Diabetic patients 'more likely to lose hearing'

New research has found people who have been diagnosed with diabetes are more likely to have hearing problems later in their life.

According to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, this finding is likely to be independent of the effect of ageing or a noisy environment.

Chika Horikawa of Niigata University in Japan and lead author of the study stated that while the discovery is "controversial", high blood glucose levels can damage vessels in the stria vascularis and nerves, which over time results in a diminishing of the ability to hear.

"In our study we found that persons with diabetes had more than two times higher prevalence of hearing impairment than those without diabetes," it was noted by the author.

Last month, researchers at the University of South Florida released a study regarding a genetic biomarker for age-related hearing loss, which was hailed as a major breakthrough in understanding why people lose their hearing in later life.

Find the nearest Barchester care home.