Listening to Your Feet

Have you noticed that your hearing isn’t quite what it used to be? Maybe you just don’t appreciate shows like American Idol or have trouble making out high-pitched sounds. You may want to check your feet!
Hearing loss is somewhat of an expected part of the aging process. Certainly the image of an older individual with a hearing aid is a well-established stereotype. However, if you’ve protected your ears and haven’t exposed them to excessively loud noises over the years, hearing loss isn’t necessarily in the cards for you as you get older. If you have diabetes on the other hand, it may be more likely.
Some new evidence that was just presented at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association suggests that losing the ability to hear high-pitched sounds is also associated with diabetes. As you may or may not know, diabetes also tends to cause damage to the nerves in your feet as well as your eyes. It can also cause heart and kidney damage. Interestingly, the researchers suggested that hearing loss was 6 TIMES more common in people with nerve damage in their feet!
This research is pretty new and hasn’t been completely confirmed yet, but it definitely brings up some interesting points. Foot problems associated with diabetes are a huge problem. When diabetics loose sensation in their feet, a whole range of issues from ulcers to bone changes to even amputations can result. Often times, visual changes also occur which make it even more difficult for people to walk or perceive objects which could potentially damage their feet. By comparison, hearing loss seems like a relatively mild complication, but in fact the nerve which controls hearing is also responsible for balance, so damage to that area may complicate things even more!
Now of course none of this is really earth-shattering stuff. It still stands that if you have diabetes-especially poorly controlled diabetes-your feet and overall health are at risk. I’m sure that further investigation will take place and more revealing studies will come out in the coming months and years. In the meantime however, if you experience hearing or visual changes, you may also want to think about your feet and talk to your podiatrist about it. Your body, like most sturdy structures, depends on a solid foundation from the ground up.

Advanced Foot Care
Robert Kuvent D.P.M
480-917-2300
3225 S. Alma School Rd
Chandler, AZ 85248

www.yourfeetfixer.com