Stress hormones in the research on cardiovascular effects of noise.

TLDR

Stress hormones such as adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol are increasingly used to assess the cardiovascular risk of noise exposure, as endocrine changes appear early in the stress response, yet their interpretation remains largely qualitative. Stress hormones can be used in noise studies to investigate physiological mechanisms and identify vulnerable groups. A review summarizes stress hormone findings from laboratory, occupational, and environmental studies.

Abstract

In recent years, the measurement of stress hormones including adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol has been widely used to study the possible increase in cardiovascular risk of noise exposed subjects. Since endocrine changes manifesting in physiological disorders come first in the chain of cause-effect for perceived noise stress, noise effects in stress hormones may therefore be detected in populations after relatively short periods of noise exposure. This makes stress hormones a useful stress indicator, but regarding a risk assessment, the interpretation of endocrine noise effects is often a qualitative one rather than a quantitative one. Stress hormones can be used in noise studies to study mechanisms of physiological reactions to noise and to identify vulnerable groups. A review is given about findings in stress hormones from laboratory, occupational and environmental studies.