Music for Hypertension: Understanding the Connection

Music, along with its various forms, is known to have a different effect in different scenarios on different individuals. It soothes the soul, relaxes the mind, and it elevates your happiness or relates to sadness. It energises, inspires, and essentially keeps you going. Besides the psychological effects, music has been known to aid the recovery of certain health conditions as well. It’s no wonder that music is celebrated across the world for its unanimous effect of people.

World Music Day was first celebrated in France, honouring its musicians and their wonderful compositions. It’s celebrated on June 21st every year and marks the celebration of music and musicians around the world. Although music is perceived to be a creative outlet, it has some amazing health benefits. It has a positive impact on both your health and mental well-being.
As you might already know, music and its relaxing effects have been observed and accepted over the world for centuries. However, it has not been given as much importance in the medical community as a form of therapy, especially for those suffering from stress and anxiety. These heightened levels of anxiety can cause elevations in blood pressure. Moreover, if a person is going through high blood pressure treatment, stress can amplify the values thus leading to either chronic hypertension or other heart-related issues.

Therefore, today stress management is considered an important part of hypertension treatment to avoid any additional health ailments due to high blood pressure levels. And when it comes to management of stress and anxiety, music plays a calming role. Music for hypertension treatment is accepted today as many studies and researches have shown that it does help in bringing down elevated levels of stress and anxiety. These studies were conducted to assess the effect of music therapy on anxiety and blood pressure. The results were analysed on the basis of studies conducted on several patients, and the systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure values were studied, the reductions in which provided both physical and mental relaxation.
As listening to relaxing music has the capacity to initiate numerous cognitive processes in the brain, it is also said that music influences stress-related cognitive processes and in turn one’s physiological responses. It’s all about how music makes you feel, whether it’s bringing back a happy memory or making you feel energised. It provides comfort, reduces anxiety and also decreases stress levels.

While many studies suggest that music has a positive impact on your heart health, there are a few benefits or positive effects of music therapy observed in a few patients. For example, in one study, hypertensive patients who listened to music for at least half an hour had lower blood pressure, less distress, and slower heart rates than those who did not listen to music. Another study showed that older volunteers who listened to relaxing music for at least 25 minutes a day for about four weeks found their systolic pressure to be lower by a significant value along with their diastolic pressure, while another group of people who did not listen to music had no change in their blood pressure values.

Although music is still not considered to have a major impact on lowering blood pressure, it surely helps improve the values along with diet and exercise. Apart from music, there are other beneficial techniques that promote a healthy mind and body such as breathing exercises, meditation, massages, and other mind relaxing methods. These practices help in effective stress management which is the ultimate goal to help hypertensive patients lower their blood pressure.
Music therapy is an option considered by many physicians and doctors in helping hypertensive patients’ deal with stress and anxiety. So, if you suffer from hypertension and are generally anxious person, find some music that you like and which makes you feel good. You can either pick calm and relaxing or upbeat tracks depending on your mood. If you are feeling stressed or anxious, sit down in your favourite corner and listen to soothing music for about 20 minutes to half an hour. If you are feeling especially down, play some upbeat, energising beats. Don’t allow yourself to think of music as a hypertension treatment, make it a part of your daily life instead.

For more information on blood pressure, you can browse through our articles. You can even get in touch with a physician or cardiologist near you, just visit.

Note of caution: This article is for information purposes only. Always consult your doctor before altering any diet plans, medications or in case of any other blood pressure-related troubles.