Losing your hearing is one of those things that you expect will come with advanced age. But the fact is that hearing loss has multiple causes, and some of them can happen to anyone at any age.
When you’re born with limited or no hearing, or you lose your ability to hear while you’re young, chances are strong that there’s a genetic issue at play. More than half of infant hearing conditions are due to genes, although they can also stem from outside causes like the mother’s health during pregnancy or the baby’s health complications after birth. In rare situations, medications can cause hearing loss if the person taking them has a specific gene mutation.
The good news is that innovations in hearing aids can help those with mild to moderate (and sometimes severe) hearing loss. Still, it’s not something anyone wants to live with. When you are dealing with this problem with yourself or a loved one, you want to know why it happened, and getting to the root of the problem often involves studying your genes.
Why are genetics so instrumental in our hearing or lack thereof? Here, we’ll discuss the role genetics play in a person’s ability to hear normally.
Understanding Genes and Your Body
Most of us have heard of genes, and we know they’re why certain people have physical characteristics like brown versus blue eyes or dark versus light hair. But beyond the visible traits are the internal makeup of our bodies, and that’s where genetics truly shines as unique.
Genes are considered to be your parents’ inheritance to you. Although your mother and father don’t get to choose what traits they pass on, everything that makes you the physical and biological creation you are, including certain mental behaviors that stem from the brain, is linked to your genes.
Each gene in your body (and you have about 20-25 thousand) gives a set of instructions to your body that tells it how to develop. One set of genes determines your eye color, another handles your body shape, and still another set controls your hearing. When a mutation in one of those genes doesn’t work as it is supposed to, a mutation occurs.
Mutations in Hearing
An occasional mutation can happen during a baby’s development if a gene is disrupted due to outside factors. However, mutations in a gene can be familial, which means it runs in the family. If your family has more than one person in it who suffers from hearing loss, your child’s (or your) hearing troubles are likely familial.
Genetic mutations that cause hearing trouble usually don’t have any other symptoms. If your child has hearing loss, they may develop perfectly normal in every other way, and you don’t notice they can’t hear until they get older and you begin to spot red flags.
The GJB2 gene is one of the dominant genes that instruct connexin 26, a protein that controls much of the functioning of the cochlea. This part of the ear turns sounds from the air into nerve signals that are sent to the brain. Nearly 40% of newborns who have no syndrome have a GJB2 mutation.
In about 30% of situations, there are symptoms that go alongside genetic hearing loss. The person with the mutation may also be blind or have a genetic disease.
Recognizing Genetics in Your Hearing Loss
Hearing loss in children is often due to a genetic condition, either familial or a one-off mutation. But as you get older, you can predict whether you’ll have early onset hearing loss by watching your parents, too. If your family often struggles with hearing, be sure to get hearing checks frequently and find out if a hearing aid may be right for you.
