Traffic Noise May Raise Your Blood Pressure

Are you bothered by traffic noise near your home or work? If so, that annoyance could be causing your blood pressure to rise.

I don’t hear much traffic noise near my home, but my rattling refrigerator is certainly annoying and sly. (It was so silent for the repair guy.)

A new study by Swedish researchers found that people exposed to noisy roads are more likely to suffer from hypertension, a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.

The study, published in Environmental Health, analyzed the link between living close to noisy roads and suffering from high blood pressure. Physical changes in response to noise exposure may include changes in blood pressure, heart rate and amounts of stress hormones.

Researchers found that exposure to noise above 60 decibels was linked with high blood pressure in the young and middle-aged. However, increases in noise didn’t affect blood pressure for older adults, ages 60 to 80. Researchers suggest that perhaps the noise just doesn’t annoy older adults or that the effect may be harder to detect because of other risk factors with increased age.

The 27,963 study participants lived in southern Sweden and completed health survey questionnaires. Around 30% of the people living in the European Union experience high levels of traffic noise.

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