Reduce your blood pressure – listen to the tunes of Mozart and Strauss!

Zee Media Bureau

Washington D.C.: Numerous studies have confirmed that music has the kind of effect and power to heal those who listen to it.

It is considered to be a huge stress buster and therapeutic because it directly impacts the brain, which is why many psychologists also use it to treat their patients.

Now, a study has revealed that listening to music, more specifically the tunes composed by maestros Wolfgang Mozart and Johann Strauss the younger, can reduce high blood pressure, as well as stabilize heart rate.

The findings showed that listening to them for 25 minutes could lower blood lipid concentrations and balance your heart rate.

The study analysed 60 participants who were exposed to 25 minutes of music by Mozart, Strauss or ABBA – a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972.

Another group of 60 participants were allocated to a control group that spent their time in silence.

Mozart lowered the systolic (upper reading) BP – the pressure in blood vessels when the heart beats – by 4.7 mm Hg, Strauss by 3.7 mm Hg, whereas no substantial effect was seen for the songs of ABBA.

"It has been known for centuries that music has an effect on human beings. In our study, listening to classical music resulted in lowered blood pressure and heart rate. These drops in blood pressure were clearly expressed for the music of Mozart and Strauss, but Mozart's music had the strongest effect," said Hans-Joachim Trappe and Gabriele Volt of Ruhr University, Bochum in Germany.

Quiet music of a slow tempo, long legato phrases and unchanging dynamics are regarded as beneficial for the cardiocirculatory system, said the paper published in the journal Deutsches Arzteblatt International.

(With IANS inputs)