12 Minutes of iPod Lovin' a Day Will Keep Your Heart Healthy

I've got a playlist that never fails to make my heart go boom-baboom-baboom just a bit faster. According to a study from the University of Belgrade, 12 minutes of that playlist a day might actually leave me healthier and happier.

Over the course of a seven year study, Dr Predrag Mitrovic of the University of Belgrade looked at the effects of music therapy on the heart. Turns out that happy, joyful music (what qualifies for that is a matter of opinion) might have health benefits due to "decreasing sympathetic nervous activity."

Basically a cheery song or two a day might not keep the doctor away, but it's got some pleasant effects:

Patients who listened to music had less anxiety, although the score did not reach statistical significance, and statistically significant reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressures and heart rate. Patients who listened to music also had significantly less angina, less heart failure, and lower rates of reinfarction, sudden death, and revascularization.

In plain words? Your "happy songs" will leave you calmer and less stressed. Not novel, but it's nice to have some science backing it. So rock, rock your little hearts out and spread the health by sharing your happy playlists.

http://gizmodo.com/5356119/12-minute...-heart-healthy