“The Unexpected Symphony Within: How Music Reveals the Resilience of Your Body” by Mr. Wells on Medium sums up our recent Nature Scientific Reports (15:10908) paper “High blood pressure inhibits cardiovascular responsiveness to expressive classical music” by Vanessa C. Pope, Mateusz Soliński, Pier D. Lambiase & Elaine Chew (2025)
Wells writes:
Forget calming melodies — music’s real magic might be in how it reveals your body’s capacity to adapt, not just relax.
For years, we’ve heard that soft, gentle music can soothe stress and lower blood pressure. It’s a wellness cliché: classical playlists for calm, slow jams for serenity.
But what if we’ve been looking at music’s effect on the body all wrong?
A recent study turned this narrative on its head. Rather than treating music as a sedative for the nervous system, researchers explored how expressive classical pieces — digitally altered for tempo and volume — interact with our bodies in real-time.
And the results? Less about relaxation, and more about physiological resilience.
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Continue reading at https://medium.com/@wellswellnessguide/the-unexpected-symphony-within-how-music-reveals-the-resilience-of-your-body-d45fc66b6bf0 (free with registration)
The Scientific Reports paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-94341-2
Pope, V.C., Soliński, M., Lambiase, P.D., Chew, E. High blood pressure inhibits cardiovascular responsiveness to expressive classical music. Sci Rep 15, 10908 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-94341-2
