Head for A church to reduce blood pressure and stress

London, May 4 (UNI) If you suffer from high blood pressure and stress, head for a church and participate in some chanting, rather than draining your money on medicines.

British researchers have claimed that teaching people to control their breathing and applying the musical structure of chanting generated in them a positive emotional state by reducing stress levels.

To establish that Gregorian chanting, traditionally sung in male church choirs, reduced stress levels, researchers measured the heart rate and blood pressure of the monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz, vienna, throughout a 24-hour period.

The results revealed that their heart rate and blood pressure dipped to its lowest point in the day when they were chanting melodies of Western Christianity.

''The control of the breathing, the feelings of wellbeing that communal singing bring, and the simplicity of the melodies, seem to have a powerful effect on reducing blood pressure and therefore stress,'' Dr Alan Watkins, a senior lecturer in neuroscience at Imperial College London, said.

''All key aspects of Gregorian chanting can have a significant and positive physiological impact, reduce tension and increase one's efficiency,'' he pointed out.

Record company Universal, according to a Daily Mail report, has roped in the monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz to make an album of Gregorian melodies, after responding to a public interest in the genre.

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