It is probably just a sign of getting old, but I've found that I have a hard time enduring excessive amounts of noise at home or in the workplace, especially when it occurs on a consistent basis.

Well, now it seems that my reaction goes beyond a simple case of irritation. A new study published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine has found that a workplace that is consistently noisy can more than double a person's risk for heart disease, especially if they are a young male smoker.

The findings are the result of a national study that looked at more than 6000 workers from the age of 20 years and up. Over the course of five years (1999-2004), detailed information was gathered concerning lifestyle choices, occupational health, and medical examinations.

Study subjects were divided into two groups. One group (noisy group) was subjected, on a consistent basis, to noise that was loud enough to make talking at a normal volume difficult. The second group (quiet group) had work environments that were quieter.

What they found was that workers in a consistently noisy workplace were as much as 2 to 3 times more likely to have heart problems, some of them serious, when compared to workers in a quiet workplace.

This relationship was especially strong when the workers were under the age of 50 years, who made up a majority of the population sample. These individuals had a 3 to 4 times greater risk for coronary disease or heart attack. The association was even stronger if they were male and were smokers.

Blood tests did not reveal any increase in inflammation or cholesterol, both of which are linked to heart disease, but there was an association between a noisy work environment and blood pressure whereby workers in a noisy places were twice as likely to have elevated diastolic pressure. High diastolic pressure, which is a measure of the force on the artery walls between heartbeats, is an independent predictor for heart disease.

It has been suggested that continual exposure to loud noise at work can increase stress in a workers day and have a similar effect as strong emotions or physical exertion. When this occurs, the body often reacts by constricting the flow of blood through the coronary arteries, thereby increasing blood pressure.

The authors go on to say that excessive workplace noise may in fact be an occupational hazard worth special attention, especially in light of the fact that one in five workers in the study said they work in a noisy environment for an average of nine consecutive months.

It is worth noting that most of these workers were men who were overweight and smoked when compared to workers with quieter surroundings. Body weight and cigarettes are two factors that increase the risk for heart disease.