The Link Between Hypertension & Hearing Loss

Given that changes to your hearing cannot be reversed, it’s important to take any risk factor of hearing loss very seriously. Among those risk factors, hearing loss has recently been linked to cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure, or hypertension. Here, we’re going to look at the link between these two conditions, as well as what your audiologist can do to help you address them.

What is cardiovascular disease?

When we talk about hypertension, it is usually within the context of cardiovascular disease (or heart disease.) This disease of the heart causes the flow in your blood vessels to be impeded. Cardiovascular disease is one of the most common types of chronic illness in the country, affecting nearly 70 million adults, or nearly a third of the country, in the form of hypertension, or high blood pressure. This fact becomes more concerning because roughly only 50% of people who have hypertension or cardiovascular disease are taking some measures to treat it.

Symptoms of hypertension

If you are concerned that hypertension might be affecting you, then the best solution is to visit your general practitioner and have them perform a test to measure it for you. However, just in case you want to know whether or not it is likely that you do experience it, here are some of the symptoms you should keep an eye out for:

• Nosebleeds
• Severe headaches
• Fatigue
• Confusion
• Vision issues
• Chest pains
• Trouble breathing
• Blood in your urine
• Heartbeat irregularities

Additionally, here are the symptoms of heart disease. If you experience any of the following, you should make an appointment with your doctor as soon as you can:

• Chest fluttering
• Racing or slow heartbeat
• Chest pain or discomfort
• Shortness of breath
• Lightheadedness of dizziness
• Fainting or near-fainting.

Hypertension and hearing loss

Hearing loss can be caused by a range of risk factors, including exposure to unsafe levels of noise, age-related degeneration of hair cells in the ears, and more. However, hypertension and hearing loss have become closely related, with recent studies showing consistently that between the ages of 45-64, those with elevated blood pressure are also much more likely to have more hearing loss. High blood pressure (hypertension) affects the blood vessels throughout the body, doing damage. This doesn’t just affect the heart, but the whole body, including the ears. Blood vessel damage and fatty plaque build-up in the ears can have an accelerating effect on the degeneration of our auditory system, worsening our hearing as we age.

Protecting your hearing and heart health

If you are concerned you might have hypertension, you should start scheduling regular visits with your general physician. They can check your blood pressure to give you the facts. However, after that, you should consider your hearing, given how closely these issues can be related. Hearing loss does more than make it harder to perceive your environment and the things within it. The isolation and stress caused by untreated hearing loss can lead to lower speech understanding, loneliness, and depression. There is even a strong link between untreated hearing loss and dementia, making it important to take a stand against it as soon as you can. To that end, you should enlist the help of your local audiologist.

What can you audiologist do?

Your audiologist might not be able to help you address the underlying issues of hypertension and heart disease. For that, you need to make sure that you see a doctor. However, they can make sure that you are addressing any changes to your hearing as quickly and effectively as possible. With a hearing test, your audiologist can measure any changes to your hearing range, how severely it might be affected, and what solutions can help you improve your quality of life. If you do have hearing loss caused in part by hypertension, an audiologist can find it and then help you select the right hearing aid to address it. Your audiologist can be an important partner in helping you fight the effects of hypertension, just as much as your primary care provider. We can do this at Rocky Mountain Hearing & Health Center by providing a hearing test and, if necessary, helping you live better with hearing loss with the help of a hearing aid. Get in touch with our team today at (801) 685-3456 to learn more.