It is important to take care and protect ears from changes in the weather such as cold, hot, rain, water, sand and air pressure. Many seasonal triggers can in fact bring earache and pain, as well as infections and inflammations.
Seasons' related hearing problems are usually not permanent. The temporary hearing loss they lead to is due mainly to your body's reactions to allergens, to very low or high temperatures you are not used to or to air pressure. Sometimes, a changing in hearing can be due to these elements affecting the nose or the throat and, since ears, nose and throat are connected all together. That's why sometimes a simple cold or allergy make you hear worse.
Allergies such as hay fever and pollen allergies tend to rise during the summer months due to an increase in pollen levels and this has been known to cause hearing problems. Our bodies treat pollen as a harmful substance and therefore attempts to defend the body by releasing a chemical called histamine.
Once released, it can result in the membrane lining of our eustachian tube (a tube connecting the ears and nose to the back of the throat) to become inflamed. An inflammation of the eustachian tube can bring about an imbalance in pressure, creating the feeling of blocked ears.
During winter, temperatures can be very low becoming a threat for your hearing. Ears are really sensitive and their parts could cool extremely fast, giving the chance to bacteria and viruses to attack. Earmuffs can help prevent this issue, but you can anyway get a cold or a flu. In these cases and in case of compications you can suffer from otitis. This happens when the Eustachian tube becomes inflammed and they can't work properly. The ear infection occurs at this point, since the earwax gets impacted and cannot be drained.
This type of hearing loss is short-term and usually resolves itself once the hay fever and pollen allergy subsides. If you feel you are experiencing any changes in hearing, it is important to seek professional advice from a hearing expert. At Amplifon, we offer no obligation FREE hearing consultations where you can speak to one of our full qualified audiologists to give you some peace of mind!
