Here’s some scientific evidence that you’re listening to the right radio station. Researchers at the American Society of Hypertension’s annual meeting reported that listening to classical music for just half an hour a day can significantly reduce your blood pressure.
They recruited a total of 48 patients aged between 45 and 70, all with mild hypertension.
28 of them listened to 30 minutes of music per day while conducting slow, controlled abdominal breathing exercises.
The researchers found a significant blood pressure reduction in those patients after one week and four weeks. It’s exciting, given that 56 billion people worldwide will be hypertensive by 2025. It means that something as simple, easy and enjoyable as daily music listening combined with slow breathing, may help people naturally lower their blood pressure.
And apparently it’s not only classical music – in the experiment, Celtic and Indian raga music worked just as well.