Opera is beneficial for cardiovascular health and helps accept heart transplants. This is revealed by various studies that have shown the connection between this type of music and some of the most common heart conditions.
One of the most surprising studies is the one published by the Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery on organ transplants. According to the authors of the article, carried out in several Japanese hospitals, listening to opera classics favors recovery from a heart transplant.
The study reveals that bel canto melodies promote the formation of regulatory cells that intervene by prolonging graft survival. In this way, thanks to Verdi’s opera and other masterpieces, transplant patients increase their chances of successfully completing the operation.
Music for the heart
- On the other hand, experts from the Italian University of Pavia already demonstrated in 2007 the relationship between listening to classical music and the reduction of heart rate and blood pressure.
- According to the study published in the American magazine Circulation, the speed and intensity of the music influences the heart rate. Thus, melodies that contain an increase in intensity, that is, a ‘crescendo ‘, cause an increase in blood pressure and heart and respiratory rates. The ‘decrescendo ‘, which implies a decrease in the intensity of the sound, cause the opposite effect in the organism.
- In addition, the researchers found that interspersing breathing rhythms modulates the entire cardiovascular system. This effect, which obtains great benefits when working on relaxation, can be achieved thanks to music, clarifies one of the authors of the work, Dr. Luciano Bernardi.
- What is interesting about this study is the future applications that this relationship between melodies and the cardiovascular system may have in the treatment of heart patients. At the moment, what can be confirmed is the type of music that should be listened to depending on the cardiovascular disease that is suffered. As Dr. Bernardi explains in Circulation magazine, “if you have high blood pressure it is not advisable to listen to too much techno music, or at least, it should be interspersed with more relaxing music”.
- Among the works chosen to carry out the investigation were Verdi’s La Traviata, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony or Bach’s Cantata 169.
Soothe pain with music
In another sense, Colombian researchers already demonstrated in 2006 the benefits of music as a complement to analgesics when it comes to combating pain. According to an article published in the Cochrane Library, the use of music therapy could reduce the pain of patients by up to one point, within a scale of 1 to 10. The most effective application was in cases of acute postoperative pain, where the patients undergoing therapy required a reduction in morphine doses.