Why Mozart might be best medicine if you suffer high blood pressure

Listening to a Mozart symphony can lower blood pressure as much as cutting salt from the diet or exercising, a study has shown.

Scientists in Germany played Mozart’s Symphony No 40 in G minor, dances by Johann Strauss and songs by ABBA to 60 volunteers, monitoring their blood pressure before and after the experiment. They found that listening to Mozart lowered systolic blood pressure (the pressure in blood vessels when the heart beats) by 4.7 points, Strauss 3.7 points but listening to the Swedish pop group made no significant difference. Diastolic blood pressure (when the heart rests between beats) also fell by 2.1 points for Mozart and 2.9 points for Strauss.

Previous studies have found that exercise such as cycling, running or brisk walking had a similar impact on blood pressure. Reducing salt by 6 grams per day brings systolic blood pressure down by 4 to 7 points.

“It has been known for centuries that music has an effect on human beings,” said lead author HansJoachim Trappe, of Ruhr University.

“In our study, listening to classical music resulted in lowered blood pressure and heart rate. These drops in blood pressure were clearly expressed for the music of Mozart and Strauss.” The research was published in the journal Deutsches Arzteblatt International.