Environmental NOISE can cause you to have a STROKE – Researchers advise reducing impact as health intervention
By sdwells // 2025-09-03
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When most people think of pollution, they envision smoke billowing out of factories and trash on the side of the highway, but there’s another kind of pollution that drives major health crises and it enters through the ears. It can lead to a stroke and even death. A major Danish study has found that chronic exposure to traffic noise—independent of air pollution—significantly raises the risk of stroke. The research, conducted over four decades on 26,723 men aged 65 to 74, shows that a 14.9-decibel (dB) increase in road noise—comparable to living on a busy main road versus a quieter street—raises stroke risk by 12.4%.
  • Chronic traffic noise—not just pollution—increases stroke risk: A large Danish study found that long-term exposure to higher traffic noise raised stroke risk by 12.4%, even when air pollution levels were low.
  • Noise disrupts sleep and activates stress pathways: Continuous day-and-night traffic noise can trigger physiological stress responses and sleep disturbances, which are believed to contribute to stroke risk.
  • Public health and urban planning interventions are needed: Experts urge noise-reduction measures, including quieter road surfaces, rerouting heavy vehicles, lowering night-time speed limits, and better building insulation to protect residents.
  • Individuals can reduce personal exposure: Those living near busy roads, railways, or flight paths are advised to sleep in quieter rooms, seal windows and doors, and invest in high-performance glazing to limit noise-related health risks.

Live on a Noisy Road, Near a Railway or on the Flight Path? You're More Likely to Have a Stroke, Warn Experts

Noise from major roads, railways, and flight paths is particularly harmful. Unlike brief loud events, it’s the continuous day-evening-night exposure that disrupts sleep, activates stress pathways, and strains the cardiovascular system. Strikingly, the study found no significant association between stroke risk and long-term exposure to common pollutants such as fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, or sulfur dioxide—highlighting noise itself as an independent environmental threat. Lead author Dr. Stephan Mayntz from Odense University Hospital emphasized that noise must be considered a public health risk. Speaking at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Madrid, he urged both individuals and policymakers to act. People living near heavy traffic should sleep in quieter rooms, use high-performance window glazing, and seal windows and doors. Authorities, he advised, should lower night-time speed limits, reroute heavy vehicles away from residential areas, use noise-reducing asphalt, and implement traffic-calming measures. This research adds to growing evidence that strokes, one of the world’s leading causes of death and disability, often strike people without traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Up to half of strokes and heart attacks occur in individuals without smoking habits, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes—so-called “SMuRFs” (standard modifiable risk factors). The findings help explain why many “healthy” individuals still experience devastating cardiovascular events. Stroke remains a global health crisis. In the UK, around 100,000 people suffer a stroke each year—one every five minutes—resulting in 38,000 deaths and widespread disability. In the U.S., more than 795,000 people have a stroke annually, with 137,000 deaths. Of survivors, roughly three in four live with long-term impairments such as difficulty walking, communicating, eating, or managing daily tasks. Most strokes (80%) are ischemic, caused by a blockage in a blood vessel that cuts off blood flow to the brain. The remainder are hemorrhagic, resulting from a ruptured vessel that floods parts of the brain with blood while depriving others of oxygen. Risk factors include age, high blood pressure, smoking, obesity, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, sedentary lifestyle, family history, and prior transient ischemic attacks (“mini-strokes”). Symptoms are sudden and severe—weakness, numbness, confusion, vision loss, dizziness, or a sudden headache with no known cause. The Danish findings underscore that environmental factors, such as noise pollution, are powerful yet under-recognized contributors to stroke risk. Urban planning, transportation design, and household noise mitigation could significantly reduce the global stroke burden—saving lives and preventing lifelong disability. Tune your internet dial to NaturalMedicine.news for more tips on how to use natural remedies for preventative medicine and for healing, and for filtering out white noise, static, pollution and stress from your life so you can live holistically. Sources for this article include: NaturalNews.com DailyMail.co.uk      
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