healthbriefs
Less salt
Music Harmonizes the
Means Longer
Brain and Heals the Heart
Lives
U
niversity of California,
San Francisco com-
W
hen two guitarists play together, more than puter simulation research
their instruments play in time; their brainwaves projects that a 3-gram-a-
match up, too, according to new research from Ger- day reduction in Ameri-
many. When the German scientists analyzed electri- cans’ salt intake (about
cal activity in the brains of eight pairs of guitarists as 1,200 milligrams of
they played a short jazz-fusion melody together up to sodium) would result in
60 times, they discovered that brain wave similarities 6 percent fewer cases
within and between the musicians’ brains increased of new heart disease,
as they listened to the beat of a metronome while preparing to play. The brains’ 8 percent fewer heart
synchronization then continued when they began making music. attacks and 3 percent fewer deaths.
Another U.S. study monitored the steady pulse of a recovering heart Most of us now eat 9-12 grams of
surgery patient as it charted the progress of his mending heart, while a quiet sym- salt a day. Both salt intake and blood
phony filled the room. For nine days, the patient soaked up the tranquil, wordless pressure levels are up about 50 percent
strumming of a Brazilian guitarist. Music became his medicine, as his heart liter- since the 1970s; researchers identify
ally fell into rhythm with the tunes. Increasingly, doctors are studying and employ- commercially processed foods as the
ing music as a healing tool; in measuring the brain’s response to musical notes, culprit. Source: American Heart Asso-
they are discovering music’s harmonizing route from head to heart. ciation, 2009
Sources:
msnbc.msn.com, BBC News, 2009
Yoga Helps breast Cancer
Patients Feel better
W
omen undertaking a 10-week program of restorative yoga classes experi-
enced a 50 percent reduction in depression and a 12 percent increase in
feelings of peace and meaning after the yoga sessions, according to a recent study
published in the journal Psycho-Oncology. Source:
PhysOrg.com
18 Broward County
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