More Music, Less Heart Attack!

Music for health again! Just to share with you that how significant is music to your health. Like it or not, we have heard) that in many occasions (included in my previous post, I said that music is good for relaxing your mind. Music can decrease anxiety levels, lower blood pressure and heart rate, and change stress hormone levels. It affects your respiration, reduces muscle tension, increases endorphin levels, and boosts your immune system. The effect of music is so powerful, hospitals around the world use music to reduce stress in patients waiting for surgery.

Now there's fresh evidence on the power of music to affect our health. Researchers from a University in Italy found out something that no one had expected to find. Dr. Bernardi and his colleagues were interested in using music to reduce stress in medical patients. In their experiment, the doctors recorded the vital signs of 24 test volunteers (12 musicians and 12 non-musicians) for 5 minutes. Then the volunteers listened to 6 different styles of music in random order. Random two-minute pauses were inserted in each piece of music.

The study found out that fast tempos increased heart rate, blood pressure and respiration and slow tempos reduced them as expected. The style of music and the volunteers' personal taste in music had not had any significant impact at all. It didn't matter what kind of music it was, be it classical or rap. The only thing that mattered was the tempo i.e. fast or slow. This means that the music you hear, whether you like it or not, is going to affect your health.

The Italians further discovered that the silent pauses between musical selections, the test subjects' vital signs returned to normal, in some cases stabilizing at healthier levels than before the music. The researchers say this suggests that listening to any kind of music--fast or slow--could benefit your heart. A well done “Italian job”.