Study States Fibromyalgia Patients Have Higher Risk of Hearing Loss

According to a recent study done by Norwegian researchers (published by Fibromyalgia News Today), patients suffering from fibromyalgia are 4.5 times more likely to suffer from hearing loss.  Fibromylagia, a musculoskeletal pain disorder that causes chronic pain, affects the central nervous system and may be associated with an overall dysregulation of the nerves. 

Hearing loss appears to be more common for those afflicted with fibromyalgia, and other musculoskeletal disorders, for a long period of time. The loss is attributed to the damage to the inner ear auditory nerve pathways to the brain. The prevailing theory is that all fibromyalgia-related symptoms result from an alteration in the central neural processing of perceptive stimuli.

Fibromyalgia is frequently associated with feelings of “ear fullness,” earache, and tinnitus.  

Our team at McGuire’s specializes in treatment of these symptoms, so please contact us today so we can help you recover any loss or relieve discomfort.

Listening: A Work in Progress

Our listening system is quite amazing.

Imagine you are at a party and there is a group of people chatting. You may be talking to one person for a while, and then you may shift your focus to another. You're still standing in the same spot, but you are able to home in on one conversation at a time. While listening in noise may be tough, we are able to tune in to one speaker while the other becomes part of the background sound.  We have known about this for a long time - it's called the "cocktail party effect" and it's one of the cool things about our amazing hearing system.

A similar process is being studied at the University of California at Berkeley. We've all had this experience, too: initially someone's thick accent seems indecipherable, or you can't make out the lyrics of a song.  You listen again and again, and voila!  The meaning of garbled words pops out.

Recent work suggests that the brain is actually retuning itself to perceive speech information. The UC Berkeley neuroscientist have seen this process in action by recording activity from the surface of a person's brain as the words of a previously unintelligible sentence suddenly pops out. The retuning happens in less than a second!

The researcher Chris Holdgraf says "We believe that this tuning shift is what helps you 'hear'  the speech in that noisy signal. The speech actually pops out from the signal." Co-author Frederik Theunissen adds "Something is changing in the auditory cortex to emphasize anything that might be speech-like, and increasing gain for those features," making the speech more audible in noise.

Another co-author Robert Knight adds "It is unbelievable how fast and plastic the brain is. In seconds or less, the electrical activity in the brain changes its response properties to pull out linguistic information."

Hearing in noise is a challenge for all, and especially for those with hearing loss. But, it is exciting to know that our brains do work to direct our attention and facilitate pulling the message out of the noise. And as we continue to listen, a signal that initially unintelligible may well become clear. Listening is literally a work in progress. If you have hearing aids to help catch more sound, be sure to wear them on a full time basis, and keep listening.

We are Learning More about “Hidden Hearing Loss.”

It may happen once or twice a week:  Someone comes into the office saying they are having difficulty hearing at times when the people with them are not having problems. They may miss the punchline of a joke, or struggle to follow a conversation at a noisy restaurant.  They are not sure if they have normal hearing or not.   We do our testing, and find that the audiogram – the gold standard test of hearing sensitivity – is normal.

Researchers from Massachusetts Eye and Ear have, for the first time, linked difficulty with speech understanding in noisy settings with evidence of a condition known as “hidden hearing loss” in people with normal hearing sensitivity. 

Hidden hearing loss refers to damage to the connections between the auditory nerve fibers and the sensory cells in the cochlea.  This damage precedes the loss of the sensory cells themselves.  Reduced connections likely contribute to problems understanding speech in noisy or reverberant environments, even when the audiogram indicates “normal” hearing.  Lost connections may also play a part in the onset of tinnitus (ringing in the ear) or hyperacusis (sensitivity to loud sounds).

We know that these difficulties do not show up on our routine tests. The researchers at Mass Eye and Ear set out to develop better measures to test for cochlear synaptopathy, that is, damage to the sensory-neural connections.

Diagnostic tests for hidden hearing loss are important to fully assess damage to the inner ear, especially damage induced by noise exposure.  This would give us a more comprehensive understanding of the basis of the problems our patients are reporting.  We can then discuss preventive strategies going forward, and offer assistive technology options such as remote microphones.  Better diagnostic tools are also important is developing future therapies to repair inner ear nerve damage. Research is being done on animals that offer hope that one day connections between sensory cells and auditory nerve fibers can be successfully restored!

This is a work in progress.  Researchers are looking at whether Speech-in-Noise testing or auditory nerve tests can pick up early inner ear damage even before there are audiometric changes.   Clear definitive answers are not here yet, but this is an exciting direction that may lead to better understanding and future solutions.

Meanwhile, protect your ears from excessive sound levels, as we are sure that noise is in part the culprit for inner ear damage, and stay tuned as we learn more.