I am doing some more research- running off on a tangent of my hypothesis. Wondering why all the cell loss seems to come near melanin cells.

Melanin cells form a layer in the cochlea. I cannot find any data on PD and hearing loss though.

I have pronounced hearing loss in my right ear, and my father started losing his rather early on one side too.

Just wondering-- can you hear me now??

I think it is hard to attribute this to PD, but actually something really weird happened to me once. I completely lost hearing in both ears for six weeks. I could not hear a thing. It came on gradually. I had been hearing clicking sounds, like there was fluid in my ears. One night I was watching TV and my husband came in the room and turned it off. He asked me why I didn't turn it down. Didn't I hear the neighbors pounding on walls? At the time I could barely hear the TV. The next morning I woke up totally deaf and terrified.

My husband took me to a hearing specialist and he confirmed my inability to hear. He said to wait it out and see what would happen. Six weeks later, one ear suddenly started clicking and I was able to hear again. The other ear took a few weeks. When I went in for a hearing test, they discovered I had lost 50% hearing in my right ear. The person who did the testing suggested that maybe I should consider a hearing aid. I was still in my middle thirties. Vanity made me say no.

Vicky

Interesting. A couple of years before my motor symptoms really started to become an issue, I started losing my hearing. I was diagnosed with something called osteosclorosis, which basically means the bones in your ears that vibrate to transmit sound (anvil, hammer, stirrup) have calcified and hardened. When they test my hearing through my ears, I've lost about 50%. But when they test my hearing from behind my ears on my orbital bones, then it's perfectly normal. They say it's hereditary, so maybe check your family history. There is no cure except for a highly risky surgery that has serious side effects like facial paralysis, permanent loss of hearing, and permanent vertigo. Yay!

I have noticed a number of people with PD who also have hearing issues. Coincidence? Who knows...

It reminds me of when I was talking to a nationally recognized MDS once about young-onset PD patients and migraines. He said there was no research to back that up but that now that I mentioned it, he realized that a great number of his patients had this issue.

My guess is, there's still so much we don't know about PD, the brain, and resulting issues like this (hearing loss, migraines, etc.) that we may never get the answers we seek. So frustrating...

And as a side note, I threw vanity out the window years ago. I wear hearing aids, they suck, but at least I can hear most things now.

This is very interesting. I have not had total hearing loss, however my ears ring, buzzy and sometimes I lose hearing in one or the other ear. But only for a few minutes.

Now migraines is a different issue. I have struggled with migraines for sometime now as well as daily headaches that just kind of sit in the back of my head. I have been able to get them under control with the help of a migraine specialist. He put me on an old blood pressure medicine and a supplement called Migra-Eaze. It has B-2 and Butterburr root in it. It has worked wonders for me. I have seizures due to my migraines, but when the migraines are under control, so are my seizures.

I haven't been dx with PD, but suspect that I have it. You can look at my other post to get the jist of what is happening to me.

If any of you have any thoughts/ideas/suggestions, I would appreciate you letting me know.

Thank you in advance.

Missy

how different we are. I hear very well, in fact almost as well as a dog.. I think Todd gets to the point that hearing is more of a "mechanical" process, and the auditory nerves are not involved in the cell losses seen in PD.
There is a well known theory that cells in the olfactory bulb are "highjacked into producing dopamine", and that this contributes to the fact that a lot of PWP lose their ability to smell things as intensely as they used to, But i've never heard of hearing loss a being a common "marker" for "parkinsonism".

thanks ol'cs, I was getting the impression I was wrong when everyone mentioned other types of hearing loss.

Mine must be a relic from that Aerosmith concert back in '79.