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Heart problem? Listen to ragas
Indo-Asian News Service

London, Sep 30 (IANS) Do you have a heart problem? Listening to Indian classical music or learning a musical instrument could help, suggests a study.

The study, conducted by British and Italian scientists from the University of Oxford and the University of Pavia, aimed at exploring the effects of music on musicians and non-musicians.

Tempo, rather than style, is the greatest stress-buster - the study, published in the journal Heart, said.

The researchers compared the effect of a range of pieces, from Beethoven to techno to Indian classical music, on musicians and non-musicians. 

The study found that all kinds of faster music and complex rhythms speed up breathing and circulation. On the other hand, slower or more meditative music had the opposite effect, with raga music creating the largest fall in heart rate. 

The researchers suggest the effects of slow rhythms and pauses could be helpful in preventing or treating heart disease and stroke. 

Writing in Heart, the team led by Luciano Bernadi and Professor Peter Sleight said: "Appropriate selection of music, by alternating fast and slower rhythms and pauses, can be used to induce relaxation and so can be potentially useful for cardiovascular disease." 

Charmaine Griffiths, spokesperson at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said: "This small study adds to the work BHF scientists are doing to understand how positive emotional state and relaxation can contribute to our well-being. 

"BHF researchers have already shown associations between emotions and signs of good heart health. People relax in different ways and it may be that music is key for some while for others curling up with a good book or taking a long walk is just as beneficial." 

"One person's Mozart may be someone else's Madonna and it may be that different people find relaxation in different types of music." 

In the study, the researchers observed breathing and circulation in 24 young men and women, before and while they listened to short excerpts of music. These people included both musicians and non-musicians.

But the effects were stronger for the musicians among them, as they had been trained to synchronise breathing with musical phrases. 

Half were highly trained musicians, who had been playing instruments such as the violin, piano, flute, clarinet or bass for at least seven years. The remainder had had no musical training. 

Each participant listened to short tracks of different types of music in random order, for two minutes, followed by the same selection of tracks for four minutes each. 

A two-minute pause was randomly inserted into each of these sequences. 

Debabrata Chaudhuri's "Raga Maru Behag" was one of the musical pieces that the researchers used while conducting the study. Other pieces included Beethoven's ninth symphony (slow classical), rap (the Red Hot Chili Peppers), Vivaldi (fast classical), techno and Anton Webern (slow 12 tone music).