If you’ve been diagnosed with a thyroid issue, you’re probably familiar with the well-known symptoms: changes in weight, fluctuating energy levels and irregular heart rates. What is less well-known, however, is the effect thyroid issues can have on your hearing health. Studies show that there is a strong connection between thyroid issues and hearing loss, although it’s not yet clear exactly how.
What the Ear Does
First, let’s review how our ear works and how we hear. Our ears catch sound waves and funnel them to an organ called the cochlea, which translates the sound waves into electrical impulses to send to the brain. It does this with tiny hair-like sensory cells that line the walls of the organ. Each hair cell is finely tuned to detect certain pitches.
These hair cells are reliant on healthy blood flow; without it, they deactivate and die, and damaged hair cells do not grow back. If the hair cells that translate a specific pitch all die, then your cochlea will no longer be able to translate that pitch and send it to the brain, meaning you will no longer be able to hear it.
What the Thyroid Does
The thyroid is located in the neck, shaped like an open clam shell, with one “shell” on either side of your throat. It produces and releases various hormones that are essential for processes and organ systems throughout the body, including the digestive, cardiovascular, nervous and even reproductive systems.
The main hormones produced by the thyroid are crucial for regulating your metabolism, the process by which your body generates energy from the food you eat. All cells in the body require energy. They need energy to operate, of course, but also to grow and repair themselves. Therefore, the thyroid’s influence on the metabolism is critical to your body’s ability to function properly.
How the Ear and the Thyroid Connect
As mentioned above, it’s not yet known exactly how thyroid disorders can affect hearing health, but several theories exist. One prevailing theory centers around hypothyroidism and the hair cells in the cochlea. If the thyroid doesn’t produce enough hormones—which can happen for many reasons, from iodine deficiency to Hashimoto’s disease—it leads to hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is characterized by a slowed metabolism, which causes a cascade of effects: slowed heart rate, weight gain, fatigue, cold sensitivity and many others. That slowed heart rate deprives the cochlea of healthy blood flow, and the reduced blood flow damages the hair cells, leading to hearing loss.
Additionally, other thyroid disorders and thyroid cancer can indirectly affect hearing health due to the drugs and treatments used to treat them. Several drugs commonly used to treat thyroid disorders and thyroid cancer are ototoxic, meaning they cause damage to the structures of the inner ear. The good news is that in other cases, hormone therapy treating thyroid disorders improved hearing health or even reversed hearing loss.
How to Manage Hearing Health with a Thyroid Disorder
If you have a thyroid disorder or thyroid cancer, it’s critical to continue to follow your doctor’s advice on treatment and medications. The information provided here is meant to inform you about how hearing can be affected. Have an honest conversation with your doctor about ototoxicity, but don’t skip taking essential medications.
In the meantime, monitor your hearing. Watch for signs of hearing loss, such as having difficulty following conversations in noisy environments, not hearing high-pitched sounds or experiencing tinnitus. If you notice a change, get your hearing tested to establish your hearing levels, and from there, you can monitor changes more minutely. Call San Diego ENT today to find out more.