3 relaxation ideas for improving cardiovascular health

Improving your heart health can seem like a jigsaw puzzle of components: diet, exercise, reducing stress and so on. Of course, being happier, making time for sports and drinking a glass of red wine with dinner aren't so bad, as far as alterations to your lifestyle go. Neither is relaxation, which you should make part of your heart-health plan. Here are some relaxation ideas to help improve the health of your cardiovascular system.

• Ultrasound scans of the blood vessels of people listening to various types of music showed that light music and love songs produced, on average, a 26 per cent widening of the arteries compared with silence.
• Heavy-metal rock music had the opposite effect, making the participants anxious; such arterial narrowing could encourage atherosclerosis.

• A study of people living in retirement homes showed that listening to a CD designed to promote relaxation — such as a calming voice with ocean waves in the background — produced a 6.4 per cent drop in blood pressure after four months using the 12-minute CD three times a week.
• In comparison, listening to a Mozart sonata for the same period dropped it just under five per cent.

• This involves holding a wireless remote control and swinging it like a golf club or tennis racket, while an onscreen computer-generated character carries out the movements.
• The Wii Fit — designed to strengthen muscles and develop posture, flexibility and aerobic capacity — comes with its own balance board which has sensors that detect your body's movements.
• Exercises encompass yoga, aerobics (running, stepping and hula-hooping), muscle toning (sit-ups and lunges) and improving balance (simulating ski slaloms and walking on a tightrope).
• Playing on a Wii is a highly social activity; family and friends can join in.
• A study in the British Medical Journal found that regular users of Wii Sports could burn up to 1,830 calories a week and lose over 12 kg (27 lbs.) a year.