We have suspected for some time that listening to music might be good for your cardiovascular system. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have shown for the first time that emotions evoked while listening to joyful music do indeed have a healthy effect on blood vessel function.
When participants listened to relaxing music it caused the tissue in the inner lining of blood vessels to dilate (expand) in order to increase blood flow. The result mirrors the results the same researchers did in 2005 in a study of laughter. Of course, it is interesting (and predictable, no doubt) to note that stressful music did the opposite, and it caused the blood vessels to narrow, reducing blood flow and creating an unhealthy response.
The test consisted of 10 test subjects (7 male) that were told to bring in their favorite music. The subjects were asked to abstain from listening to music for 2 weeks prior to the test, and a baseline flow-mediated dilation test was performed. After a 30 minute listening period the subjects were measured again and the results recorded. This was repeated 16 times over the course of six to eight months to complete for all subjects.
The results of the study are to be presented at the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association, on November 11, 2008, in New Orleans.
According to principal investigator Michael Miller, M.D., director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine,
We had previously demonstrated that positive emotions, such as laughter, were good for vascular health. So, a logical question was whether other emotions, such as those evoked by music, have a similar effect. We knew that individual people would react differently to different types of music, so in this study, we enabled participants to select music based upon their likes and dislikes.
Dr. Miller attributes the affect to a physiological reaction to the type of music the person enjoys. As to why some are drawn to classical music, for example, is unknown, but the rhythm, melody and harmony all play a part in the positive response. The effect may also trigger activity in the brain endorphins, which acts to mediate the emotional response and contribute to an overall well being.
So, the conclusion is that relaxing music can have sound postive effects on your health, and therefore can help you experience a higher quality of life, and perhaps even live longer. Common sense tells us that carving out some relaxing item in a day to unwind and listen to music is good for you, but it is great to see a measurable quantity back it up.
The average human body has a lot of blood vessels
Laid end to end, all the blood vessels in an average human body would encircle the earth twice, a distance of approximately 100,000 kilometers
source: wikipedia
