Put a song in your heart

Music may help restore a healthy balance to the nervous system and orchestrate other changes that benefit the heart.

Have you ever gotten goose bumps or chills while listening to music you really love? If so, you’ve experienced firsthand how this universal art form can evoke tangible, physical changes in your body. But the physical experience of listening to or creating music may go beyond a brief shiver of pleasure — perhaps even improving your heart health.

"There’s growing evidence that music may benefit people with cardiovascular disease," says Dr. Peter Libby, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. By and large, the effect appears to arise from music’s ability to rebalance the two main branches of the body’s autonomic nervous system, he says. This primitive part of your nervous system works on autopilot, regulating functions such as your heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure. One branch governs the stress (fight-or-flight) response; the other controls the relaxation (rest-and-recovery) response.