A researcher decided to see what activities in our daily life makes blood vessels dilate which helps decrease our b/p.
He got a group of healthy adults together & had them listen for an hour to their favorite music that they had brought.
Then he had them listen to music that made them anxious for 1/2 hr. My husband has some classical music like that.
He used ultrasound to track the blood vessel dilation. He did a baseline blood vessel evaluation first.
Guess what? There was a 26 % increase in blood vessel dilation when they listened to their favorite music. He also found a similar increase when laughter was used instead of music.
In constrast, when they listened to music that make them anxious then their arteries constricted or narrowed.
I used to always listen to music on my walks until I finally got my husband to start walking. But I'm starting to dig the music out again because he doesn't like to talk much anyhow & it's getting cold so he'll be staying inside where it is warm.
Dilating your blood vessels helps keep them elastic & prevents hardening of the arteries.
Looks like music is going to be on Santa's list for me. Oh, & XM radio is a good source of music & they even have Opera now. I love 50's music, opera, folk music, bands, Beetle's etc. Need to find more music to listen to. Maybe we should go around with a headset all day instead of taking our meds
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What else naturally dilates our blood vessels? A hot bath, but if you stay in too long the vessels constrict. I think 20-25 min. is the limit. I always do a hot bath if possible when I get stressed out.
Any other ideas? Fam
