Can Your iPod Give Relief for High Blood Pressure?

Tuning in to mellow music could bring your blood pressure down, suggests a study from the University of Florence in Italy. For a half hour daily, 28 people on medication for mild hypertension listened to classical, Celtic, or Indian music and performed abdominal breathing exercises. After four weeks, they showed a significant drop in systolic pressure. A control group showed no significant changes.

Doing breathing exercises and listening to mellow music help slow down your sympathetic nervous system, resulting in lower blood pressure, explains Stephen Devries, M.D., preventive cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. If you can't carve out a half hour each day, Devries recommends taking 10 minutes whenever you get the chance. So before bed, on your lunch break, or on the train, he says, "pop in your earbuds, call up a play list of soothing songs, and practice breathing techniques."