Noise-Induced Endocrine Effects and Cardiovascular Risk

Noise has the potential to cause stress reactions. Chronic noise-induced stress accelerates the ageing of the myocardium and thus increase the risk of myocardial infarction. The involved pathomechanisms include acute increase of catecholamines or cortisol under acute noise exposure and an interaction between endocrine reactions and intracellular Ca/Mg shifts. Chronic noise exposure of animals on a diet with suboptimal magnesium content led to increase of connective tissue and calcium, and decrease of magnesium in the myocardium. These changes were correlated to noradrenaline and normal ageing. Post mortem studies of hearts from victims of ischemic heart diseases confirmed the importance of Ca/Mg shifts in humans. Recent epidemiological studies support the importance of noise as a risk factor in circulatory and heart diseases, especially in myocardial infarction.