Your favorite music = happy heart

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - Listening to your favorite music may be helpful to maintaining a healthy heart, according to a study.

The research team at the University of Maryland School of Medicine announced they had shown for the first time the emotions aroused by music enjoyed by the listener to be beneficial to a healthy blood vessel function.

The team, who in a 2005 study noted the cardiovascular benefits of laughter, presented their work at the 2008 Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association in New Orleans.

"I was impressed with the highly significant differences both before and after listening to joyful music as well as between joyful and anxious music," said head researcher Michael Miller, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

The study found that participants -- 10 healthy, non-smoking volunteers -- listening to music that gave them a sense of joy caused the inner-lining tissues of blood vessels to expand, which increased blood flow.

The response matched the result of the 2005 study of laughter.

To minimize desensitization of emotions felt by listening to their favorite music, participants were instructed to avoid listening to the pieces for a minimum of two weeks before the test.

"The idea here was that when they listened to this music that they really enjoyed, they would get an extra boost of whatever emotion was being generated," said Miller.

The study found that the diameter of the average upper arm blood vessel increased 26 percent after listening to joyful music, and listening to music that caused anxiety narrowed blood vessels by six percent.

The physiological impact of music may also affect the activity of the "feel good" brain chemicals called endorphins, according to the study

The study's results, said Miller, signal yet "another preventive strategy that we may incorporate in our daily lives to promote heart health."

Source: yahoo.com

You might be a musician if...

Your phone is unplugged for 2 hours or more a day so you can practice.

You are more worried about breaking a finger than breaking a leg.

Bach is not just a funny sound you can make in your throat.

When practicing chromatic scales becomes more fun then bowling.

You spend more money on books, instrument supplies, private lessons, and classes then rent, food, and bills combined and, you have more then one job to pay for everything..

You dream about little sharps attacking flats and whole notes falling in love with quarter notes.

Playing the Flight of the Bumblebee is as easy as reciting the alphabet.

You know that normally The Flight of the Bumblebee is not that easy of a piece.

The thought of taking a break, if only for a week, sounds crazy and suicidal.

You listen to PDQ Bach and get all of the jokes.

That irritating song that's been running through your head for two weeks is by Mozart.

That irritating song that's been running through your head for two weeks is from "Wozzeck" by Webern.

Your notice you are drumming your fingers on the table to the rhythm of the classical music being played at the restaurant.

You walk down the hall singing the bass line to Beethoven's 7th and you wonder why people look at funny.

You might be a musician if you consider Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" marchable.

You prefer playing your instrument rather than having sex.

You know and can recite all the musician jokes and derivitives in score order!

Getting the sniffles is a true catastrophy.

You walk around conducting the Verdi Requiem, Dvorak Requiem, Bruckner e-minor Mass, Beethoven 7, etc., and wonder why people are looking at you funny.

You can roughly translate any Latin text, but you've never taken a Latin class.

Your co-workers can tell what you are listening to on your headphones by the way you are typing.

You're willing to shell out $16 for a score to 4'33".

You know what 4'33" is.

You know Tchaikovsky' s full name AND all its spellings.

You have played more instruments than the average person can name.

You own more in sheet music than in CDs

You can define the difference between a sonata and a concerto.

You know 101 jokes involving either violas, French horns, or percussionists.

You know any jokes about players of any other specific instruments.

You took more semesters of foreign languages that you hardly ever use than English.

You have expelled more hot air than your average politician.

You actually cheered on the marching band in high school.

You have ever played anything by Bela Bartok.

You had carpal tunnel before computers became popular, or have injured yourself more times sitting down than standing up.