Obesity Causes Hearing Loss In Adolescents, Study Says

As if obesity doesn't already cause enough health problems, now researchers are telling us that it may also cause hearing loss in adolescents. A study found that obese adolescents are more likely than adolescents with healthy weights to have hearing loss, according to Science Daily.

Obese adolescents in the study revealed increased sensorineural hearing loss across all frequencies. This type of hearing loss is caused by damage to the inner-hair calls. Obese adolescents were also almost twice as likely to have low-frequency hearing loss in one ear. Researchers found that 15.16 percent of obese adolescents compared to 7.89 percent experienced low-frequency hearing loss.

Normal hearing ranges from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. People with low-frequency hearing loss can't hear sounds in frequencies 2,000 Hz and below, but they may still hear sounds in higher frequencies.

So while they can often hear someone speaking in a quieter setting, they may have trouble hearing in groups and noisy places.