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By Richard Carmen, Au.D.
I read with great interest “Diabetes and Hearing
Loss” by Daniel McDermott and Dr. Nancy Vaughan
in the Fall 2003 issue. In their article, they state,
“Even with the substantial media coverage that
the disease warrants and receives, there is little about
a possible relationship between diabetes and hearing
loss.” They speculate that “ … certain
hearing structures may be damaged in diabetic patients
before the impact can be diagnosed by clinical tests
of hearing sensitivity.” I would like to add,
“and also before serious symptoms arise.”
With this in mind, I would like to call to the attention
of your readers work conducted by our investigative
team (R.E.Carmen, D.A. Svihovec, E.F. Gocka, C.B. Ermshar,
GC Gay, J.F. Vanore and L.R. House) in the 1980s. Our
group spent five years in research on this topic and
made correlations to both diabetes and hypoglycemia
through the audiogram. Specifically, all subjects presenting
a low frequency sensorineural hearing loss went through
an assessment for blood sugar. Results showed a high
correlation between low frequency hearing loss and metabolic
diseases and we indicated that it might even be possible
to use the audiogram as an indicator for these medical
problems. We look forward to seeing the results of forthcoming
research on diabetes due out next year by the National
Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research in Portland,
Oregon.
Richard Carmen, Au.D., Hearing Health Advisory Committee/Sedona,
Arizona
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