music therapy

Volkswagen created this musical staircase with the idea that “happiness is the absolute easiest way to get people to change”:

Take the stairs instead of escalators or elevator and feel better” is something you often hear or maybe read in Sunday attachments. Few if any people have followed this advice.

Can we get more people to take the stairs over the escalator on a normal day in Stockholm, by making it more fun to take the stairs?

The result you see here.

It’s an interesting concept and project.

If you know anything about the technical details on this, leave a coment!

It’s science: chill out music music is good for you

According to research presented at the American Society of Hypertension’s Twenty Third Annual Scientific Meeting and Exposition (ASH 2008), listening to just 30 minutes of rhythmically homogeneous music every day can significantly reduce high blood pressure.

By rhythmically homogeneous, they mean music with little or no variation in rhythm; they tested with classical music and Indian raga music, but the research offers some medical validation to Stephen Halpern’s pioneering new age music, Brian Eno’s ambient music (which he conceived while bed-ridden) and more recent chill out music.

Researchers found that patients with mild hypertension who listened to just half an hour rhythmically homogeneous music a day for four weeks experienced significant reductions in 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP)

“Listening to music is soothing and has often been associated with controlling patient-reported pain or anxiety and acutely reducing blood pressure,” said study investigator, Prof. Pietro A. Modesti, MD, PhD. “But for the first time, today’s results clearly illustrate the impact daily music listening has on ABP. We …. can now confidently explore music listening as a safe, effective, non-pharmacological treatment option or a complement to therapy.”

Unfortunately, the research was limited to  testing the positive benefits of “soothing” music, so we can’t tell if listening to techno is just as beneficial, or if it’s likely to send your heart into a hypertensive spasm. Read more…