Have you ever gotten goosebumps or chills while listening to music you actually like? If so, you've experienced for yourself how this universal art form can create tangible, physical changes in your body. But the physical experience of listening to or creating music can transcend a temporary jolt of enjoyment—possibly even improve your heart health.
Like meditation or other calming rituals, listening to music (or singing or playing an instrument) helps shift the nervous system toward a leisure response. The vagus nerve, which runs from the brain to the stomach, mediates the comfort response. Stimulating this nerve not only helps slow your respiration and pulse, but in addition helps reduce inflammation, a significant perpetrator in heart disease, says Dr. Libby.
Can music make your heart skip a beat?According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word the wire Once used to consult with tendons or ligaments within the body; Word Hamstring reflects this usage. Similarly, The voice of the guts Originally referred to a nerve or tendon thought to support or brace the guts. Today, we recognize the word as referring to the deep emotion of empathy—a mirrored image of the long-held view of the guts because the source of all emotion. |
Heart touching tunes.
In 2021, the journal Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine published an article entitled “Effects of Music on the Cardiovascular System” which reviewed the most recent medical literature on the topic. The authors summarized the outcomes of 26 studies involving a complete of 1,342 people.
A consistent finding was a trend toward increased heart rate variability (HRV) in individuals who listened to several types of music for seven to 70 minutes, either at one time or over multiple sessions. HRV, which measures the slight difference in time between each heartbeat, shows the health of your autonomic nervous system. High HRV values ​​indicate that the guts can respond quickly to rapid changes throughout the body, and this flexibility is related to higher heart health. Only two studies looked specifically at the results of singing, but they indicated that the exercise also boosted HRV.
Here are another findings from the review concerning the potential advantages of music:
Improved exercise performance. Several studies have suggested that music can improve an individual's exercise, either by increasing endurance, distance, or duration, or by making exercise feel less strenuous. In a study of individuals exercising as a part of a cardiac rehabilitation program, a method that helped participants synchronize their pace with their chosen music (called rhythmic auditory stimulation), Makes them exercise more.
Reducing stress hormone levels. Two studies documented reductions in salivary levels of the stress hormone cortisol, including one in people undergoing dialysis that indicated improved cardiovascular survival rates in those with the best reductions in cortisol levels.
Low blood pressure. Thirty young men with mildly elevated blood pressure followed the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Prevent Hypertension) weight loss program for one month. People randomly assigned to take heed to “the most relaxing piano and flute music ever” for half-hour five days per week in the course of the month of abstinence had greater reductions in blood pressure and heart rate than those that didn't. They didn't take heed to music.
A straightforward, low-risk, low-cost intervention
Dr. Libby says the promising effects of music on health warrant further research. SoundHealth, a collaboration between the National Institutes of Health and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, is doing just that, he added. Meanwhile, listening to music is affordable, low-risk (provided you retain the quantity inside a protected range), and simply accessible. There's no downside to using music to motivate or calm down your workout, so give it a try.
Photo: © Tim Platt/Getty Images