How frequently do you contemplate your nervous system? Most likely not all that regularly. As long as your body is working as it is supposed to, you have no reason to consider how your neurons are firing or whether nerves are sending proper messages along the electrical corridors in your body. But when those nerves start to misfire – that is when something goes wrong – you begin to pay a lot more attention to your nervous system.
One particular disease known as Charot-Marie-Tooth Disease which generally affects the extremities can also have a pretty wide-scale affect on the overall nervous system. high-frequency hearing loss can also be triggered by CMT according to some evidence.
What Is Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease?
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is a set of inherited conditions. The protective sheathing surrounding the nerves malfunction due to a genetic condition.
There is a problem with how impulses move between your brain and your nerves. Functionally, this can cause both a loss in motor function and a loss of sensation.
A mixture of genetic elements typically results in the expression of symptoms, so CMT can be found in a number of variations. Symptoms of CMT usually start in the feet and go up to the arms. And, high-frequency hearing loss, oddly, has a high rate of occurrence among those with CMT.
The Cochlear Nerve: A Connection Between CMT and Loss of Hearing
There’s always been an anecdotal link between loss of hearing and CMT (which means that inside of the CMT community everyone has heard other people tell stories about it). And it was difficult to realize the link between loss of sensation in the legs and issues with the ears.
A scientific study firmly established the connection just recently when a group of researchers evaluated 79 people with CMT at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
The findings were rather decisive. Nearly everyone with CMT passed their low and moderate frequency hearing exams with flying colors. But high-frequency sounds (in the moderate region in particular) were easily heard by all of the participants. According to this research, it seems pretty likely that CMT can at least be connected to high-frequency loss of hearing.
The Cause of Hearing Loss and How to Treat It
The link between high-frequency loss of hearing and CMT may, at first, seem puzzling. Like every other part of your body relies on properly functioning nerves. Your ears are no different.
The theory is, CMT impacts the cochlear nerve so noises in the high-frequency range aren’t able to be translated. Some sounds, including some voices, will be difficult to hear. Trying to understand voices in a crowded noisy room is especially hard.
Hearing aids are commonly used to treat this type of hearing loss. There’s no known cure for CMT. Modern hearing aids can provide significant assistance in terms of combating the effects of high-frequency hearing loss, selecting only those ranges of sounds to boost. Most modern hearing aids can also perform well in loud environments.
There Could be Many Causes For Hearing Loss
Researchers still aren’t entirely sure why CMT and hearing loss seem to co-exist quite so often (beyond their untested hypothesis). But this type of hearing loss can be effectively managed using hearing aids. That’s why many individuals who have CMT will make time to sit down with us and get a fitting for a custom hearing aid.
There are numerous causes for hearing loss symptoms. Often, it’s an issue of loud noise contributing to injury to the ears. In other cases, hearing loss could be the consequence of an obstruction. It appears that CMT can be still another cause of loss of hearing.