Live on a noisy road, near a railway or on the flight path? You’re more likely to have a stroke, warn experts
Living on a noisy road drastically increases the risk of stroke even when there is a minimal amount of pollution, a study suggests.
Researchers advise sealing windows or moving to a quieter bedroom to escape passing traffic, which can cause stress and disrupt sleep.
Their analysis examined traffic noise and air pollution around the homes of 26,723 Danish men aged 65 to 74 over four decades.
It found a 14.9 dB increase in traffic noise – the difference between a quiet side street and a main road – raised the risk of stroke by 12.4 per cent.
Homes close to major roads, rail lines, or flight paths are typically even louder.
However, no significant link was observed between stroke risk and long-term exposure to pollutants such as fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide or sulphur dioxide.
Lead author Dr Stephan Mayntz, from Odense University Hospital, Denmark, said: ‘Traffic noise is a significant environmental risk factor for stroke, independently associated with a higher risk even at low levels of air pollution.
‘These findings highlight the need to address traffic noise as part of public health interventions to reduce the stroke burden.
Living near a noisy road increases stroke risk, even if there’s low air pollution
‘This isn’t about brief loud events—it’s the chronic day-evening-night noise that disrupts sleep and activates stress pathways.
‘Urban planning, noise mitigation policies, and transportation strategies should prioritise reducing noise exposure to prevent stroke and its long-term consequences.’
Speaking at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Madrid, Dr Mayntz advised people living on busy roads to try to sleep in a quieter bedroom away from the traffic, seal windows and doors and invest in high-performance glazing.
Authorities should lower night-time speed limits, use noise-reducing asphalt, route heavy vehicles away from residential streets and implement traffic calming measures, he added.
Last week a new study has revealed the reason why so many seemingly ‘healthy’ people suffer heart attacks and strokes.
It’s estimated that up to half of all cases of stroke and heart attack occur in people who do not smoke, don’t have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, and do not have diabetes.
These are comorbidities which are categorised as ‘standard modifiable risk factors’ (SMuRFs).
Stroke is a leading global cause of death and disability. There are more than 100,000 strokes in the UK each year, about one every five minutes.
Living near to a busy road can also increase the chances of having a stroke
This leads to 38,000 stroke deaths every year making it the UK’s fourth-biggest killer and a leading cause of disability.
In the US, more than 795,000 people suffer a stroke each year, of which 137,000 die.
Millions of Britons are living with conditions linked to inflammation.
While obesity is the main cause of this and other chronic health problems—typically type 2 diabetes and heart disease, which also damage the body’s maintenance systems, including immunity.
Other conditions where inflammation is implicated include non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, where stored fat clogs up the liver (this affects an estimated one adult in three) and dementia, which is often a complication of heart disease and diabetes.
A major research review, published in 2016 by the American Society for Nutrition, concluded that obesity and the health problems associated with it—such as high blood pressure, raised blood sugar levels and tummy fat—have a ‘substantial impact’ on the health of the immune system and defence against disease.
