If you are a music lover, you probably already know that listening to music you love makes you feel happy, but a new study presented at this week's meeting of the American Heart Association proves that listening to joyful music can dilate your blood vessels and make it easier for blood to flow through them. NPR's Talk of the Nation host Ira Flatow interviewed Dr. Miller of the University of Maryland Medical Center about the study on yesterday's "Science Friday" broadcast. You can listen to the audio here.
Just as music you love can help your heart health, listening to music you hate can make your blood vessels constrict. Dr. Miller also says that for "happy" music to have these positive effects on your health, it's important not to over expose. He recommends listening to a variety of music you enjoy or putting a two week break between listening to the same music, so that you don't become de-sensitized. So, if you're feeling stressed, do your heart a favor and go put on that album you love, right now.
1 comment:
What a wonderful post! You're right, we music lovers already know listening to good music makes us happy, but I would never have guessed it dilates blood vessels! That must explain why I get cranky when I don't have control over the music I'm listening to... "please stop playing the Fall Out Boy, it's constricting my blood vessels."
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