The Recipe Doctor
From low-fat recipes to recipes designed for persons with diabetes, Elaine Magee, MPH, RD, shares recipes and advice to create healthy meals that are guaranteed to please. [Editor's note: Elaine no longer contributes to Silver Planet, but we have made her archived blog entries available as a service to our readers.]
Happy Music May Lead to Happy Blood Vessels
Good medicine for your cardiovascular system
When is the last time you purposely played some joyful music and gave yourself a few moments of pleasure and inspiration? Well, you might want to start making this a daily dalliance. Here's why:
A small study from the Preventive Cardiology program at the University of Maryland* measured blood vessel function in 10 people while they listened to music that they said gave them a sense of joy. The researchers discovered that their blood vessels dilated (expanded) by 26%. This is similar to the beneficial response in blood vessel function that occurs after aerobic exercise. Imagine how happy your blood vessels would be after a session of aerobic exercise where you listened to all sorts of music that you love! That’s a double dose of good medicine for your cardiovascular system.
The situation went quite the other way, though, when the volunteers listened to music that made them anxious—their blood vessels narrowed by 6%. In general, country music made most of the volunteers feel joyful, while heavy metal made them feel anxious. Maybe it’s a good thing the music we tend to like in our golden years—when we are most at risk for heart disease—is a departure from what we listened to as teenagers.
By Elaine Magee, MPH, RD
The Recipe Doctor Blog
(*The results of this study were presented at the American Heart
Association Scientific Sessions, New Orleans, November 8-12, 2008.)
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