how noise pollution can effect my health sound pollution and health effects Noise can increase blood pressure even when people are sleeping

  

 

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	How Noise Affects Your Health Of all the factors that affect our health and fitness, noise and its impact on our well being is,...

Of all the factors that affect our health and fitness, noise and its impact on our well being is, perhaps, the toughest for us to control. In fact, we don't really pay any heed to noise and its affects on our health. However, noise can seriously impact our health in many ways. And since we live in cities where noise has reached new heights altogether, its only going to get worse. Here's looking at how noise affects our health and whether we should be worried or not.

Noise can have a serious impact on your overall health and it’s not just your ears that are affected. Noise can cause stress and can also put you at risk of heart attacks. A recent article by the New York Times says that noise appears responsible for 1.8% of heart attacks in Western Europe and 2.7% in densely populated Germany.

Noise can increase blood pressure even when people are sleeping. Aircraft noise, a partner snoring, an extremely noisy neighbourhood, are all contributors to various hypertension related diseases. Apart from a direct impact on our health, researchers have found that noise can also affect us mentally and affect our cognitive functioning as well.  Research shows that people fare worse when it comes to performing complex tasks, if exposed to high levels of air traffic or road traffic noise. Children who come from chaotic and noisy households also have trouble when it comes to reading comprehension and long term memory.

What can you do about noise pollution? You may stop the honking, but what about everyone else around you? No matter what the arguement though, it begins with you...

1) Always remember that noise pollution starts with you - When at home, try keeping things serene: soft music, low voices, don’t keep the tv on at blaring volume, don’t disturb your neighbours if you have a party going on. Try and keep noise levels at reasonable levels.

2) Minimise noise form other sources – Turn of the tv, radio, or other appliances when not in use. Don’t keep noisy appliances near the areas where you sleep. Try adding materials to your home that will insulate your house from noise, for example – carpets absorb noise, solid doors, and double paned windows.

4) Deal with stress – Sometimes in spite of your best efforts, you may live on a busy junction or near an airport and there is nothing you can do about the noise that creeps into your home. So it is important to deal with it like you would deal with stress. Be positive, try and find peace within yourself through meditation, and lead a healthy lifestyle through proper nutrition and exercise.  Getting everything else right may put you in the right frame of mind to deal with stress caused by excessive noise.

5) Calming sounds – Flowing water, birds chirping, nature cds that have all kinds of natural sounds really have a positive effect and negate the effect of jarring noises outside. You could try investing in noise cancelling headphones or a white noise machine if the noise is really driving you insane.

Now that you know how noise may be hampering your health, we hope that you don’t ignore it anymore. Ask yourself if you really care for all that background noise from some random news channel 24/7. Chances are, you won't miss it once the television is finally off, and your days will be a lot more peaceful and noise-free.