Strauss and Mozart’s symphonies lower blood pressure and heart rate, German researchers find.
To the sound of the symphonies of Mozart and Strauss, the bodies taste fullness. According to the results of a study carried out in Germany by the Ruhr University in Bochum, and published in the journal Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, listening to the music of the two famous composers would reduce the concentration of cholesterol and triglyceride in the blood. Moving to the sound of a symphony would lower heart rate and blood pressure.
To carry out this study, the researchers gathered 120 participants. For twenty-five minutes, the volunteers listened to music. Divided into three groups, the first team listened to Mozart, the second to Strauss and finally the third and final team, the legendary pop group ABBA. Sixty other participants were lulled into silence. Before and after each session, the researchers measured the heart rate, blood pressure, and concentration of a stress hormone – cortisol – in all of the volunteers. Objective: to assess the effects of music on the cardiovascular system.
Men are more sensitive to it
The result is final. Scientists found that blood pressure and heart rate dropped significantly when volunteers rested to the sound of two composers Richard Strauss and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. However, no noticeable effect was observed when participants listened to the ABBA pop group. As for the control group, blood pressure also fell, but in a much less significant way. All musical genres have contributed to a drop in cortisol levels in the blood. And men seem to be more sensitive, the biological effects were indeed more pronounced in them than in women. Mozart could therefore come to the aid of hypertensive men.
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