You don't want to live in any large city of Madagascar then, honking is the polite way to notify pedestrians in the street that your car is coming thru. Sidewalks are taken up by street vendors, so the only place to walk is in the street.
Neurologists warn this everyday noise could be aging your brain
Those traffic honks might be doing more than testing your patience.
Key Points
- Chronic exposure to environmental noise has been linked to increased risk of cognitive decline.
- A neurologist explains how traffic noise may age your brain.
- Wearing ear protection and spending time outside may help protect your brain.
Hearing loss is associated with changes in brain health, with even slight hearing loss increasing the risk of brain-volume loss and dementia. But it’s not just factory workers and rock concert lovers who may be at risk. While short bursts of intensely loud sound can damage hearing, long-term exposure to everyday noise, like traffic, may also affect hearing and expose the brain to chronic stress.
“Whether it comes from busy roads, highways, airports or constant urban activity, chronic exposure to environmental noise has now been linked to accelerated brain aging and an increased risk of cognitive decline,” says David Perlmutter, M.D.
Keep reading to learn how traffic noise may affect your brain, how to protect it, and strategies to support a healthy brain now and as you age.
How Traffic Noise Could Be Aging Your Brain
It Increases Stress Levels
Living or working in a high-traffic area means your body may be exposed to a near-constant source of stress. “Persistent noise elevates stress hormones like cortisol, promotes inflammation and can contribute to the chronic activation of microglia,” says Perlmutter. While high-level noises, like an airplane taking off or a car horn honking, can trigger the stress response directly, even lower levels of noise can indirectly create stress in the body through annoyance or disruptions to communication, daily tasks or sleep.
It Can Cause Hearing Loss over Time
While excessively loud noises like jackhammers and explosions can cause significant damage to your hearing in a short amount of time, repeated exposure to moderately loud noises, including traffic, may also damage the microscopic hair cells in your inner ear. These cells help convert sound vibrations into signals your brain interprets as sound.
People regularly exposed to higher levels of road traffic noise have been found to have more hearing damage than those exposed to lower levels. And the effects of that hearing loss go beyond asking people to repeat themselves. Recent research links hearing loss from noise exposure to earlier dips in memory and thinking skills. This acceleration of brain aging is likely due, in part, to the increased strain on your brain as it works to make sense of the sound inputs around you.
It Disrupts Your Sleep
Getting enough quality sleep is essential for brain health, and chronic sleep disruption is a known risk factor for dementia. If you live near high-traffic areas, you may not even notice the noise disrupting your sleep, but its impact can still result in brain aging, as it fragments deep restorative sleep.
“This is especially concerning because deep sleep is when the brain clears metabolic waste through the glymphatic system (the waste clearance pathway in the brain), consolidates memories and resets immune function,” says Perlmutter.
It’s not just the noise you hear at night that disrupts your sleep, either. Research suggests that for every 10-decibel increase in sound levels over a 24-hour period, poor sleep quality increases and sleep duration decreases. While one night of poor sleep won’t lead to brain aging, these sleep disruptions night after night add up. “Chronic sleep disruption has consistently been associated with poorer cognition and a higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia,” says Perlmutter.
It’s Linked to Poor Cardiovascular Health
Aside from the direct impact traffic noise can have on your brain health, it indirectly affects your cardiovascular system, which supplies the brain with oxygen and nutrients and helps remove waste. “Long-term exposure to traffic noise has been linked to higher blood pressure, insulin resistance and vascular dysfunction,” says Perlmutter. These effects are most likely related to an increase in oxidative stress markers that influence blood vessel function and inflammation in the body. “Since the brain depends on healthy blood vessels and efficient energy metabolism, these downstream effects can further increase the risk of cognitive decline,” says Perlmutter.
The World Health Organization recognizes 53 decibels over a 24-hour period as the upper limit to avoid health risks. However, recent research suggests that some cardiovascular and metabolic risks may begin to increase at even lower levels, around 45 decibels over 24 hours. To put this in perspective, regular traffic noise falls between 12.8 and 88.3 decibels, from rural country roads to high-traffic city streets.
Ways to Protect Your Brain Health from Noisy Traffic
Unless you’re able and willing to pack up and move to the middle of rural America, escaping traffic noise may not be possible. To help protect your ears and your brain from daily and nightly traffic noise, experts recommend these strategies.
- Wear ear protection. While it may not be safe to wear noise-canceling headphones while walking near traffic or driving, you may want to consider them if you’re a passenger, working or living near loud traffic noises.
- Turn on a noise machine. While white noise machines are often used to help people fall and stay asleep, researchers have found that pink noise may be specifically beneficial for reducing the impact traffic noise has on the brain.
- Spend time in green spaces. If you live or work in a high-traffic area, getting out in nature as often as you can is a way to help offset some of the negative effects. “Even brief exposure to green spaces has been shown to reduce stress,” says Perlmutter. Research has found that even just 10 minutes in nature can improve mental health and potentially reduce stress biomarkers.
Other Strategies to Support Brain Health
“While we can’t eliminate every source of environmental noise, we can significantly strengthen the brain’s ability to withstand its effects,” says Perlmutter. Here are some proven strategies to support your brain’s health and help protect it against chronic stress.
- Maintain social connections. Regular social connection is linked to improved memory, attention and language skills, while loneliness and isolation are risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia. Even small routine interactions with people you love or groups you feel connected with can help.
- Eat a nutrient-rich diet. A diet rich in fruit, vegetables, whole grains, fatty fish, nuts, olive oil and fermented foods helps your brain counteract the negative effects of oxidative stressors, like noise and other pollutants.
- Engage in regular physical activity. Regular physical activity helps regulate glucose levels, improves oxygen and nutrient flow to your brain, supports the growth of new neurons and eases stress., In fact, research suggests that regular exercise may even reduce brain age.
- Prioritize restorative sleep. Deep, uninterrupted sleep is when your brain does its most important maintenance tasks, including clearing waste, consolidating memories and resetting its stress response systems. Simple, but effective interventions including blackout curtains, a cool room and a consistent bedtime can help make your sleep as restorative as possible.
Our Expert Take
While traffic noise may appear to be just a daily annoyance, over time it can speed up how fast your brain ages. Traffic noise can damage hearing, elevate stress hormones, disrupt your sleep and strain your cardiovascular system, impairing nutrient and oxygen flow to your brain. While it may feel impossible to avoid noisy streets or subways if you live in an urban area, taking steps to protect your hearing and reduce your stress can help minimize its impact. Everyday habits, including quality sleep, eating a nutrient-rich diet, getting regular physical activity and maintaining meaningful social connections, can help protect your brain from traffic noise and other everyday stressors.
Read the original article on EatingWell
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