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Noise causes premature aging
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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The constant noise of urban life and the constant sounds of transport cause shortening of telomeric regions of DNA in birds.
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, together with colleagues from the University of North Dakota, have discovered that constant urban noise leads to shortening of telomeres in young birds of a species of weaver finch.
Telomeres are the final chromosomal sections that, in fact, do not have any unique genetic information, but provide protection of coding genes from damaging factors. During each episode of cell division and DNA doubling, the copying micromechanism does not read the DNA to the end. And in order for the meaningful sections of the genome not to "spoil", they are covered by uninformative sections that can shorten until a certain moment. That is, telomeres cannot be infinite, and their shortening predetermines one of the aging patterns - when a telomere disappears, DNA is damaged, and problems with the body appear.
Telomere length largely depends on the presence of stress, which significantly contributes to their shortening. One of the stress factors is noise: that is, it can be safely stated that in conditions of constant polyphony, birds age faster.
Scientists conducted an experiment, taking about 250 young birds and dividing them into four groups. The first chicks lived in silence. The second also lived in silence, but their parents were exposed to sound stress even before the eggs were laid. The third group of birds felt noise for eighteen days after leaving the egg. The fourth group lived in a noisy environment from the 18th to the 120th day of their lives.
It was found that prolonged exposure of bird parents to noisy conditions had no effect on the telomere length of their offspring. However, birds exposed to urban noise after hatching showed a marked shortening of telomeres.
Researchers suggest that during the period when young individuals begin to produce their own sounds, they become hypersensitive to other ambient noise. Most likely, this is the basis of the disorder.
Constant sound load can also harm a person: for example, if he lives near a noisy highway or works in a noisy production facility. However, studies on the effect of polyphony on the length of human telomeres have not yet been conducted. Scientists only assume that sound stress can have a special effect on teenagers and young people who have many vulnerabilities due to the imperfect state of the nervous system.
Details of the study are described in the publication Frontiers in Zoology (https://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12983-018-0275-8).
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