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Medical Video: Start Eating More Iron Right Away if You Experience Any of These 10 Signs of Anemia
When the body does not have sufficient iron levels, the production of healthy red blood cells will decrease. As a result, you will be able to experience anemia. Anemia causes you to feel tired or weak easily. You may also have other symptoms, such as shortness of breath, and dizziness. Recently, JAMA's research on Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery has shown that anemia may be associated with hearing loss as well. What is the reason?
How anemia causes hearing loss
The researchers studied 305,339 men and women aged 21 to 90 years. About 4,000 of them are known to have hearing loss, and 2 thousand have iron deficiency anemia. They found that in adults who had iron-deficiency anemia, the chance for hearing loss increased by 2.5 times than those who did not have anemia.
The relationship between hearing loss and iron deficiency anemia was found primarily in the type of sensorineural hearing loss, which occurs due to damage to the small blood vessels in the inner ear. Sensorineural hearing loss is generally considered permanent.
Iron deficiency can also interfere with even killing healthy ear cells, and increase the risk of hearing loss if cell death occurs in hair cells in the inner ear. Unlike other organs, once sensory hair cells in the inner ear are damaged and die, they cannot regenerate to restore hearing function.
This latest finding further confirms the findings of a preliminary study from Taiwan that found an association between iron deficiency anemia and sudden sensorineural hearing loss, a type of hearing loss that developed in less than 72 hours.
So, can increasing iron prevent hearing loss?
Researchers do not recommend people who have anemia to carelessly increase their iron supplement dosage without doctor's advice, only based on the assumption that adequate iron intake can prevent them from the risk of hearing loss.
"At present there is no evidence to ensure that treating iron deficiency anemia will improve hearing health," study author Kathleen Schieffer, a graduate student at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, reported from NY Times.
The findings above only indicate the possibility that there is a relationship between iron deficiency anemia and hearing loss. The study does not prove that anemia must cause hearing loss, or vice versa. This is because in this study other factors that trigger hearing loss were not taken into account, such as smoking, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Further research is still needed to confirm these findings, as are all other medical studies.
Experts advise you to adhere to a healthy and balanced diet to meet the recommended daily intake of vitamins and other nutrients to maintain physical well-being, as well as for optimal hearing health.
