If you have elderly parents who live with you, and suffer from high blood pressure, or then you yourself have BP issues, there’s one thing that you can do along with other lifestyle modifications: Play music after blood pressure medicines have been taken and then go about your business. Of course, make sure it is soothing, classical music. This is because, according to latest research, anti-hypertensive drugs improve heart rate more in patients who listen to music after taking medication.
Researchers from São Paulo State University (UNESP), along with Oxford Brookes University in the UK, have found that classical music has the greatest efficiency at reducing arterial pressure. They measured the effect of musical stimulation on heart rate variability in ordinary situations such as treatment for high blood pressure, in which music therapy has been studied as a complementary intervention. They found that heart rate diminished significantly 60 minutes after medication when patients listed to music in the period. Heart rate did not fall as significantly when they did not listen to music.
“We found that the effect of anti-hypertension medication on heart rate was enhanced by listening to music,” says researcher Vitor Engrácia Valenti. “Blood pressure also responded more strongly to medication when patients listened to music.”
One of the hypotheses raised by the researchers is that music stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, increases gastrointestinal activity, and accelerates absorption of anti-hypertensive medication, intensifying its effects on heart rate.
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