Low iron levels in the blood can be associated with hearing loss

When people have low iron content in the blood, this can lead to so-called iron deficiency anemia, which affects the general condition of the body. Recent studies have shown that, in addition to general weakness, the disease can be associated with hearing impairment.

Effects of anemia

During the study, it was found that adults with anemia are at risk of hearing problems twice as much as healthy ones. This disease is also called combined hearing loss.

Clinical testing was performed on 300,000 adult patients from the state of Pennsylvania. Participants were from 21 to 90 years old, the average age was 50 years. Scientists tried to select for studies patients who were deficient in iron and hearing impairment.

What do we know about hearing loss?

There are 3 categories of hearing loss: neurosensory (or perceptual), which is caused by damage to the inner ear, damage to the nerve that connects the ear to the brain or brain damage; Conductive, characterized by poor sound transmission, and combined hearing loss, combining the symptoms of the previous two.

Combined violations

The researchers found that people with anemia were 2.4 times more susceptible to combined, and also 1.8 times - sensorineural hearing loss, in comparison with those who had this pathology was not. But there is no correlation between iron deficiency and ear problems, oddly enough, according to scientists.

A report on previous trials led by Kathleen Schniffer, a student at the State College of Medicine in Pennsylvania, reported that there are certain reasons why the level of iron and neurosensory hearing loss can be related.

Sensorine disturbances

Perceptual hearing loss can develop as a result of damage to the small ear blood vessels, and anemia just can provoke this process. For example, iron deficiency leads to problems with blood circulation, which affects the whole body, so it can easily damage small blood vessels. In addition, the disease often provokes the destruction of the myelin sheath of nerves, including those that connect the ears and the brain.

In fact, researchers have hypothesized that anemia can be associated with neurosensory hearing loss, and not with conductive hearing loss. For example, in a previously published report on the study of this problem in Taiwan, it was said that sudden perceptual hearing loss may develop in 72 hours in patients with iron deficiency.

Conducted violations

On the other hand, the conductive is more often caused by "mechanical" problems, such as traffic congestion in the ears, foreign body entry or damage to the tympanic membrane. That's why scientists did not expect this type of hearing loss to be associated with anemia.

But, as the researchers noted, despite the fact that patients with low iron levels are more at risk of hearing loss, until there is an established relationship between the two diseases. Tests show an inaccurate result, since the sex of participants was not taken into account, they had bad habits or diabetes, and pressure indicators were not checked.

In the future, it is planned to conduct a more detailed study of this issue. Since iron deficiency in the blood can actually provoke hearing loss, we may be able to stop the development of hearing loss in patients, eliminating the symptoms of anemia.