Music is a gift from heaven. Can music help your heart, too?

Joyful Music in Tune With Heart Health
Study Finds it Leads to Improved Blood Flow
By Amanda Gardner-HealthDay Reporter

(HealthDay News) -- Throw on a little Bach, Beatles or Beyonce, and then sit back and relax in the knowledge that your blood vessels are expanding wide open, letting the blood flow freely.
Nothing could be healthier for your heart, a new study suggests.

"Listening to music that makes you feel good may also be a good preventive measure for heart health," said study author Dr. Michael Miller, director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center, in Baltimore. "There's no downside. It's simple, economic and it may pay off dividends in regard to a healthy heart."

Previous studies had found that music could affect heart rate and blood pressure. Prayer has also been shown to improve cardiac performance. And Miller's group previously found that laughter improved vascular health.

For the new study, 10 healthy, nonsmoking volunteers (70 percent of them men with a mean age of 36) selected music that made them feel good and other music that made them feel anxious. Selections differed according to the person. Participants also were asked to look at humorous video clips and relaxation audio tapes.

The researchers measured brachial artery flow, in the forearm, using a blood pressure cuff, before and after each "stimulus."

"In the minute after you release [the rubber bulb], you see how the inner lining of the blood vessel reacts, the endothelial response," Miller said. "People with risk factors for heart disease like smoking and hypertension don't dilate normally. We believe that means that their vasculature is not healthy."

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(SOURCES: Michael Miller, M.D., director, Center for Preventive Cardiology, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore; Carl J. Lavie, M.D., medical director, cardiac rehabilitation, and prevention director, Stress Testing Laboratory, Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, New Orleans; Nov. 11, 2008, presentation, American Heart Association's annual scientific sessions, New Orleans)
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