THURSDAY, Sept. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Listening to Mozart or participating in a short, guided relaxation program can help lower blood pressure and heart rate in elderly hypertensive patients, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association's 62nd High Blood Pressure Research Conference held Sept. 17 to 20 in Atlanta.
Hsin-Yi Tang, Ph.D., of the College of Nursing at Seattle University, and colleagues conducted a study of 41 mentally competent elderly adults who were being treated for hypertension with standard antihypertensive medications. While 21 subjects were randomized to listen to a 12-minute session of a Mozart sonata, 20 were given 12 minutes of audio-guided relaxation training. Each group participated in 12 sessions.
Subjects in the relaxation-training group had an aggregate reduction in blood pressure from 141/73 mm Hg to 132/70 mm Hg, and their heart rate dropped from 73 to 70 beats per minute, the research indicates. In the Mozart group, aggregate blood pressure dropped from 141/71 mm Hg to 134/69 mm Hg, and heart rate dropped by the same amount as in the relaxation training group, from 69 to 66 beats per minute, the findings state. Systolic blood pressure fell in 11 out of 12 sessions for the relaxation training group, versus six out of 12 for the Mozart group, the researchers report.
"The decrease in systolic blood pressure immediately after the intervention is large enough to be clinically significant and may provide a supplemental method for lowering blood pressure in older adults," the authors write.
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