While you are stuck in traffic, most people feel stressed to put it lightly.
Many factors are involved when operating a vehicle and that alone can cause your heart to race and your blood pressure to spike up.
And according to research, this is not a great thing.
The stress of your daily commute has been implicated as a risk factor of both heart disease and heart attack.
So what’s the best solution? Researchers say your car stereo, of all things.
Researchers took a look at how music affected heart stress in an October 2019 study published in Complementary Therapies in Medicine,
They selected five healthy women for the study who were 18 to 23 years old.
Women were reportedly chosen because “previous studies provided evidence that women are more sensitive to auditory stimulation,” according to study author Vitor Engrácia Valenti.
Valenti along with his team chose people for the study who were considered non-habitual drivers. They did this as they felt that more experienced drivers who have an easier time coping with stress.
Researchers then had the five women drive the same route under the exact same circumstances on two different days. The only difference was the second day, they listened to instrumental music on the car stereo.
To judge just how stress was affecting the women, the researchers used heart rate monitors that were attached to their chest.
They used the monitors to look at heart rate variability, which refers to changes in the amount of time between heartbeats that occur as you go about your daily life.
That being said, heart rate variability increases during relaxation and decreases during stress.
And when researchers looked at the date from the heart rate monitors, they found that heart rate variability was greater when women drove with music — which meant they were more relaxed.
So the next time you are in traffic and it is a doozy, just remember, crank those tunes! Your heart will thank you for it.