Life Desk :
In a city that never sleeps and has emerged as the noisiest in the country, doctors seem to be veering towards a worrisome conclusion: Pollution, be it air or noise, could be worsening heart disease-or even triggering heart attack-among patients.
Bandra-based cardiologist Dr Brian Pinto says one should suspect pollution when a seemingly healthy colleague with no cholesterol problem or a family risk of heart disease collapses.
“Noise pollution works just like nano-sized air pollutants do: They stimulate the brain to secrete hormones that create a vasospasm (sudden constriction of a blood vessel, reducing its diameter and flow rate) and eventually leads to atherosclerosis,” said Dr
Last week, a German study underlined for the first time what many physicians like Dr Pinto have feared: Exposure to road and rail traffic-related noise pollution not only leads to onset of heart disease, but could trigger a heart attack.
“Our case-control study allows, for the first time, direct comparison of MI (myocardial infarction) risk estimates for aircraft and road and rail traffic noises on the basis of a very large data set from health insurers,” said the study published in medical journal, Deutsches Arzteblatt International. Its authors added that the heart attack-noise trigger was more pronounced for road and rail traffic noise than for aircraft noise.
Latest Comment
As I sit and read this article I can hear loudspeakers blasting not too far away – probably some festival being celebrated… everyday religious places around have their prayers on loudspeakers for p… Read MoreRajkarn Kaur Anand
“Noise pollution is certainly causing more deaths from heart attacks than previously thought,” said senior cardiac surgeon Dr Ramakanta Panda from Asia Heart Hospital, Bandra. European studies have shown that 2% of the population suffers from disturbed sleep and 15% suffer from severe annoyance from noise pollution.
“If we extrapolate the data to Indian context, where the noise pollution level is far higher, the incidence will be much higher. Studies have indicated that the adverse impact (especially, fatal heart attack) of noise pollution is even higher in people who are sensitive to noise,” Dr Panda added.
A previous study done for the World Health Organisation’s European branch extrapolated that long-term exposure to traffic noise could account for approximately 3% of cardiovascular heart disease deaths (or about 2 lakh deaths) in Europe each year. A recent Danish study said that for every 10 decibel increase in the volume of road traffic noise there was a 12% increase in the risk WHO estimates that in the western part of Europe, at least one million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) are lost due to diseases induced by traffic noise (DALYs is a term coined by statisticians to indicate the number of life years lost due to premature death and years spent with a disease-related disability).
“If studies are done in India, say comparing reasons for a heart attack between people living in noisy cities versus those in serene environment in villages, we will see that noise pollution certainly has a role,” added Dr Pinto.
-From Web
In a city that never sleeps and has emerged as the noisiest in the country, doctors seem to be veering towards a worrisome conclusion: Pollution, be it air or noise, could be worsening heart disease-or even triggering heart attack-among patients.
Bandra-based cardiologist Dr Brian Pinto says one should suspect pollution when a seemingly healthy colleague with no cholesterol problem or a family risk of heart disease collapses.
“Noise pollution works just like nano-sized air pollutants do: They stimulate the brain to secrete hormones that create a vasospasm (sudden constriction of a blood vessel, reducing its diameter and flow rate) and eventually leads to atherosclerosis,” said Dr
Last week, a German study underlined for the first time what many physicians like Dr Pinto have feared: Exposure to road and rail traffic-related noise pollution not only leads to onset of heart disease, but could trigger a heart attack.
“Our case-control study allows, for the first time, direct comparison of MI (myocardial infarction) risk estimates for aircraft and road and rail traffic noises on the basis of a very large data set from health insurers,” said the study published in medical journal, Deutsches Arzteblatt International. Its authors added that the heart attack-noise trigger was more pronounced for road and rail traffic noise than for aircraft noise.
Latest Comment
As I sit and read this article I can hear loudspeakers blasting not too far away – probably some festival being celebrated… everyday religious places around have their prayers on loudspeakers for p… Read MoreRajkarn Kaur Anand
“Noise pollution is certainly causing more deaths from heart attacks than previously thought,” said senior cardiac surgeon Dr Ramakanta Panda from Asia Heart Hospital, Bandra. European studies have shown that 2% of the population suffers from disturbed sleep and 15% suffer from severe annoyance from noise pollution.
“If we extrapolate the data to Indian context, where the noise pollution level is far higher, the incidence will be much higher. Studies have indicated that the adverse impact (especially, fatal heart attack) of noise pollution is even higher in people who are sensitive to noise,” Dr Panda added.
A previous study done for the World Health Organisation’s European branch extrapolated that long-term exposure to traffic noise could account for approximately 3% of cardiovascular heart disease deaths (or about 2 lakh deaths) in Europe each year. A recent Danish study said that for every 10 decibel increase in the volume of road traffic noise there was a 12% increase in the risk WHO estimates that in the western part of Europe, at least one million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) are lost due to diseases induced by traffic noise (DALYs is a term coined by statisticians to indicate the number of life years lost due to premature death and years spent with a disease-related disability).
“If studies are done in India, say comparing reasons for a heart attack between people living in noisy cities versus those in serene environment in villages, we will see that noise pollution certainly has a role,” added Dr Pinto.
-From Web
