Nearly 700,000 people survive a heart attack in the U.S. each year, and it is estimated that roughly 1 in 9 heart attack survivors experience subsequent episodes of chest pain and anxiety within the first 48 hours. The new research suggests music, combined with standard therapies such as medications, could be a simple, accessible measure that patients can do at home to potentially reduce these symptoms and help prevent subsequent cardiac events.
“There have been very few studies analyzing the effects of music on heart conditions,” said Predrag Mitrovic, MD, Ph.D., professor of cardiology at the University of Belgrade School of Medicine and the study’s lead author. “Based on our findings, we believe music therapy can help all patients after a heart attack, not only patients with early post-infarction angina. It’s also very easy and inexpensive to implement.”
The researchers recruited 350 patients diagnosed with a heart attack and early post-infarction angina at a medical center in Serbia. Half were randomly assigned to receive standard treatment while half were assigned to regular music sessions in addition to standard treatment. For most patients, standard treatment included a variety of medications such as nitrates, aspirin, clot-preventing drugs, beta-blockers, statins, calcium channel blockers, blood pressure-lowering medications, and the angina-reducing drug ranolazine.
Patients receiving music therapy first underwent a test to determine which musical genre their body was likely to respond to positively. Participants listened to nine 30-second samples of music they found soothing, while researchers assessed each participant’s body for automatic, involuntary responses to the music samples based on dilation or narrowing of the pupils. Researchers then fine-tuned the selection by working with the patient to determine the optimal music tempo and tonality.
Participants were asked to listen to their designated musical selection for 30 minutes each day whenever it was convenient for them to sit, ideally while resting with their eyes closed. Patients continued with these daily listening sessions for seven years, documenting their sessions in a log. They returned to the medical center for follow-up assessments every three months for the first year and annually thereafter.
At the end of seven years, music therapy was found to be more effective than standard treatment alone in terms of reducing anxiety, pain sensation and pain distress. The patients with music therapy, on average,
had anxiety scores one-third lower than those on standard treatment and reported lower angina symptoms by about one-quarter. These patients also had significantly lower rates of certain heart conditions, including an 18% reduction in the rate of heart failure; a 23% lower rate of a subsequent heart attack; a 20% lower rate of needing coronary artery bypass graft surgery; and a 16% lower rate of cardiac death.
Mitrovic said the music may work by helping to counteract the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, the part of the nervous system that drives the “fight-or-flight” response when a person faces a stressful situation. Because it increases heart rate and blood pressure, a sympathetic response can put added strain on the cardiovascular system.
“Unrelieved anxiety can produce an increase in sympathetic nervous system activity, leading to an increase in cardiac workload,” Mitrovic said. He suggested regular sessions of listening to music could interrupt that cascade of events by reducing the anxiety associated with angina after a heart attack.
The researchers plan to further analyze the data to determine whether music therapy may show benefits for certain subgroups of patients, such as those in a certain age range or those with other health conditions like diabetes.
Source: American College of Cardiology
470904 654535Thank you for every other informative internet site. Where else could I get that type of information written in such a perfect means? Ive a mission that Im just now operating on, and Ive been at the look out for such info. 718908
311923 587099hey was just seeing should you minded a comment. i like your internet site and the theme you picked is super. I is going to be back. 664919
915724 251953Will you care and attention essentially write-up most with the following in my webpage in essence your internet site mention of this blog? 450583
955537 370645Quite finest folks messages are meant to charm allow honor toward groom and bride. Newbie speakers in front of excessive locations really should generally our own gold colored dominate in presenting and public speaking, which is to be personal interests home. best man speach 714608
247999 821897As I internet site owner I think the subject material here is real fantastic, appreciate it for your efforts. 463852
643880 45759Following examine a couple of of the weblog posts on your site now, and I actually like your way of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark web site list and shall be checking once again soon. Pls try my internet site online as well and let me know what you feel. 158135
981815 208375hey there i stumbled upon your site searching about the internet. I wanted to say I enjoy the look of things around here. Keep it up will save for sure. 465241
432608 977147Merely wanna input on few general items, The website design is perfect, the topic material is rattling superb : D. 736897
853962 929871But a smiling visitant here to share the love (:, btw fantastic style and style . 370572
396714 520152Hey! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a team of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a marvellous job! 859307
459588 864874Hello super schner Webblog den ihr da habt. Bin gerade ber die Google Suche darber gestolpert. Gefllt mir echt super gut. macht weiter so. MFG Martina 485704
64647 950097There a couple of fascinating points in time in this post but I dont know if I see these center to heart. There may be some validity but Ill take hold opinion until I explore it further. Excellent write-up , thanks and then we want a lot a lot more! Put into FeedBurner too 907951
88296 215265 Its hard to discover knowledgeable individuals on this topic, but you sound like you know what youre talking about! Thanks 315219
65008 570643This really is a great common sense write-up. Extremely useful to 1 who is just finding the resouces about this part. It will surely support educate me. 388696
978028 332694Great post will probably be posting this on my blog today keep up the excellent function. 877435
43047 173807Cheers for this exceptional. I was wondering whether you were preparing of publishing comparable posts to this. .Keep up the outstanding articles! 267119
233199 89990Howdy just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know a few with the pictures arent loading properly. Im not sure why but I believe its a linking issue. Ive tried it in two different internet browsers and both show exactly the same outcome. 884770
972894 512065Excellent artical, I unfortunately had some troubles printing this artcle out, The print formating looks a bit screwed over, something you might want to look into. 671515
929266 345696After study several with the content in your site now, we genuinely such as your technique of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark web internet site list and will also be checking back soon. Pls check out my web-site likewise and make me aware what you believe. 475561
675319 407595Its really a cool and beneficial piece of details. Im glad which you shared this useful information with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing. 852391