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Hearing Professionals
Is Your Diabetic Child At Risk For Hearing Loss?
Hearing Professionals Inc.
. http://www.hearing-professionals.com/

Is Your Diabetic Child At Risk For Hearing Loss?

Having a child diagnosed with diabetes is never easy. You may feel anger, sadness, guilt, or fear, or all emotions at the same time. You may be out of sorts, but you are not alone. There are organizations available to assist you with the many aspects of living with diabetes. Some resources are the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and International Diabetes Federation.

You will have a lot to learn in order to manage diabetes and to provide proper care for your child. Take this new challenge one day at a time and you will find that as time goes on, your family will feel more confident in your knowledge about the disease and your ability to handle it.

One important fact to know is that there is not one system in the body that diabetes does not affect. Routinehealth screenings for kidneys, eyes and feet may become routine for your child. One system that is frequently overlooked is hearing.

Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and was previously known as juvenile diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes, affecting more than 90% of Americans. With type 2 diabetes, the body either doesn't produce enough insulin or doesn't use it properly.

Research has lead health care professionals to believe that diabetes can negatively impact hearing levels. For example, high blood glucose levels produced by diabetes cause chemical changes in the blood vessels and nerves in the inner ear, affecting the body's ability to transmit sound by causingthe walls of the cochlea to thicken and lose hair cells. Hair cells in the inner ear are essential for hearing and balance. Diabetes may also create sensitivity to certain kinds of plastics used in hearing aidmanufacturing, causing yeast, fungus and infection in the ear canal. You should add routine hearing examinations to your check-up list. It is imperative especially for children developing communication skills to be able to hear accurately. A hearing loss will not only impact their ability to communicate accurately, it will also impact their educational experience.

World Diabetes Day is celebrated on November 14th. To help celebrate this day, educate yourself and your family on the warning signs and risk factors of Diabetes. Information regarding diabetes can be found at www.idf.org and www.jdrf.org.

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