Want to lower your blood pressure? Pick up a musical instrument. That’s the implication of a pilot study from the Netherlands, which suggests playing music is beneficial to one’s cardiovascular system. “Our study suggests that active music making has some training effects that resemble those of physical exercise training,” researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center’s Department of Cardiology reports in the Netherlands Heart Journal. The researchers, including Cees Swenne, measured the cardiovascular health of 25 musicians and 28 non-musicians, all healthy young ... Read More
Mother’s Travails May Appear in Offspring’s DNA
February 18, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
For years, scientists have wondered why African Americans die of cardiovascular disease and diabetes complications at much higher rates than European Americans. Despite advances in health care and living conditions, African Americans succumb to heart disease at a rate 1.3 times higher than that of whites. But even after accounting for income differences and known risk factors, researchers find there is still an unexplained "racial" disparity. Some scientists have argued that the difference must be due to some underlying genetic difference between races, while others contend that the ... Read More
