Why acid reflux can leave you deaf

Acid reflux isn’t just a problem for your esophagus or throat.

Surprisingly, it can damage your ears and even leave you completely deaf. That’s according to a new study in the Journal of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery.

Unlike the more commonly known gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) that affects the esophagus and can cause heartburn, laryngopharyngeal reflux disease LPRD involves acid reflux reaching the throat and voice box, sometimes without causing much heartburn.

It’s different from GERD because the reflux mainly affects areas above the esophagus.

The main aim of the study was to find out if acid reflux could influence the function of the middle ear in people suffering from LPRD who hadn’t reported any ear problems before.

The middle ear is the part of your ear behind the eardrum that contains tiny bones which help in hearing.

When it’s not working correctly, hearing issues can develop.

Researchers started by identifying patients who showed signs of LPRD. They used two specific tests to confirm the diagnosis: the Reflux Symptom Index and the Reflux Finding Score. These tests help doctors figure out how severe someone’s reflux is based on their symptoms and what’s seen during an examination.

73 people who had high enough scores on these indices were diagnosed with LPRD and chosen for further investigation. To compare, the researchers also included 73 healthy individuals who didn’t have LPRD, making sure they were similar in age and gender to the LPRD group.

Both groups underwent two types of ear function tests: Pure Tone Audiometry and Impedance Audiometry. The former is a hearing test that measures how well you can hear sounds of different volumes and pitches, while the latter checks how well the middle ear is functioning, including the mobility of your eardrum and the conduction of sound.

This is what they found:

1. The Pure Tone Audiometry test showed that 61.64% of the people with LPRD had hearing issues, compared to only 17.81% of the healthy group.

2. The Impedance Audiometry test found that 54.8% of the LPRD group had abnormal middle ear function, while only 6.85% of the control group had.

These are huge differences, indicating that LPRD could be linked to hearing problems as well as middle ear dysfunction.

The middle ear issues they found range from fluid buildup and eardrum retraction pockets to chronic infection. Each of these conditions can cause significant complications, including hearing loss.

Some people with LPRD have regular heartburn and acid reflux symptoms. But others have subtle symptoms that may seem unrelated.

These include a chronic sore throat, hoarseness, excessive throat clearing, the feeling of a lump in your throat, or a chronic cough.

It’s important to watch out for these so you can take action before LPRD becomes a serious issue.

Fortunately, you can cure all types of acid reflux in as little as five minutes using the simple home remedy found here (it only includes three ingredients you already have in your kitchen). Unfortunately, I only discovered this home remedy after acid reflux quite nearly killed me (read this to avoid the same fate)…