Tune into joyful music

Could your choice of soundtrack have an effect on your vascular health? A 2010 study looked at how listening to music or guided relaxation exercises or watching comedy videos affected blood flow.

The small study , which involved 10 healthy adults, examined the impact of listening to music that caused feelings of joyfulness or anxiety, watching video clips from the likes of Saturday Night Live or Shallow Hal or following an audio of guided relaxation exercises such as deep breathing.

One of the standout results was that listening to joyful music showed more favourable results than listening to anxiety-producing music. “Listening to joyful music may be an adjunctive life-style intervention for the promotion of vascular health,” write the authors in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.