Lower Blood Pressure with Music

Eating right and exercising are best bets for better blood pressure. But there's a popular and relaxing pastime that may help, too: listening to music.

Yep. Just pop in your favorite CD, lie back, and breathe. Just make sure your music selection has a mellow tempo -- one that you can breathe along to very, very slowly. Here's how breathing to music reduced people's blood pressure in a recent study:

Slow, Healthy Listening
When people inhaled and exhaled rhythmically to slow, soothing music for 30 minutes a day, their systolic blood pressure (the top number in a BP reading) fell four points after 6 months. That may not sound like much to you, but medically it's enough to make both your insurance company and your mutually monogamous partner crack a smile. Breathing and listening worked better than just listening to music or quietly reading a good book. Here's another activity you can do in your chair to lower your blood pressure.

Sounds to Soothe Your Blood Vessels
Steady breathing may work its magic by soothing parts of the nervous system that keep blood vessels flexible. Other studies have found that inhaling and exhaling to instructions plus music can tame high blood pressure, too. But chillin' with your favorite Harry Connick, Norah Jones, or Mozart tracks sounds like way more fun to us. Learn how music may also power up your brain, protect your hearing, and inspire better workouts.

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