Can Hearing Loss Impact Your Balance

A large portion of the population suffers from balance disorders. Almost everyone has felt off-balance or dizzy at some point in their lives. But what if you or a loved one is challenged with this daily it can harm your physical and mental health.

If you have hearing loss, you may have wondered if that can affect your balance? The answer is yes, it can! Anything that happens in the inner ear can affect your balance and life.

Balance and hearing loss, what’s the link?

The sense of hearing affects your overall health. When you’re feeling your best, thoughts about your hearing health will rarely cross your mind. But the sudden or even gradual onset of hearing loss can be quite alarming.

A Johns Hopkins study showed that those with mild hearing loss between the ages of 40 to 69 were as much as three times more likely to have an incident of falling than those without hearing issues in that same age bracket. They also found that as the hearing loss increases, the risk of falling increases.

In the medical and physical therapy communities, it has become apparent that hearing loss directly affects the body’s balance and control. Since our balance relies on the many sensations we encounter, it’s no wonder that our hearing plays a vital role in controlling our movements to keep us oriented and upright.

If hearing loss is the root of the balance problem, it’s best to fix it. Zeroing in on the causes of hearing loss is vital. Every 10 decibels of hearing loss increases the possibility of a fall.

Ménière’s disease is another link between hearing loss and balance issues.

What Is Ménière’s Disease?

As inner ear disorders go, Ménière’s disease takes the cake as an ailment, covering a range of hearing issues. Ménière’s can cause tinnitus, severe dizziness, fullness in the ear, or hearing loss.

Ménière’s disease will often affect hearing in only one ear, leaving the normal range of hearing in the other. The effects may kick in without warning, bringing dizziness, a buzzing or ringing in the ear, or muffled hearing. The frequency of these attacks is unpredictable. Some sufferers have reported back-to-back issues with little recovery time, while others have long periods of calm before being hit with another attack. Ménière’s disease can cause such extreme vertigo attacks that they affect balance to the point of causing falls.

Ménière’s disease affects people of all ages. Those who deal with it most frequently are adults 40 to 60 years old. Forty-five thousand five hundred new cases of Ménière’s disease are reported yearly.

Treating Balance Affected Hearing Loss

It can be scary finding out your dizziness or balance issues have been caused by hearing loss that has been left untreated. What can be done? The professionals at Hearing Associates of Las Vegas can help you diagnose and treat your symptoms to not only improve your hearing but your balance as well.

The quickest way to make up for a hearing loss is the use of hearing aids. Being fitted for hearing aids is a speedy process, and with the latest technology, they are streamlined and very effective. You can have your physical and mental health improved in a matter of hours.

But because the range of hearing loss can be broad, evaluating its extent can take some time. Slowly working through tests for the most accurate diagnosis will result in the most personalized and effective treatments.

Treating Balance Disorders

To correctly treat balance disorders, patients will often work with a physical therapist to correctly treat balance disorders. A therapist will use different movements to stimulate the visual and muscular system, as well as the balance system of the inner ear.

The brain uses the information from all three systems to help you maintain balance and avoid dizziness or nausea. For those without any issues, it can be hard to relate to such feelings of disorientation but they are real and inhibiting. It’s critical that all three systems work together because one small change to either of them can cause a noticeable balance issue.

If you have issues with hearing loss, contact us at The Hearing Associates of Las Vegas so we can help you determine the correct course of action for your hearing loss and balance issues.