How noise can make you FAT

No wonder we’re all obsessed with finding peace and quiet. Here’s how...

WhaT is your idea of luxury? a deserted beach? a private jet? a moment to yourself?

The one thing that unites them all is that they shield you from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Because in today’s world, where fridges and washing machines beep, traffic roars, cars talk, rail announcements seem endless and phones demand attention, the ultimate luxury is silence.

Quiet — and our obsession with it — is so of the moment that it’s the subject of a new film, In Pursuit Of Silence, which explores our relationship with peace and the impact of noise on our lives.

It appears that noise is more than irritating, it’s actually affecting our health.

according to the World health Organisation, noise pollution is one of the most pressing threats to public health, second only to air pollution, and responsible for a range of conditions from stress and sleep problems to heart disease and strokes — it can even make us fat.

This might explain the rise in the popularity of silent events, from silent dating evenings that encourage people to flirt non-verbally and silent dinner parties to encourage mindful eating, to silent book clubs where people read in companionable peace and silent spas, to underline the tranquillity.

Britain’s leading noise expert Professor Stephen Stansfeld of Queen Mary University, london, has been researching the harmful effects of noise on our health for 30 years.

‘There’s been a move towards valuing quiet,’ he says. ‘There’s been a big push to make domestic appliances quieter.’

John lewis seems to agree. The store sells 200 products awarded the Quiet Mark, and sales have shot up by 78 per cent since they began stocking them in 2014.

‘It feels as if there’s a quiet revolution going on,’ says Poppy Szkiler, founder of Quiet Mark.

‘There’s a real backlash against the onslaught of sounds. We’re all craving more silence.’

here we look at how noise effects our health and how to combat it.

STRESS LEVELS SOAR

The body is designed to respond to noise, which signalled potential danger to our ancestors and got them ready to flee or fight.

First, our bodies produce the ‘alert chemical’ dopamine.

‘Then we produce the stress hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline, which allow us to fight or flee,’ says physiologist Dr nerina Ramlakhan.

‘If the noise continues, the body starts producing cortisol, the stress hormone that has a powerful negative effect on health.’

high cortisol levels are linked to irritable bowel disease, sleep problems, headaches, infertility — and rises in blood pressure because you are in a state of constant alert.

STROKE RISK RISES

‘When we are exposed to noise over the long term, blood pressure rises,’ says Professor Stansfeld. high blood pressure (hypertension) is a big risk factor for heart disease and stroke.

Studies have shown that living near an airport or busy road makes you more likely to suffer stroke and heart disease, and to die early.

Research over 20 years shows the risk increases by between 7 and 17 per cent per each ten- decibel increase. The World health Organisation says long-term exposure to sounds over 55 decibels (dB) can trigger high blood pressure and heart attacks.

That’s as loud as a conversation or medium traffic (55-60 dB) and less than a vacuum cleaner (75 dB).

SAPS PRODUCTIVITY

RESEARCHERS in the U.S. have found that even ‘mild’ office noise, including conversations, can produce stress.

a study at cornell University among women in an open-plan office showed their levels of the stress hormone adrenaline were higher than a control group in a quieter location.

The women in the noisier office also gave up sooner when asked to complete a series of unsolvable puzzles, indicating motivation had been sapped, said researchers.

MESSES UP MEMORY

AT LEAST 20 studies have found children growing up with aircraft or traffic noise are significantly behind their peers with reading, language skills and memory, says Professor Stansfeld.

his work shows that a child’s reading age was delayed by up to two months for each five-decibel increase in aircraft noise.

It’s been proved that too much cortisol in the body stops the prefrontal cortex — the brain’s planning centre — from working properly, which makes it harder to think and remember information.

Research on mice showed it was only when the animals spent two hours a day in silence that new brain cells were produced in the hippocampus, which controls memory and learning.

PILES ON POUNDS

EVERY five- decibel increase in noise above 45 decibels (the level of low traffic) corresponds to an extra 2mm on our waists, according to a Swedish study last year. It also found living under a flightpath doubled the risk of obesity.