The sound is detected by the ear and transmitted to the brain, in which the Amigdala region performs the emotional evaluation. If it is uncomfortable, the heart rate increases, the nervous system comes into play and free stress hormones. The BBC journalist went to investigate this “killer” around us.
We are surrounded by an invisible killer. So trivial that we barely make ourselves shortening our lives.
He is causing heart attacks, type 2 diabetes and now studies also associate him with dementia.
What do you think it can be?
The answer is the noise – and its impact on the human body goes well beyond the compromise of the hearing.
“It is a public health crisis, since we have a large number of people on their daily life”, warns Charlotte Clark, professor at St. George de London University in the United Kingdom.
It is a crisis that we are not talking about.
Therefore, I decided to investigate when the noise becomes dangerous, speaking with people whose health is damaged and checking if there is a way to solve our noisy world.
I started the Clark investigative meeting in a frighteningly silent sound workshop. To see how my body reacts to noise, I had a device that looks like a Smartwatch (smart watch) robust.
It will measure my heart rate and how much my leather will exudate.
You can also participate if you have headphones. Think about how these five sounds make you feel.
What I find really annoying is the noise of Dhaka’s trafficking, the capital of Bangladesh, which has the most noisy city title in the world. Immediately I feel like I was in a huge and stressful traffic jam.
And the sensors are capturing my agitation: my heart rate triggers and my skin will exudate more.
“There is very strong evidence that the noise of traffic affects the health of the heart,” says Clark, while the next sound is prepared.
Only the joyful sounds of the playground have a relaxing effect on my body. The dog’s bark and the party at the house of the neighbor at dawn cause a negative reaction.
But why does the sound that affects my body?
“You have an emotional response to sound,” says Clark.
The sound is detected by the ear and transmitted to the brain, where a region – the amygdala – performs the emotional evaluation.
This is part of the response of “struggle or escape” from the body that has evolved to help us react quickly to the sounds, such as the sound of a predator that advances in shrubs.
“So the heart rate increases, the nervous system begins to act and releases stress hormones,” explains Clark.
All this is useful in case of emergency, but over time it begins to cause damage.
“If you are exposed for several years and your body reacts in this way, it always increases the risk of developing things such as heart attacks, hypertension, strokes and type 2 diabetes,” says Clark.
It is curious that this happens even when we sleep deeply. You may find it adapting to noise. This is what I thought when I lived near an airport. But biology tells a different story.
“You never turn off your ears; when you sleep, continue to listen. Therefore, these answers, like the increase in heart rate, are happening while sleeping,” he adds.
Noise is an unwanted sound. The means of transport – car traffic, trains and airplanes – are one of the main sources, but also the sounds generated when we have fun. A party stops for one person can be an unbearable noise for another.
I found coconut in his apartment on the fourth floor of a building in the charming village of Grà cia, Barcelona, ​​Spain.
There is a lemon bag just taken linked to your door, a gift from a neighbor; Your refrigerator contains a tortilla prepared by another; And it offers me sophisticated cakes made by a third neighbor, who is studying the pastry shop.
From the balcony, you can see the famous basilica of the city, the Sacred Family. It is easy to understand why Coco fell in love with living here, but he has a very high price – and he thinks he will be forced to move.
“It’s extremely noisy … it’s noise 24 hours a day,” he tells me.
There is a park for dogs, for the owners who walk with their dogs, who “bark at 2h, 3h, 4h, 5 in the morning”. And the courtyard is a public space used for everything, from birthday parties for children to all shows -days and end with fireworks.
He takes the cell phone and reproduces the recordings of the song that is reproduced so strong that he vibrates the windows of the windows.
Your home should be a refuge against work stress, but the noise “brings frustration, makes you want to cry”.
It has been “hospitalized in the hospital twice with thoracic pain” – and “undoubtedly” that the noise is causing the stress that is damaging your health. “There is a physical change that I feel, it certainly does something with my body,” he says.
In Barcelona, ​​it is estimated that 300 heart attacks and 30 deaths per year are estimated only following the noise of traffic, according to the researcher Maria Fraster, who analyzed noise tests for the World Health Organization (WHO).
Throughout Europe, the noise is associated with 12,000 premature deaths per year, as well as millions of serious cases of sleep -induced sleep disturbance, which can affect mental health.
I met Foraraster in a coffee that is separated from one of the busiest roads in Barcelona by a small park. My sound meter says that the distant traffic of traffic is just over 60 decibels.
We can easily speak without raising the voice, but this is already a volume harmful to health.
The crucial volume for heart health is 53 decibels, it tells me and the greater the health risks.
“These 53 decibels mean that we must find ourselves in a very silent environment,” says Forass.
And this is only during the day as we need even lower levels to sleep. “At night we need silence,” he says.
Although it is not only the volume, the degree of disorder of sound and control over it influences our emotional response to noise.
Foraraster claims that the impact of health noise is “at the same level as air pollution”, but it is much more difficult to understand.
“We are used to understanding that chemicals can influence health and that they are toxic, but it is not so easy to understand that a physical factor, like noise, affects our health beyond hearing,” he says.
A lively party can be considered pure fun and an intolerable noise for someone else.
The sound of traffic has the greatest impact on health because many people are exposed to it. But traffic is also the sound to go to work, shop and bring children to school. Fighting noise means asking people to live their lives differently, which generates problems alone.
Natalie Mueller, of the institute for Global Health in Barcelona, ​​takes me to take a walk through the city center. We started in a busy road – my counter scores more than 80 decibels – and we went to a quiet and wooded street, where the noise falls on the 50 decibel.
But there is something different in this path: it was an intense way, but the space was given to pedestrians, coffee and gardens. I see the ghost of an ancient flower -shaped cross. Vehicles can still pass here, but slowly.
Remember that we discover in the laboratory that some sounds can calm the body.
“It is not completely silent, but it is a different perception of sound and noise,” says Mueller.
The initial plan was to create more than 500 areas like this, called “Superfradas” – areas focused on the pedestrians created by grouping different blocks in the city.
Mueller performed a Survey on Superquadras Designing a 5% reduction to 10% of noise in the city, which would avoid about “150 premature deaths” only due to noise every year. And this would be “only the tip of the iceberg” of health benefits.
But in reality only six Superquadra were built. The municipal council refused to comment.
Urbanization
The dangers of noise, however, continue to grow. Urbanization is putting more people in noisy cities.
Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is one of the most rapid growth in the world. This has generated more traffic, giving the city a cacophonic soundtrack of horns.
The artist Momina Raman Royal won the label of “Lone Hero” while his silent protests attracted attention to the problem of noise in the city.
For about 10 minutes every day, it is located at the intersection of two roads moved with a large yellow poster that accuses drivers who play aloud to cause enormous discomfort.
He took the mission after the birth of his daughter. “I want to put an end to all the horns not only of Dhaka, but of Bangladesh,” he says.
“If you look birds, trees or rivers, nobody makes noise without humans, then humans are responsible.”
But here is also the beginning of political action. Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Environmental Consultant and Minister of Government of Bangladesh, said he was “very worried” for the impacts of health noise.
There is a repression of the horns to reduce noise levels – through a awareness campaign and a more rigorous application of existing laws.
“It is impossible to do it in a year or two, but I think it is possible to guarantee that the city becomes less noisy, and when people will feel it, they will feel better, when the city is less noisy, I am sure that your habits will change,” he said.
Noise solutions can be difficult, complicated and stimulating.
We must evaluate when we find some space in our life to simply escape noise, because in the words of Masrur Abdul Quader of the University of the Bangladesh, it is “a silent killer and a slow poison”.
BBC Lred’s podcast was produced by Gerry Holt. Additional report by Salman Saeed in Bangladesh
Source: Terra
Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.
