Beware of news and noise pollution | Health

“Those who know do not talk. Those who talk do not know.” — Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching,” chapter 56

“A contented person is never disappointed.” — Lao Tzu, chapter 44

Between practice sets of tennis, a friend and I discussed the potential benefits of a “news fast,” something we both do. Perhaps it might better be called a news reduction diet. We both had realized that tuning in to the 24/7 news cycle was bad for us, mind, body and spirit, and that limiting our exposure to the toxic atmosphere improved our well-being.

As a boy, I delivered the Phoenix Gazette, a local paper that I threw from my trusty Schwinn’s handlebar paper bags. After my paper route and sometimes after dinner, my folks would watch an avuncular newscaster named Walter Cronkite on the black-and-white TV. His measured, mellifluous baritone was informative, reassuring, calm and credible.

He was worlds apart from today’s political pundits with their rancorous, repetitive rudeness, which definitely wasn’t part of my early life.

Now, you can enter a news echo chamber of your choosing, hear the strident messages you believe are true, and tune out the “other” as misinformed or even morally depraved. Rather than looking at both sides of the thinking equation, we’re tempted to sidle to one or the other, and there stand our ground.

This is an increasingly unhealthy, red-faced, hot-headed tension, fueling neither healthy debate nor exchange of ideas. Remember that empathy begins with trying to understand life from another person’s perspective.

Maybe you consider me an ostrich, sticking my head in the sand, but at least it’s quieter down there.

Speaking of quiet, consider noise pollution in general. This is the constant hum of not only media but traffic and other human-generated activity in our modern world. It has gotten the attention of medical scientists who note that noise, in and of itself, is pathogenic, creating more illness and early mortality. City dwellers, subject to unrelenting noise, are most vulnerable. COVID crowding has made this worse.

I notice my immediate stress response when someone’s idea of “manly” loud pipes on their accelerating motorcycle or car rattles my tympanic membranes, skull bones, windows and doors.

Long-term exposure to aircraft and traffic noise increased the risk of developing hypertension and cardiovascular disease in a study of people living near major European airports. A group in France estimated a reduction in lifespan of three years in Parisians because of noise pollution. A whole industry has grown up to create noise-cancelling software, headphones, building materials, cars, rooms, even office furniture.

Even short pauses from noise, with soothing music or quiet time can induce relaxation. A quiet space, soft flowing water sounds, whispering grasses and trees, gentle wind chimes, soothing garden sounds can bring back the serenity and tranquility creating the hush our minds and bodies crave for health, wholeness, inner and outer peace.

Tune out and tune back in. Leave behind some of the noise and news to rediscover what was there all along.

Dr. Victor S. Sierpina is the WD and Laura Nell Nicholson Family Professor of Integrative Medicine and Professor of Family Medicine at UTMB.