Question:
From Munich, Germany:
My 4-year-old nephew has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes for one year.
Now he has also been diagnosed with a sensory hearing loss. I have heard
that the hearing loss can be related with the diabetes. Is this true? How
can you diagnose the reason of the hearing loss? I have also heard that a
lack of zinc can cause hearing loss. Is this true? What is the likely
progression of the hearing loss? Will he become totally deaf? Is there a cure?
Answer:
I'm afraid that I can't answer your question fully without more information.
Type 1 diabetes is the commonest endocrine problem so it is inevitable that
some children with sensory hearing loss will have diabetes by coincidence.
However, there are a large number of so called "syndromes" where there is an
association between the two problems. You need to ask your diabetes team if
they think the problems are related because this will give the clue to the
progression or otherwise of the problem. Recently a new association has
been discovered called MIDD - Maternally inherited diabetes and deafness -
because of the unusual genetics involved. This has been reported to account
for up to 1.3% of diabetics in Japan.
KJR
Original posting 17 Apr 97
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