Don't Miss a Beat! Music for Heart Health

February is National Heart Month, and the heart is truly something to be celebrated. The heart pumps blood around our body all day and night, through a network of blood vessels and electrical signals. Have you ever listened to your heartbeat?

One heartbeat is a cycle of contraction and relaxation that your heart pumps in order to keep an adequate supply of blood moving. For most adults, the heart beats at 60-100 beats per minute. Infants’ hearts beat faster, and babies born prematurely have even faster hearts.

For various reasons, the heart rate will sometimes be much too fast or much too slow. Sometimes infants whose nervous system isn’t fully developed will have episodes of bradycardia, which can self resolve or may require stimulation to increase oxygen. Both children and adults who are dealing with stress or anxiety may have an elevated heart rate. This is especially true of hospitalized patients, or people dealing with treatment for an illness (patients and family members). Some people are born with, or develop, heart disease, and some people have conditions like hypertension that cause the heart to have to work harder.

The rhythms of music can influence breathing and heart function. We can use music to model deeper/stronger breaths, which allows more oxygen to flow to our heart.

Music therapists use a technique called entrainment, in which we match the tempo of our improvised music to the breath or heart rate of a patient. Eventually, we can speed up or slow down our music and the person’s body rhythms will go with it. This is effective even in the ICU with a patient who is otherwise unresponsive. If that patient is in a state of stress, music therapy can be used to bring them into a parasympathetic state, which may help them get home faster.

In the hospital, along with my musical instruments I also carry a stethoscope that is attached to a recording device. I am able to match music to a patient’s heart rate, and I can also record that heart rate and use it to create original music with the patient for them to bring home.

Try a breathing exercise to your favorite song- inhale for 4 beats, and then exhale for 4 beats. Then try expanding the number of beats during which you exhale. You can do this exercise to any style of music- if you don’t find Pachelbel’s Canon over a waterfall relaxing to listen to, that’s ok! You can slow your breathing to classic rock, salsa, hip hop, or country music. Maybe I should have saved this suggestion for April 1st, but try breathing to this song- don’t give up!