How classical music can lower blood pressure

London - If you want to keep your heart healthy, reach for the radio. A blast of Classic FM could be enough to reduce your blood pressure, doctors have found.

But you might want to avoid the latest pop and rap hits, which can send it rocketing.

Different musical tempos have profoundly different impacts on our pulse and blood pressure, according to Oxford University research.

Cardiologists found that certain operas and classical orchestral pieces are perfectly in sync with the body’s natural rhythm – and so significantly lowered the listener’s blood pressure.

But fast-paced rap, pop and techno tunes had the opposite effect, raising the blood pressure of those who heard them.

The researchers played participants different music styles and analysed each person’s cardiovascular response, including blood pressure and pulse.

Slow pieces by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, extracts from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Indian sitar music were found to be particularly effective at lowering blood pressure – and could prove a powerful therapeutic tool, they said.

However more up-tempo classical pieces, such as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, did not have the same impact. Lead author Professor Peter Sleight said the body’s natural rhythm is key to music’s power. Presenting the work at the British Cardiovascular Society conference in Manchester, he explained that blood pressure rises and falls in the human body roughly every ten seconds – a rhythm that some composers, notably Verdi, managed to replicate in their compositions.

“Verdi may well have been a physiologist – he hit on this ten-second rhythm in blood pressure and you can see it in his music,” he said. “You also see it in the Ave Maria – which any Catholic could recite by heart.”

He added: “Music is already being used commercially as a calming therapy but this has happened independent of controlled studies into its effectiveness.

“Our research has provided improved understanding as to how music, particularly certain rhythms, can affect your heart and blood vessels. But further robust studies are needed, which could reduce scepticism of the real therapeutic role of music.”

Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “We know that stress can play a role in cardiovascular disease so the calming effect of music may have some potential as a therapy.

“However, as Professor Sleight points out, more robust evidence is needed before we see cardiologists prescribing a dose of Taylor Swift or 30 minutes of Vivaldi a day.”

Daily Mail

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