When you were 16 and turned up the radio to full volume, you weren’t thinking about how this could affect your health. You were just having a good time listening to your tunes.
As you grew, you probably indulged in evenings out at loud movies and concerts. It may even be common for you to have experienced loud noise at work. Still, you didn’t think it had any long-term impact.
You more likely know differently today. Noise-induced hearing loss can show up in children as young as 12. But sound is so powerful it can even be used as a weapon.
Can You Get Sick From Sound?
Actually, it Can. Particular sounds can evidently make you sick according to doctors and scientists. Here’s the reason why.
How Health is Impacted by Loud Noise
The inner ear can be harmed by really loud sounds. You have little hairs that detect +
vibrations after they go through the membrane of the eardrum. Once these small hairs are damaged, they don’t ever regenerate or heal. Many people, as they age, deal with sensorineural hearing loss caused by this.
Dangerous volume starts at 85 decibels for an 8 hour period of time. If you’re subjected to over 100 decibels, permanent damage occurs within 15 minutes. A loud concert is about 120 decibels, which triggers instantaneous, irreversible harm.
Cardiovascular wellness can also be affected by noise. Obesity, high blood pressure, clogged arteries, and other vascular concerns can be the outcome of increased stress hormones induced by excessively loud noise. This may explain the headaches and memory problems that people exposed to loud noise complain about. These are directly related to the health of your cardiovascular system.
In fact, one study revealed that sound volumes that begin to affect the heart, and hormones are as low a 45 decibels. A person speaking with a quiet indoor voice is at this volume level.
How Sound Frequency Impacts Health
Cuban diplomats became sick after being subjected to certain sounds a few years ago. This sound was not at a very high volume. It could even be blocked out by a television. So how could this kind of sound cause people to get sick?
The answer is frequency.
High Frequency
High frequency sounds such as the one experienced in Cuba can do significant damage at lower volumes.
Does the sound of nails on a chalkboard make you cringe? Have you ever begged a co-worker to stop as they run their fingers across a folded piece of paper? Have you ever needed to plug your ears during a violin recital?
If you’ve felt the force of high-pitched sounds, the pain you felt was in fact damage being done to your hearing. The damage may have become permanent if you’ve exposed yourself to this kind of sound repeatedly for longer time periods.
Research has also discovered that damage can be done even if you can’t hear the sound. High-frequency sounds coming from sensors, trains, machinery, and other man-made devices might be producing frequencies that do damage with too much exposure.
Low Frequency
Extremely low-frequency sound known as “infrasound” can also impact your health. It can vibrate the body in such a way that you feel nauseated and dizzy. Some even get flashes of light and color that are typical in migraine sufferers.
Safeguarding Your Hearing
Be aware of how you feel about certain sounds. Limit your exposure if specific sounds make you feel pain or other symptoms. Pain is often a warning sign of damage.
In order to know how your hearing could be changing over time, get in touch with a hearing specialist for an exam.
