Sound!

August 12th, 2023| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Sound can take years off your life, apparently. Or so The New York Times reports.

Jet planes, jackhammers, sirens, loud dogs, truck engines, and stuff like that rattles the neighborhood over 280 times a day, more than 105,000 times each year. Chronic loud noise is a health threat that is increasing the risk of hypertension, stroke and heart attacks worldwide, including for more than 100 million Americans. One might think one has adapted to the noise, but even if that is the case, one’s body will still respond negatively to the sound. In fact, even folks who live in relatively peaceful rural and suburban communities can be at risk. The sudden blare of trains, for instance, can be especially jarring to the body because there is little ambient noise to drown out the jolt.

Sound is carried to the ears and to the acoustic area of the brain, but also to the amygdala, a part of the brain that plays a critical role in stress detection. And that organ triggers a cascade of reactions in response. The endocrine system can overreact, causing too much cortisol, adrenaline and other chemicals to course through the body. The sympathetic nervous system can also become hyperactivated, quickening the heart rate, raising blood pressure, and triggering the production of inflammatory cells. Over time, they say, these changes can lead to inflammation, hypertension and plaque buildup in arteries, increasing the risk of heart disease, heart attacks and stroke.

How loud is too loud? Sound is measured on a scale of decibels, or dB, in which near total silence is zero dB and a firecracker exploding within a meter of the listener is about 140 dB. Freight train = 117 dB. Hair dryer = 87 dB. Busy street = 69 dB. Quiet room = 27 dB. But the difference in how loud the sounds are to the ear is not simple, because the dB scale is logarithmic not linear: 10 dB increase in sound is effectively a doubling of the noise. So the train sounds more than 500 times as noisy as a quiet room, a hair dryer 66 times as loud, and a busy street 19 times.

A study following more than four million people for more than a decade found that, starting at just 35 dB, the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease increased by 2.9 percent for every 10 dB increase in exposure to road traffic noise. The increase in risk of dying from a heart attack was even more pronounced: Also starting at just 35 dB, it increased by 4.3 percent for every 10 dB increase in road traffic noise. Yup, serious.

But curiously enough, the Bible appreciates “sounds” and “voices.” I.e., they’re good sounds. Particularly when expressed in praise of God.

The heavens declare the glory of God;
and the work of His hands is announced by the sky.
Day after day it pours forth utterance,
and night after night it proclaims knowledge.
There is no utterance, and there are no words;
their voice is not heard;
[but] through all the earth their sound has gone out,
and to the end of the world their speeches.
Psalm 19:1–4

Declarations, announcements, utterances, proclamations, and speeches. But strangely enough, these astronomical entities do so silently, by their consistent obedience to their paths and orbits and activities as ordained by God. No utterance, no words, no voice. But they have “sound”!

And, if they can praise God this way, so should we, by our obedience (and with our voices and sounds).

SOURCE: The New York Times