Traffic Jams Can Give You a Heart Attack, Make You Fat & Miserable

Every year it’s the same story during the monsoons – paralysing, monster jams; the chaos of modernity leaving you soul-sapped and infuriated.

Over the years, congested cities have worked as test tubes for researchers, and unfortunately, studies conclude that foul mood is the best health consequence you can hope for after spending hours on a choked street.

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Look at the pictures of migraine-inducing jams below. Bad for the environment, terrible for your car’s mileage and rough on your body.

Read below to know more about the horrifying effects of traffic jams on your body – because they no longer take place only when it rains or protesters take to Jantar Mantar; gridlocks are a part of the daily grind here.

‘Traffic Jams Treble the Risk Of Heart Attacks’

Bumper-to-bumper traffic is cause for heart ailments. It aggravates respiratory illnesses and impacts the brain. The threat is real.

In fact, tailpipe emissions are worse when a vehicle is idling – the most compelling evidence of traffic-linked heart woes comes from a study by German scientists reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, which drew its conclusions after examining 700 heart attack patients.

The study found that just one hour of exposure in a traffic jam can trigger a heart attack. In fact, it concludes that one in 12 of all heart attacks are caused by “particulate pollution”.

We didn’t think the link would be so strong and so immediate that you’d see it in one hour. 

Dr Annette Peters, Epidemiologist, National Research Centre for Environment and Health, Neuherberg

After taking into account factors like smoking, obesity, diet, exercise and other lifestyle-induced reasons for a heart attack, scientists calculated that the risk of a heart attack tripled in the first hour of exposure to air pollution and high noise levels in a jam. This was regardless of whether people were in cars or buses.

It Takes a Toll On Your Mental Capacity

An auto brushes against a car, an angry “teri toh”. Everything after that spirals into full-scale assault.

According to police records, last year, a total of 93 cases of road rage were registered in the National Capital alone and estimates are that a higher number go unreported. It’s easy to say that Delhi and its charged men are losing it, but believe it or not, a major reason for this unstoppable aggression stems from traffic woes.

A 2012 Washington University study noted that “people who were exposed to the daily hassle of traffic have a very high chance of chronic stress, impulsive personality and unexpressed anger”.

Everything about a traffic jam can aggravate anxiety – the car next to yours with a loud radio, people who change lane at the last second, the driver who doesn’t budge because he’s on the phone or the motorist who wants to come in the three-inch gap between the vehicle in front of you – the feeling of being trapped and not being able to do anything about it gives way to a lot of impatience. 

Dr Anjali, Psychiatrist

The Central Road Research Institute of India, estimates that during peak hours, the average speed of vehicles in the National Capital is a pathetic 15km/hour. When your car crawls like a cycle, heart rates shoot up, making even the likes of Master Shifu at the wheel irritable, aggressive and downright rude.

Related Read: Stuck in a Traffic Jam? Here’s 4 Things You Can Do to Kill Time

It Makes You Dull, Fat & Miserable

Given the brouhaha around sitting being the new smoking, even an hour or two on the commute is likely to contribute to all sitting-related diseases. Scientists have found that people who brave traffic jams on a daily basis are five times more likely to be obese and obtuse.

The reason is not as much that jams are making people fat and dreary but have more to do with the fact that long hours on the road sap all the energy and desire to go home, cook a healthy meal or exercise.

Moreover, exhaust fumes we inhale during a jam can contribute to memory loss and problems with reasoning. And these dangers impact not only those stuck in a jam but also those who live and work near traffic-prone areas.

A Boston University 2011 study estimates, the dangerous fumes from choked streets travel 10 times farther from roads than earlier thought, traveling about 1.5 miles from the jam site. It also goes to make the stark observation that traffic emissions may increase one’s risk of getting Alzheimer’s.

So being stuck in peak-hour traffic jams can age you mentally and physically. Mostly, it makes you a prisoner in your own car. There’s nothing much you can do about it except maybe, pool-in. After all, who wouldn’t be happier trading cup holders with humans for company?

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