including your hearing. Tinnitus: The perceived ringing or buzzing in your ears is aggravated by stress and high hypertension, or high blood pressure. Hypertension increases when anxiety takes hold, making the ringing seem louder.
Anxiety affects more and more people due to the stress caused by daily responsibilities and fast-paced living. This anxiety can also trigger symptoms like clogged ears, confusion, or vertigo.
Training, physical activity, sleep, nutrition, and general life stress all impact your stress level. The stress level range is from 0 to 100, where 0 to 25 is a resting state, 26 to 50 is low stress, 51 to 75 is medium stress, and 76 to 100 is a high stress state.
The normal healing and recovery process involves the body coming down out of heightened arousal. The internal alarms can turn off, the high levels of energy subside, and the body can re-set itself to a normal state of balance and equilibrium. Typically, this should occur within approximately one month of the event.
A survey conducted in 2022 found that young adults aged between 18 and 24 were more likely to suffer from moderate to severe stress, depression, and anxiety symptoms.
The overproduction of adrenaline occurring in chronic stress can reduce or even halt blood circulation to the inner ear causing hearing loss over time or even a sudden loss of hearing.
These include pure tone audiometry, tuning fork tests, auditory brain stem response tests, bone conduction tests, whispered speech tests, speech reception, and word recognition tests. Many of these tests are done to rule out permanent hearing loss and identify the source of your temporary hearing loss.
Will My Hearing Loss Progress Quickly? Most people's hearing sensitivity begins to decrease in their 20s, but without impacting communication until the age of 50s or 60s. For some people, however, it can progress more quickly.
Could anxiety disorders hurt your hearing? Possibly. In a study of more than 10,500 adults in Taiwan, researchers found a greater risk of sudden hearing loss among those with an anxiety disorder.
A typological study of stress 'deafness'Sharon Peperkamp and Emmanuel DupouxAbstractPrevious research has shown that native speakers of French, as opposed to thoseof Spanish, exhibit stress 'deafness', i.e. have difficulties distinguishing stress con-trasts.
Sudden hearing loss is usually linked to cochlear inflammation but may, in rare cases, indicate the presence of an acoustic neuroma, also known as a vestibular schwannoma. Acoustic neuromas are a type of benign tumor that develops in the vestibular nerves.
Introduction: My name is Eusebia Nader, I am a encouraging, brainy, lively, nice, famous, healthy, clever person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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