How often do you think about your nervous system? Probably not all that regularly. As long as your body is performing as it should, you have no reason to consider how your neurons are firing or whether nerves are sending proper messages along the electrical pathways of your body. But you will pay more attention when something fails and the nerves start to misfire.
There’s one particular condition, called Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, which can affect the nervous system on a fairly large scale, though the symptoms usually manifest primarily in the extremities. 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. In essence, these genetic conditions cause something to go wrong with your nerves or with the protective sheathing around your nerves.
There is an issue with how signals move between your brain and your nerves. A loss of motor function and sensation can be the result.
A combination of genetic elements typically leads to the expression of symptoms, so CMT can be found in a few variations. Symptoms os CMT commonly start in the feet and work their way up to the arms. And, high-frequency hearing loss, oddly, has a high rate of occurrence in those who have CMT.
A Link Between Hearing Loss And CMT: The Cochlear Nerve
The link between CMT and loss of hearing has always been colloquially established (that is, everybody knows someone who has a tells about it – at least inside of the CMT community). And it seemed to mystify people who suffered from CMT – the ear didn’t appear very related to the loss of feeling in the legs, for example.
The connection was firmly established by a scientific study just recently when a group of researchers evaluated 79 people with CMT at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
The findings were quite conclusive. Low to moderate frequencies were heard nearly perfectly by those who had CMT. But high-frequency sounds (in the moderate region in particular) were effortlessly heard by all of the individuals. high-frequency hearing loss, according to this research, is likely to be associated with CMT.
What is The Cause of Hearing Loss And How Can it be Treated?
At first, it could be puzzling to attempt to identify the link between high-frequency hearing loss and CMT. But everything in your body, from your toes to your eyebrows, relies on the proper functioning of nerves. Your ears are the same.
The theory is, CMT affects 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. Notably, make out voices in crowded and noisy rooms can be a tangible obstacle.
Hearing aids are usually used to deal with this kind of hearing loss. There’s no recognized cure for CMT. Modern hearing aids can give considerable help in terms of overcoming the effects of high-frequency hearing loss, selecting only those ranges of sounds to boost. Also, most modern hearing aids can be adjusted to work well within noisy surroundings.
Hearing Loss Can Have Many Causes
Experts still aren’t entirely sure why CMT and hearing loss seem to co-exist quite so often (beyond their untested theory). But hearing aid technology offers a definite solution to the symptoms of that loss of hearing. So scheduling an appointment to get a fitting for hearing aids will be a smart decision for people who have CMT.
There are numerous causes for hearing loss symptoms. Often, it’s a matter of loud noise contributing to injury to the ears. Obstructions can be another cause. It appears that CMT can be still another reason for hearing loss.