Emotions, such as laughter, affect heart health.
Now, a study recently presented at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting has found that listening to music which gives one a sense of joy also positively impacts heart health. And it does so in a very tangible way, too, by improving the function of blood vessels.
Conducted by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the study used music which was selected by the participants themselves – they found that their chosen music had filled them with a sense of joy.
It was found that when the study subjects listened to their chosen music, the tissue in the inner lining of their blood vessels dilated. This increased blood flow. On the other hand, when they listened to music which they found stressful, the participants’ blood vessels became narrower. That, of course, restricted blood flow.
The study involved 10 healthy, non-smoking volunteers and comprised of four phases. In phase one, the participants listened to music which they had chosen, music which they felt gave them a sense of joy. Phase two involved music which made them feel stressed. Phase three involved listening to audio tapes which promoted relaxation, while phase four involved watched videotapes which made them laugh.
Interestingly, for the ‘joyful songs’, participants mainly chose country music, while for ‘stressful songs’, they mainly chose heavy metal songs.
Prior to each phase, the participants were made to fast overnight, and a test called the ‘flow-mediated dilation’ was also given to find out how the lining of their blood vessels, called the endothelium, responded to various stimuli. The endothelium is known to impact health in several ways, regulating blood flow, adjusting blood thickening and coagulation as well as releasing chemicals in response to irritation, wounds and infections.
After the baseline test, the study participants then listened to or watched the respective audio or video, depending on the phase of the study, for a period of 30 minutes. Dilation measurements were then taken throughout the period to monitor any changes. Each phase of the study then took place a week after the previous one.
“We had previously demonstrated that positive emotions, such as laughter, were good for vascular health. So, a logical question was whether other emotions, such as those evoked by music, have a similar effect. We knew that individual people would react differently to different types of music, so in this study, we enabled participants to select music based upon their likes and dislikes,” said Michael Miller, M.D., director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr Miller was the leader of the study team, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health ( NIH), the American Heart Association and the Veterans Administration.
And the study findings showed that music had an even more pronounced effect than laughter and relaxation. The relaxation tape brought about an 11% increase in dilation; for the laughter video, the increase in dilation was 19%; joyful music, however, was able to bring about a 26% increase in blood vessel dilation. On the other hand, stressful music narrowed blood vessels by 6%.
“I was impressed with the highly significant differences both before and after listening to joyful music as well as between joyful and anxious music. The active listening to music evokes such raw positive emotions likely in part due to the release of endorphins, part of that mind-heart connection that we yearn to learn so much more about. Needless to say, these results were music to my ears because they signal another preventive strategy that we may incorporate in our daily lives to promote heart health,” added Dr Miller.
Surely blood vessel dilation, which improves blood flow and circulation, benefits more than just the heart, but also other aspects of health. The blood, after all, is what brings nutrients to various parts of the body.
It is time to make joyful music – whatever music gives you joy – a regular part of our daily health routine.
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