The Total Hearing Care Difference

Spin Cycle: When Your Ears Make the Room Dance

• Dr. Jill Copley • Episode 10

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Dizziness And How It’s Related To Hearing Loss - Featuring: Dr. Jill Copley

Ever felt unsteady on your feet and dismissed it as just getting older? That lightheaded feeling might actually be your ears sending you an urgent message. Our fascinating exploration into the hidden connection between hearing loss and balance reveals startling facts that could change how you think about your ear health.

Dr. Jill Copley breaks down the science behind this crucial relationship, explaining how the vestibular system (responsible for balance) sits right next to the auditory system in your ear. This proximity means conditions or medications affecting one often impact the other. The statistics are eye-opening: people with even mild hearing loss are three times more likely to experience falls than those with normal hearing – and falls remain one of the leading causes of hospitalization and death in adults over 65.

We dive deep into conditions like Meniere's disease, which can cause both severe vertigo and hearing loss, usually affecting one ear. Dr. Copley explains how our balance system depends on four key inputs: vision, hearing, proprioception (feeling the ground beneath our feet), and central nervous system processing. When hearing diminishes, this delicate system becomes compromised. While research on whether hearing aids prevent falls shows mixed results, evidence suggests consistent, daily use of properly fitted hearing devices can significantly improve spatial awareness and stability. For anyone experiencing both dizziness and hearing difficulties, this episode provides crucial insights that could potentially prevent a devastating fall.

Ready to address your hearing and balance concerns? Call Total Hearing Care at 469-218-4853 or visit TotalHearingCare.com to schedule your comprehensive evaluation. Because better hearing doesn't just mean better communication – it could mean staying safely on your feet.

To learn more about Total Hearing Care visit:
https://www.TotalHearingCare.com
Total Hearing Care
Multiple Locations Across the DFW Metroplex
469-218-4853

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Total Hearing Care Difference where we help you experience life through better hearing. Hosted by the experts at Total Hearing Care, a leading private audiology practice serving the DFW Metroplex, we're here to provide guidance on hearing loss, tinnitus and the latest advancements in audiology. Transform your life through better hearing let's get started. Transform your life through better hearing let's get started.

Speaker 2:

That lightheaded feeling might not just be a fluke. It could be your ears trying to get your attention. In this episode, we uncover how balance, dizziness and hearing loss are all intricately connected. Welcome back everyone. I'm Sofia Yvette, co-host and producer, back in the studio today with Dr Jill Copley. Dr Copley, how's it going today?

Speaker 3:

Going great. I'm so glad to be here.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, I know and it's always a pleasure to join you Now. Today's topic hits close to home for a lot of listeners. Can you elaborate on dizziness and how?

Speaker 3:

it's related to hearing loss. Well, I'm going to start just describing dizziness, because dizziness can mean a lot of things, as you mentioned at the beginning. It could be just something lightheaded, it could be where you feel like you're spinning, it could be the feeling of off balance. So dizziness is just really kind of a catch-all for a lot of things, and dizziness can be caused by a lot of things. That lightheaded feeling could be. You just got up too quickly, maybe your blood pressure is off, of course, where my degree looks at how the ears and dizziness are related, and so the part of the ear that handles our hearing is very close to the part of the ear that handles our balance, which is the vestibular system, and so sometimes medications or diseases can affect both and cause dizziness and hearing loss.

Speaker 2:

Wow.

Speaker 3:

Now, what is vertigo and dizziness? So vertigo is usually used if you feel like something is spinning. That's where I've most often heard it. Again, it's really just a symptom. It's just describing a sensation. You're having a symptom. It's just describing a sensation. You're having, much like I just described, dizziness. And so those are just sensations. But I think vertigo is used more when you feel like just the room is spinning. Maybe you feel like you're going to be sick. It's just hard to keep your eyes open, that kind of thing. I think when people use vertigo they mean it in a more severe sense than just feeling dizzy.

Speaker 2:

Understood. So vertigo is really all in your head, is that correct?

Speaker 3:

Not always, not always. So there are some serious situations that could cause vertigo, and one of them that relates to hearing the most is called Meniere's disease, and Meniere's disease is when the fluids and membranes in the ear are not functioning correctly and they can cause severe vertigo and dizziness. They can cause severe hearing loss, and it often happens on one side of one ear, or it could happen to both, but often it's on one ear, and so that's the most common one. There are other things that can cause dizziness and vertigo. For instance, medications can affect the hearing as well as the vestibular system, which is the balance system, and so you could feel dizziness from that as well.

Speaker 2:

Now, how are falls related to hearing loss? How are falls related?

Speaker 3:

to hearing loss. Okay, so falls are one of the leading causes of hospitalization and death in people over 65. So falls can be very important and they're not normal, so something is usually causing the fall. As it relates to hearing, what research has shown is that people even with a mild hearing loss are three times more likely to fall than somebody that doesn't have hearing loss, and as the hearing loss gets more severe, your chances of falling become worse. Falling become worse, and one of the other problems with falls, just overall, is if somebody falls, they're much more likely to fall again and it can become more severe, and so we really want to protect people from falling.

Speaker 3:

And there are reasons that you may fall, and I don't want to get too technical, but there are four senses that control how we stand up and keep from falling. One is vision, which makes a lot of sense, where you can see where you are in space. One is hearing, where you know where the sound is coming from, so you know when to turn or when to move aside if something is around you. One is your sense of feeling, like being able to feel that your feet are on the ground, and then the other is your central nervous system, and that puts it all together, and so if one of those senses is affected, you're more likely to fall. Something that is very common for people who are diabetic is that they start to have neuropathy, meaning they can't feel with their feet, and so it can make them much more likely to fall than someone who doesn't have that issue.

Speaker 2:

Wow, Now aren't there a variety of circulation issues in the feet and legs? Not just from that, and would that also correlate to falls as well?

Speaker 3:

It can. You're right. High blood pressure, or maybe blood pressure medication that drops your blood pressure too quickly, can affect you, and that has to do with how the heart is pumping the blood. So you're right. There can be other issues. I will have to say. Circulation is not really in my purview, so I'm not sure exactly how circulation comes into play, but certainly anything that can affect how quickly or how slowly your blood is pumping through your heart can certainly affect either feeling dizzy or falling.

Speaker 2:

Now, dr Copley, can you share with us a story from a time when you had a client who was dizzy and had hearing loss, and how you were able to diagnose their situation?

Speaker 3:

So I have seen a couple of people with Meniere's and that is a one sided Meniere's and so they feel very off balance. So one of the things with Meniere's is while the attacks are going on you really can be sick, feel really dizzy, feel that the hearing is not going to come back. Once everything stabilizes and you still have that hearing loss, you can feel very off balance. And so by fitting a person with treating that off balance with the hearing instrument can really help them feel like they're more in control of how they're standing, how they perceive space and things like that. Now I will say, when we look at the research, we know that hearing loss is part of falling, because the research says it is More people with hearing loss fall than those that don't have hearing loss.

Speaker 3:

But what we have to wonder is do hearing aids help? And I think the research is mixed. But I can tell you what I think is happening with the research. There's a lot of research that just says do you wear a hearing aid? And people will say yes or no, but it doesn't explain how long they're wearing the hearing aid. So those kinds of studies don't actually show a lot of correlation that hearing instruments will help with falling. However, there are some other studies and, of course, things like what I just described to you seeing patients that show that if you look at how long people are wearing their hearing aids, if they're wearing them every day, consistently, that does help prevent falls. So I think the research is trending towards definitely treating the hearing loss and that helping with falls, but there's still a lot that needs to be done in that arena.

Speaker 2:

Wow, thanks for walking us through such a complex but important topic today. Dr Copley, it's always eye-opening talking with you, and ear-opening as well. I'm looking forward to our next conversation.

Speaker 3:

Well, thank you for having me for this important topic, because falls are very devastating for people and we want to certainly prevent falls as much as we can.

Speaker 2:

For people 100% Catch you next time, dr Copley. Thank you, bye-bye.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Total Hearing Care Difference. If you're in the DFW Metroplex and ready to take the next step toward better hearing, call 469-218-4853 to book an appointment or visit TotalHearingCarecom, because when you hear better, you live better. See you next time.