The American Society Of Hypertension (ASH) is holding its 23rd Annual Scientific Meeting And Exposition in New Orleans this week. Early reports from the event claim that patients suffering from Hypertension (that´s abnormally high blood pressure to you and me) who listened to half an hour of classical, Celtic or raga music every day for four weeks, experienced significant reductions in their condition.
"Listening to music is soothing and has often been associated with controlling patient-reported pain or anxiety and acutely reducing blood pressure", said Prof Pietro A Modesti, Professor of Internal Medicine in the University of Florence in Italy.
Of course, we already knew this. Listening to music is a fine way to unwind - especially with a glass of wine. But what about the health benefits of playing or making music? Sure, strumming a guitar is calming, and we´ve already seen the health benefits of drumming, but when we´ve just spent three months trying to polish a turd in our bedroom studio, or we´ve just failed for the 800th time to nail Eddie Van Halen´s Eruption guitar solo - blood pressure might break the scale.
Still, it's always fun to try...
By Tom Porter
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