Using music to tune the heart

Music therapy, or just listening to music, can be good for the heart.

Music can make you laugh or cry, rile you up or calm you down. Some say it's good for the soul. It just might be good for the heart, too. Make no mistake — daily doses of Mozart won't clean out your arteries or fix a faulty heart valve. But music can help ease your recovery from a cardiac procedure, get you back to normal after a heart attack or stroke, relieve stress, and maybe even lower your blood pressure a tad.

The sound of healing

Music and healing once went hand in hand. The Chinese character for medicine includes the character for music. In ancient Greece, music was used to ease stress, promote sleep, and soothe pain. Native Americans and Africans used singing and chanting as part of their healing rituals.

In Western medicine, the connection was gradually broken when the art of medicine gave way to the science of medicine. It's slowly being restored as music therapists demonstrate the value of music for treating people with everything from Alzheimer's disease to chronic pain and substance abuse problems. Since 1980, researchers have turned their attention to the effects of music on the cardiovascular system. Most have looked at single variables, such as changes in blood pressure, heart rate, or blood flow through arteries. A few have looked at more holistic effects. For example:

• At Massachusetts General Hospital, a nurse-led team found that heart patients confined to bed who listened to music for 30 minutes had lower blood pressure, slower heart rates, and less distress than those who didn't listen to music.
• Another nurse-led team at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found that heart attack survivors who listened to restful music in a quiet environment for just 20 minutes were less anxious about their health than those who rested in a quiet room without music.
• At Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, men and women who listened to music soon after undergoing cardiac surgery were less anxious and reported having less pain than those who just rested quietly.
• At the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, researchers measured blood flow through the forearm (a stand-in for blood vessel health) as healthy volunteers listened to music or relaxation tapes. Blood flow increased significantly while the volunteers listened to music that evoked joy or to relaxation tapes, and decreased while they listened to music that provoked anxiety.
• In a study from Hong Kong, older volunteers who listened to relaxing music for 25 minutes a day for four weeks lowered their systolic pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) by 12 points and their diastolic pressure (the bottom number) by 5 points, while a control group that didn't listen to music had no change in blood pressure.

Not all the trials have been successful. Several found that music had little effect on physiological measures like heart rate or blood pressure, or on recovery from cardiac procedures.

Contradictory results shouldn't really be a surprise. One of the biggest hurdles to studying the effects of music on the heart is music itself. It isn't a single, repeatable "therapy" like a statin or stress-reducing breathing exercises. Soothing music, like Debussy's "Clair de lune" or George Winston's "Moon," have different effects on the heart and body than something more rousing, like "Seventy-Six Trombones" from The Music Man, Puccini's "Nessun dorma," or almost anything from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Music is also highly personal — what you find soothing might sound to someone else like fingernails on a blackboard.

One thrust of current research in music therapy is to see if specific sounds or tempos affect the heart regardless of the listener's musical preferences. Finding a relaxing melody that slows the heart rate, reduces blood pressure, and improves blood flow for opera buffs and rock-and-roll fans alike would make it easier to offer music therapy.

Tuning in

There are several ways to let music into your heart. One is to work with a music therapist. Think of a music therapist as a guide, someone who can help you find the music that evokes from you the most relaxing responses as well as the most positive ones. He or she may help you become a more active listener, using music to help you ward off negative thoughts, release anxiety, and summon energy. A music therapist may also encourage you to make music with bells, drums, your voice, or other instruments.

Do-it-yourself music therapy is another option. Find some music that makes you feel good. Pick some calm, relaxing pieces, as well as a few stimulating ones. If you are feeling stressed, sit and listen to the soothing music for 20 minutes or so. If you need a pick-me-up, play something energizing. Observe how the music makes you feel, and give in to those emotions. Don't just think of music as a treatment, instead make it a part of your everyday life.