Our overall health depends on the wellbeing of every part and organ of our body. You can’t anyway call yourself fit or healthy if you are facing problems in any part of your body. So, in order to maintain a healthy life, you must take care of all parts of your body equally, which include all the sensory organs in your body; in fact, they are the most important things that you must take care of. Since your auditory organs are one of the most important parts of that, you need to be very careful about your auditory health. You might even need to use hearing aids due to the damage caused by loud noise.
You should know that our whole auditory system is very delicate, and even very minor inconveniences can take a huge toll on your auditory health. You can’t keep your auditory system healthy by only maintaining physical well-being; you’ll also have to be cautious about what’s around you. The environment is a very important factor regarding auditory health.
Even though our overall health also depends on the environment, no other part of the body relies on surroundings this much. So, you must be really cautious about what’s around you and how it can affect your auditory health. Even a very minor inconvenience can cost you dearly regarding your auditory system, as your ears, auditory nerves, and all the other parts of the system are very fragile and vulnerable.
With the evolution of the civilization process, our surroundings have become quite unsafe for our health. Apart from different physical health risks, our auditory health also remains in constant danger due to numerous loud noises that keep occurring around us. And due to industrialization, sound pollution has become a constant thing. The number of people who struggle with hearing loss because of loud noise has increased through the years and as a result, the popularity of hearing aids that are rechargeable has also gone up. Apart from the loud noises derived from different industries, there are many other instances of loud noises around us such as noises of loud music, transports, fireworks, etc. We are surrounded by many types of hoarse sounds, and they are affecting our hearing health really badly. Here we’ll see how badly loud noises can affect us.
Loud Noise and Hearing Health
We use our ears to hear anything, as it is our prime sensory organ that is sensitive to sound. However, due to their fragile structure, our ears have a limit of how much loud sound it can take. If our ears get exposed to a really high intensity of sound for a significant amount of time, the internal network of the auditory system can get severely damaged. If the network gets damaged, various problems get created due to the lack of connectivity between all the parts. And this negative impact can cause severe health and mental problems. According to the World Health Organisation, regular and repeated exposure to sounds that exceed 50 decibels can cause severe damage to the ear, as well as the whole auditory system, and might cause you hearing loss problems. And it is really alarming that today’s average noise level that a person is exposed to on a daily basis is 98 decibels that is much higher than the safety level.
What Causes Noise Pollution?
Loud noises can derive from many sources, there is no specific list. Even a human scream can be considered a loud noise. But if we want to talk about things that can cause constant loud noise around us and be the reason for our ear damage, different motor vehicles, Industrial coolers, loudspeakers, everything constantly hums loud noise. Leaf blowers, snow plungers, construction equipment, etc. might initiate the loud noises. Even though different agricultural pieces of machinery have reduced the physical hardship of the farmers and made the production increase significantly, it has taken away the rural area’s peace and calm. So, nowhere is actually safe from the curse of sound pollution.
How Sound Pollution Affects Human Health
The adverse effects loud sounds can have on the human body are many. Loud sounds don’t only create discomfort to our bodies, they also cause some heavy damages to our health. Let’s briefly look into some of those effects.
Impacts Your Hearing
Well, of course, the very first blow loud sounds can cause you damage. It damages the eardrum and weakens other associated hearing organs. Hair cells lying in your cochlea can get damaged too. And all these can lead you to have noise-induced hearing loss. Prolonged and repeated exposure to loud sounds above 85 decibels promotes hearing loss conditions.
Due to hearing difficulties, one may struggle to hear different sounds, and conversations, and speeches. This impacts a person significantly during a conversation and during social gatherings, and this may push a person to isolate themselves from others. Loud noises have the capacity to have a serious effect on one’s physical health and mental health, too, as they can introduce severe depression in one’s life. If you live in an area with noise pollution, you should consider taking a hearing test.
Causes Brain Inflammation
The primary hearing cells transmit an electric signal to one’s brain, for which we get to hear sounds. And when these cells get exposed to harsh and loud noises, the brain receives harmful signals and gets the brain inflamed in the process.
Causes Bad Moods
When you are continuously exposed to loud noises, your mind becomes more prone to stuff like anxiety and irritability. As your physical triggers are often in use due to constant exposure to sound, you might tend to have a bad mood all day.
Weakens The Immune System
Exposure to loud noises can increase your stress level, and your body starts producing stress hormones. This hormone increases your blood pressure and blood sugar, which significantly decreases your body’s ability to defend itself from different diseases.
Lack of Concentration
Your brain tends to cancel background noises to concentrate on something. If your brain is exposed to constant noise, it loses the ability to pay the proper attention that it needs.
Causes Sleep Deprivation
If you want to have a good sleep, a calm environment is a primary requirement. And loud noise prevents an environment from being calm. The noise distracts the brain and prevents it from falling asleep. If you even manage to fall asleep, it’ll be of low quality. And bad quality sleep can trigger permanent health conditions. Furthermore, our brain stays awake even when we are in a deep sleep. And if a loud noise occurs during that time, it causes poor quality of sleep and might cause severe mood swings problems.
Final Words
You can see how severely you can get affected by loud noises. So, make sure that you are cautiously saving yourself by not being around too loud noises and avoiding certain places. Otherwise, you might face hearing loss problems and resort to different hearing loss solutions such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, etc.