Road Noise Might Be One Reason Your Blood Pressure is High
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THERE IS AN LINK BETWEEN ROAD TRAFFIC NOISE and high blood pressure (hypertension). This association remains after controlling for air pollution. Those are the findings of a new thought-provoking study using data from the United Kingdom Biobank.
I very much enjoy walking outdoors, preferably around trees. I prescribe physical activity (such as ambulation) to my patients. Movement helps reduce the risk of everything from heart attack and stroke to early mortality.
Stanford University (USA) researchers discovered that individuals walking 90 minutes in a natural area (compared with subjects who walked in a high-traffic urban setting) had lower activity in a brain region associated with depression.
Many others have opined on the subject.
“Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant of autumn — that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness — that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling.”
― Jane Austen, Persuasion
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 1899–26 March 1973) was an English singer, actor, composer, and playwright known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called “a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise.” Here is his witty take on walking:
“I like long walks, especialy when they are taken by people who annoy me.”
― Noel Coward
Last week, I logged nearly 25,000 steps walking in New York City in one day. But are there downsides to my practice…
