The Most Effective Music to Heal High Blood Pressure

Listening to music has repeatedly been proven to lower blood pressure and promote good health and lower blood pressure.

But what kind of music is the best?

The answer was revealed in a small study from Germany published in the journal Deutsches Arzteblatt International.

And it’s probably completely different from what you think.

A German research team published an article in the journal Deutsches Arzteblatt International set out the results of interest through the small study.

They first divided their 120 subjects into two groups, one that listened to music, and one that lay down in silence.

They then divided the music group into three further groups, one that listened to Mozart’s Symphony No 40 in g minor, one that listened to compositions by Johann Strauss, and one that listened to popular songs by the 1970s Swedish pop group Abba.

The results?

• Mozart lowered systolic blood pressure by 4.7 mmHg, Strauss by 3.7 mmHg, and Abba by almost nothing.

• Mozart lowered diastolic blood pressure by 2.1 mmHg, Strauss by 2.9 mmHg, and Abba by almost nothing.

• The group that lay down in silence also experienced a small benefit, but less than those in the listening group.

• The heart rates of those who listened to Mozart and Strauss were more even than that of the other subjects, and also dropped by 5.6 beats per minute (BPM) (Mozart), and 4.7 BPM (Strauss.)

• The cortisol levels of those who listened to Mozart and Strauss dropped by a lot, especially in men. Cortisol contributes to high blood pressure.

They used only healthy subjects without unstable heart conditions, and people not on blood pressure or any other medication.

Half of them were under 50 years of age and the other half over 50.

Their music listening habits and tastes made no difference to the results, so you cannot claim that it will not work for you because classical music irritates you.

The study subjects listened to the music for 25 minutes at a time.

The scientists had to use previous studies of the music of Mozart to speculate why it had such a good effect on blood pressure. These studies showed that the arrangements were periodic (verse, chorus, verse, chorus), repetitive, familiar, and catchy (especially Strauss.)

So isn’t Abba periodic, repetitive, familiar, and catchy?

It certainly is, but previous research also shows that the presence of lyrics changes the ways in which our brains process music.

From the studies these German researchers cited, it seems like happy music without lyrics have a greater emotional effect than happy music with lyrics, and like there is substantially more neurological activation when lyrics are present so our brains can process them.

If you have a good karaoke machine or you can convince Abba’s record label to release the instrumental tracks without vocals, you might want to give that a try.

Another research team tried something similar in 2015, the results of which were published in the journal Acta Cardiologica.

They split 60 people with myocardial infarction (heart attack symptoms) into a Mozart listening group, a Beatles listening group, and a radio news listening group.

Predictably, the Mozart group experienced the largest fall in blood pressure, with the Beatles and the radio news making almost no difference.

But 5 points is probably not enough to bring your blood pressure down to a healthy level. For that you should use the 3 easy blood pressure exercises found here…