Listening to Favorite Music Could Improve Heart Health - East Idaho News

Listening to Favorite Music Could Improve Heart Health

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95482687?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1378077690356Bambu Productions/The Image Bank/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Listening to music can be good for the heart, a new study finds.

According to The Telegraph, a study presented at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual congress showed that listening to your favorite tunes can improve the health of your heart.

In the study, patients with cardiac disease were divided into three groups, those who would go to exercise classes for three weeks, those who would attend the classes and listen to music of their choice for 30 minutes each day and those who would only listen to music.

The Telegraph reports that the group that used both exercise and music saw a 39 percent increase in heart function. Those who only exercised improved their heart health by 29 percent, compared to 19 percent for those who only listened to music but did not exercise.

Researchers believe that the release of certain hormones that occurs while a person listens to music was behind the improvement.

The key is individuality. No music will work for everyone the head researcher, Professor Delijanin Ilic from the Institute of Cardiology at the University of Nis, Serbia, told The Telegraph, “what matters is what the person likes and makes them happy.”

Ilic added that certain types of music, such as opera and classical may be more conducive to boosting endorphins, whereas heavy metal may be likely to raise the listener’s stress levels.

While the study was conducted with patients suffering from heart disease, Ilic believes that the results can be extended to a wider population, because it is already known that exercise improves heart health in healthy people.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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