World Hypertension Day: Listening to music can help you keep your blood pressure in check, say experts
Listening to music can help alleviate stress and anxiety, which are major contributors to high blood pressure.
Soft, soulful tunes, particularly classical music (Indian or Western), is known to calm the heart rate. That, in turn, helps lower blood pressure.
Like other relaxation techniques, music therapy can put you into a restful state and that helps lower blood pressure.
It's believed that listening to soft or classical music can increase the intensity of neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers that carry signals between neurons, and from neurons to other cells like muscles or glands. That leads to a pleasant feeling and lower blood pressure.
Music therapy is known to be an effective adjunct to your ongoing high blood pressure-related medication.
There are some ragas that are believed to play a role in keeping hypertension in check. Raga Malkauns (midnight raga) and Raga Todi (morning raga) that are ancient Hindustani classical ragas help in meditation, and have shown positive effects on hypertension.
Dr Sudhir Vaishnav, Cardiologist, says, 'In many patients, we have noticed that listening to music helps lower the heart rate and blood pressure. But, it's not a permanent treatment. It acts as a good supplement to regular medication.'
Dr Prashant Pawar,Consultant -Interventional Cardiology, Fortis Hiranandani Hospital, Vashi, says, 'Music therapy is a safe, non-invasive, nonpharmacological, and cost-effective intervention for reducing blood pressure, heart rate, and Anxiety levels in hypertensive patients. It has been found that systolic blood pressure reduces by around 10 mm hg after just four weeks of music therapy. I recommend my hypertensive patients to listen to music with high sympathetic tone or soft, soothing music like piano, flute or classical. But, it has to be accompanied by prescribed medications and a low-salt diet.'
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