Do you invest much time thinking about your nervous system? For most individuals, the answer would most likely be not very frequently. As long as your body is working as it is supposed to, you have no reason to consider how your neurons are firing or whether nerves are sending correct messages through the electrical corridors of your body. But you will pay more attention when something fails and the nerves begin to misfire.

One distinct disease known as Charot-Marie-Tooth Disease that generally affects the extremities can also have a fairly wide-scale impact on the whole nervous system. high-frequency hearing loss can also be the result of CMT according to some evidence.

What Is Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease?

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is a set of inherited disorders. Essentially, these genetic conditions cause something to go wrong with your nerves or with the protective sheathing around your nerves.

As a result, the impulses sent from your brain to those nerves (and from those nerves back to your brain) don't progress all that well. Functionally, this can result in both a loss in motor function and a loss of feeling.

A mixture of genetic elements usually leads to the manifestation of symptoms, so CMT can be present in a few variations. For many people who have CMT, symptoms start in the feet and can work their way up into their arms. And, strangely, among those who have CMT, there is a higher rate of occurrence of high-frequency hearing loss.

The Cochlear Nerve: A Link Between CMT and Loss of Hearing

There's always been an anecdotal connection between hearing loss and CMT (meaning that inside of the CMT culture everybody has heard others tell stories about it). And it was tough to understand the link between loss of sensation in the legs and issues with the ears.

The connection was firmly established by a scientific study just recently when a group of scientists evaluated 79 people with CMT at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

The findings were quite decisive. Low to moderate frequencies were heard nearly perfectly by those who had CMT. But high-frequency sounds (in the moderate region particularly) were easily heard by all of the participants. high-frequency hearing loss, according to this study, is likely to be linked to CMT.

The Cause of Hearing Loss and How to Deal With It

The link between high-frequency loss of hearing and CMT might, at first, seem perplexing. But all of your body, from your eyebrows to your toes, relies on the proper functioning of nerves. That's also the same for your ears.

The theory is, CMT affects the cochlear nerve so noises in the high-frequency range aren't able to be translated. Certain sounds, including some voices, will be hard to hear. Trying to understand voices in a crowded noisy room is especially difficult.

Hearing aids are usually used to manage this type of hearing loss. There's no known cure for CMT. Modern hearing aids can provide tremendous help in terms of fighting the effects of high-frequency hearing loss, isolating only those ranges of sounds to boost. The majority of modern hearing aids can also perform well in noisy settings.

Multiple Factors Behind Hearing Loss

Further than the unconfirmed hypothesis, it's still uncertain what the connection between high-frequency hearing loss and CMT is. But hearing aid technology provides a clear treatment for the symptoms of that hearing loss. That's why countless individuals with CMT will take the time to sit down with a hearing specialist and get a fitting for a custom hearing aid.

There are many causes for hearing loss symptoms. In many cases, hearing loss is brought about by excessive exposure to damaging noises. In other circumstances, loss of hearing may be the consequence of a blockage. It turns out that CMT can be still another cause of hearing loss.