Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/health-wellness
As Pune activist Vidyanand Bapat and citizen groups argue that the
freedom to celebrate must coexist with other citizens’ right to sleep, work,
study and receive medical care without extreme noise during the Ganesh
festival, a top cardiac surgeon has raised concerns about the potential
cardiovascular effects of excessive festival noise.
Extremely loud sounds from amplified music, loudspeakers, drums
and fireworks can act as a physiological stressor, particularly for older
adults and people with hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart failure or
cardiac rhythm disorders, Pune-based
cardiac surgeon Dr Vijay Natarajan told The Indian Express.
“The problem is not only damage to hearing. Sudden, intense noise
acts as a physiological stressor. It can activate the sympathetic nervous
system and stress hormones, producing a temporary increase in blood pressure,
heart rate and cardiac workload,” Dr Natarajan said.
Sleep disruption can further increase sympathetic activity and
blood pressure, he said. In susceptible individuals, intense or prolonged noise
may also trigger or worsen cardiac rhythm disturbances. “With repeated or
prolonged exposure, associations have been reported with hypertension, coronary/ischaemic
heart disease and stroke,” Dr Natarajan said.
For people who are already unwell—particularly those with heart
disease, high blood pressure or other cardiovascular conditions—an intense
noise episode can trigger the body’s stress response.
A sudden, very loud sound can cause a startle response, followed
by the release of stress hormones such as adrenaline. This can temporarily
increase heart rate and blood pressure and raise the heart’s demand for oxygen.
For a person with significant coronary artery disease, this
additional physiological stress could potentially contribute to angina or other
acute cardiovascular symptoms, Dr Natarajan said.
Older adults may be particularly vulnerable because they are more
likely to have underlying hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart failure
or cardiac rhythm disorders. However, the concern is not limited to senior
citizens. People with existing cardiovascular disease, those recovering from an
acute illness and individuals whose sleep is easily disrupted may also be more
affected by excessive noise.
Sudden bursts of noise can be particularly
disruptive
Festival noise differs from ordinary environmental noise because
it can involve very loud and unpredictable bursts rather than a relatively
steady background sound. When such episodes occur repeatedly, particularly at
night, they can also disrupt sleep.
Repeated awakenings can increase sympathetic activity and
interfere with the normal reduction in blood pressure that occurs during sleep.
Evidence on environmental noise has increasingly linked chronic noise exposure
and sleep disturbance with cardiovascular and metabolic effects.
Who should take extra care?
Extra caution may be warranted for people with poorly controlled
hypertension, previous heart attack, significant coronary artery disease,
angina, heart failure, irregular heartbeats or arrhythmias. People who have
recently undergone cardiac surgery or experienced an acute cardiac illness,
those with a previous stroke, frail elderly individuals and people with
significant sleep disorders may also benefit from limiting exposure to
excessive noise.
Celebrate, but reduce excessive sound
Doctors said useful measures include avoiding prolonged exposure
to extremely loud sound, keeping loudspeakers away from residential areas and
hospitals, avoiding unnecessarily high amplification and ensuring quiet
periods, particularly at night.
Elderly people and those with significant cardiac disease may also
benefit from staying indoors, in a quieter environment, during periods when
festival noise is at its peak.
The broader concern,
doctors said, is not the celebration itself but the intensity, unpredictability
and duration of noise.
