Noise as a reason for heart attack

Mumbai, a city that never sleeps and is also the noisiest in the country is a reason for heart disease–or even triggering heart attack–among patients.

Bandra-based cardiologist Dr Brian Pinto says one should suspect pollution when a seemingly healthy colleague with no cholesterol problem or a family risk of heart disease collapses.

‘Noise pollution works just like nano-sized air pollutants do: They stimulate the brain to secrete hormones that create a vasospasm (sudden constriction of a blood vessel, reducing its diameter and flow rate) and eventually leads to atherosclerosis,’ said Dr Pinto.

Last week, a German study underlined for the first time what many physicians like Dr Pinto have feared: Exposure to road and rail traffic-related noise pollution not only leads to onset of heart disease, but could trigger a heart attack.

‘Our case-control study allows, for the first time, direct comparison of MI (myocardial infarction) risk estimates for aircraft and road and rail traffic noises on the basis of a very large data set from health insurers,’ said the study published in medical journal, Deutsches Arzteblatt International. Its authors added that the heart attack-noise trigger was more pronounced for road and rail traffic noise than for aircraft noise.

‘Noise pollution is certainly causing more deaths from heart attacks than previously thought,’ said senior cardiac surgeon Dr Ramakanta Panda from Asia Heart Hospital, Bandra. European studies have shown that 2% of the population suffers from disturbed sleep and 15% suffer from severe annoyance from noise pollution.

‘If we extrapolate the data to Indian context, where the noise pollution level is far higher, the incidence will be much higher. Studies have indicated that the adverse impact (especially, fatal heart attack ) of noise pollution is even higher in people who are sensitive to noise,’ Dr Panda added.

‘If studies are done in India, say comparing reasons for a heart attack between people living in noisy cities versus those in serene environment in villages, we will see that noise pollution certainly has a role,” added Dr Pinto.