Music helps your heart

Science Daily reports that listening to your favorite music may be good for your cardiovascular system.


Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have shown for the first time that the emotions aroused by joyful music have a healthy effect on blood vessel function.

Music, selected by study participants because it made them feel good and brought them a sense of joy, caused tissue in the inner lining of blood vessels to dilate (or expand) in order to increase blood flow. This healthy response matches what the same researchers found in a 2005 study of laughter. On the other hand, when study volunteers listened to music they perceived as stressful, their blood vessels narrowed, producing a potentially unhealthy response that reduces blood flow.


Read about it here.

What music makes you happy? What music could your church offer to improve members circulation?

Comments (3)

Any Mozart piano concerto

Ron Miller

I vote for that too Ron.

And wouldn't singing (and not just listening) have even more positive effect on the heart?

There's also good evidence of dark chocolate's doing the same. There's a recipe for heartening liturgy - music that opens our hearts (sung and heard) and good chocolate at coffee hour.

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