In the hustle and bustle of modern life, noise has become an omnipresent, invisible killer, quietly eroding our health. From the physiological to the psychological, from the cognitive to the emotional, the pervasive impact of noise is gradually becoming apparent. This article will explore the harmful effects of long-term noise exposure on the human body from multiple perspectives, drawing on authoritative research from relevant publications to reveal the health truths behind noise.
01
The Comprehensive Impact of Noise on Human Physiological Health
"Environmental Protection in Industrial Enterprises" states that noise not only damages our hearing but also poses a serious threat to our overall physical health. First, long-term exposure to high noise levels may cause hearing loss and even noise-induced hearing loss. Furthermore, noise can affect our nervous system, triggering symptoms such as neurasthenia, headaches, brain swelling, and insomnia. The impact on the cardiovascular system is equally significant. Noise can cause abnormal heartbeats and blood pressure fluctuations, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Finally, noise interferes with our visual organs, causing problems such as decreased vision and changes in visual field. Over the long term, this can lead to significant visual impairment. Risks of noise-induced hearing loss: Long-term exposure to high noise levels can lead to organic damage to the auditory system, resulting in hearing loss or even noise-induced hearing loss. Hearing is a crucial way we perceive the world, and any impairment can severely impact our quality of life.
Nervous System Impacts: Noise can affect the central nervous system, triggering symptoms such as neurasthenia, headaches, and insomnia. These symptoms not only affect our daily lives and work efficiency but can also develop into more serious neurological disorders.
Cardiovascular System Harms: High noise levels can increase sympathetic nervous system tension, causing abnormal changes in heart rate and blood pressure. Long-term exposure can increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and hypotension. These diseases not only affect our physical health but can also lead to serious complications.
Visual Damage: Noise not only affects our hearing but can also interfere with our visual function. Long-term exposure to noise can lead to decreased vision and changes in visual field. Impaired visual function can also severely impact our daily lives and work abilities.
The impacts and harms of noise in work and living environments can be broadly categorized into two aspects. First, loud noise poses a serious threat to human health, causing deafness and various illnesses, even shortening lifespan. Second, moderate noise levels can cause mental fatigue and anxiety, hinder communication, and interfere with normal work, study, and daily life. Long-term effects can be detrimental to health.
1. Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
People exposed to high levels of noise for a period of time experience hearing loss, but this typically returns to normal after a period of quiet. This hearing loss is called a temporary hearing threshold shift, also known as auditory fatigue. However, long-term exposure to high noise levels can lead to organic changes in the inner ear sensory organs, turning the temporary hearing threshold shift into a permanent one, resulting in noise-induced hearing loss or hearing loss.
2. Physiological Effects of Environmental Noise
The physiological changes caused by noise are called its physiological effects. Noise affects the human body in many ways. In addition to causing deafness, it also significantly impacts the nervous and cardiovascular systems.
1). Impact on the Nervous System: People exposed to noise for a long time often experience symptoms such as headaches, brain swelling, dizziness, tinnitus, frequent dreams, insomnia, palpitations, memory loss, and general fatigue. These symptoms are collectively referred to as neurasthenia syndrome in medicine.
2). Impact on the Cardiovascular System: Loud noise can tense the sympathetic nervous system, causing symptoms such as accelerated or slowed heart rate, arrhythmia, blood pressure changes, elevated or ischemic T waves on the electrocardiogram (ECG), conduction block, and vasospasm.
3). Impact on the Visual System: Experiments have shown that noise can reduce the light sensitivity of retinal axonal cells, significantly altering visual function, resulting in decreased vision and distorted perception. Noise also affects the visual field, increasing the visual field for blue and green colors and decreasing the visual field for orange and red colors. Workers exposed to noise for a long time often suffer from eye pain, decreased vision, dizziness, and nausea due to damage to their visual organs.
02
Noise's Multiple Impacts on Mental Health
As explained in the book "Guiding Life," noise not only poses a threat to physical health but also has profound effects on mental health. Long-term exposure to noise can significantly impair cognitive processes, affecting attention and memory. Furthermore, noise can disrupt emotions, leading to negative emotions such as irritability and anxiety. More seriously, noise can alter personality traits, increase aggressive behavior, and negatively impact children's intellectual development. Therefore, we must pay close attention to the detrimental effects of noise on mental health and take effective measures to control noise pollution to protect people's physical and mental health.
Noise has multiple negative impacts and hazards on mental health. First, it significantly impairs cognitive processes. Long-term exposure to noise can easily reduce auditory sensitivity and hearing loss. International research indicates that exposure to intense noise, such as explosions, can also lead to noise-induced hearing loss. Noise also affects attention and memory. The primary impact of noise on thought processes is that it disrupts coherence, reduces agility, and impacts efficiency. Secondly, noise can severely disrupt people's emotional state. Research shows that workers exposed to noise can easily experience irritability, fatigue, dullness, and even severe anxiety. Thirdly, noise can negatively impact people's personality and social behavior. Long-term noise exposure can affect children's intellectual development. Noise can also alter personality traits, such as making quiet people impatient. It has also been reported that noise can increase aggressive behavior in children.
03
The Profound Impact of Noise on Rest and Health
"Sharing a Blue Sky: Urban Environment" explains that noise is not just a threat to hearing; it's a hidden health threat, quietly affecting our rest and health. Exposure to high noise levels can cause discomfort in both ears, even headaches, which are symptoms of auditory fatigue. More concerning, long-term exposure to such noise can lead to noise-induced hearing loss, resulting in permanent hearing damage.
The harmful effects of noise go far beyond this. It can also affect the brain's central nervous system through the auditory organs, negatively impacting organs throughout the body. Exposure to noise significantly increases the incidence of hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and coronary heart disease. Digestive system function may also be disrupted, leading to problems such as indigestion and loss of appetite.
Noise interferes with rest and sleep: The disruption of noise to rest and sleep is particularly important. Rest and sleep are essential for the body to recover and eliminate fatigue. However, noise interference often makes it difficult to fall asleep, significantly reducing sleep quality. This not only leads to fatigue and weakness the next day, impacting work and study efficiency, but over time, it can also lead to neurasthenia, manifested by symptoms such as insomnia, tinnitus, and fatigue.
Therefore, we must acknowledge the health hazards of noise, take effective measures to reduce noise pollution, and create a quiet and comfortable living environment for ourselves and others.
The most direct harm caused by noise is hearing damage. When people are exposed to strong noise for a period of time, they will experience ear discomfort and even headaches. Removing the noise and resting in a quiet place for a while will gradually restore hearing to normal. This phenomenon is called "auditory fatigue." However, if people work in high-noise environments for long periods of time, auditory fatigue cannot be promptly recovered, and organic damage to the inner ear organs may occur, resulting in "noise-induced hearing loss."
Noise affects the brain's central nervous system through the auditory organs, affecting organs throughout the body. In addition to damaging hearing, people who work in high-noise environments for a long time have a 2-3 times higher incidence of hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and coronary heart disease than those working in low-noise environments. This indicates that noise can cause cardiovascular diseases.
Noise can also disrupt digestive system function, causing indigestion, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, and increasing the incidence of gastrointestinal diseases and ulcers.
Noise also interferes with rest and sleep. Rest and sleep are essential for people to relieve fatigue, restore physical strength, and maintain health. However, noise can disrupt rest and make it difficult to rest and fall asleep. When people toss and turn, they become nervous, their breathing becomes rapid, their pulse rate increases, and their brain becomes overly excited, leading to fatigue or weakness in their limbs the next day. This will affect work and study, and over time, people will suffer from neurasthenia, which manifests as insomnia, tinnitus, and fatigue.
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