If you're looking for a song to help you fall asleep at night, a new study claims that there is one track that might do the job better than any other.

A study of 40 women found that the song Weightless by the band Marconi Union reduced anxiety by 65 percent. It also claims listeners' heart rates and blood pressure fell significantly. Part of the reason that the song, which was created with help from the British Academy of Sound Therapy in 2011, and the study claims is relaxing, the study claims, is its lack of a repeating melody and how slowly it goes along.

"Neurons in the brain entrain, that is they fire in synchrony to the tempo of music," Dr. Daniel J. Levitin, a professor of psychology and music at McGill University and author of the new book Weaponized Lies, told ATTN:. "Some people find that relaxing. If you're listening to slow music and your brain activity slows down a bit, that can cause you to feel relaxed."

Bill Thompson, a professor of psychology at Macquarie University in Australia, told ATTN: that certain chemicals also get involved.

"Music has a number of 'design features' that interact with mood and arousal systems in the brain, these systems involve the release of neurochemicals such as dopamine and adrenaline, and activation of various areas of the brain," Thompson said. Dopamine is thought of as the happiness chemical, while adrenaline is an energizing chemical that can stress you out.

Different rhythms that your body and brain synchronize with will typically create different reactions. "In matching our bodily rhythm with the music we experience the mood and energy associated with that pace, a slow pace is associated with slower, calmer emotions (reduced anxiety); a fast pace is associated with higher energy," Thompson said.

Thompson claims through human evolution, the brain learned to respond to some sounds or rhythms as threatening and other as representing calm, which can impact how people interpret music. "Slow rhythms and smooth harmonies will be perceived as calm; rapid tempos and dissonance will be perceived as tense," Thompson said.

Another reason we find some music calming, he claims, is we often have emotional memories attached to certain songs.

Levitin did have one problem with a study claiming a certain song will be relaxing to you, which is that he said music taste is so subjective that a song that might be relaxing for many will not be relaxing for some.

"I did a study once where we asked tens of thousands of people what music they listen to [in order] to relax and what music they listen to to pump themselves up, and one song showed up in both columns," Levitin said. "It was AC/DC's 'Back in Black.' It turned out that the person who used it to relax was spending his days listening to Swedish speed metal, so it was relaxing by contrast. It's quite individualistic."

Thompson agreed, saying that while some people might find something like death metal aggravating, others will find it empowering or energizing.

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How Could One Song Help You Fall Asleep? - ATTN

Eat better, drink less, exercise more, sleep enough: its common advice for heart health and its frequently ignored. Few North American adults meet the standards for healthy levels of physical activity, consumption of fruit and vegetables, body fat and smoking, according to recent study.

But a major lifestyle overhaul isnt the only way to help your heart, studies suggest. Even small changes can make substantial differences.

Eventually, little changes can add up, says David Goff, director of the cardiovascular sciences division at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Md.

"Any small change you make in a positive direction is good for you," he says. "Its not an all-or-nothing phenomenon."

Physical activity is a perfect example, Goff says. Official guidelines, which recommend 30 minutes of moderately intense activity on most days, are based partly on evidence of substantial health benefits from doing 150 to 300 minutes of exercise each week, according to a 2011 review study by researchers at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. Those benefits include reduced risks of coronary heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure.

But the guidelines also come out of an assessment of what is obtainable for most people, Goff adds. And while it would be ideal to get at least 150 minutes of exercise weekly, getting less than that also has benefits. When the researchers looked at deaths from all causes, they saw the sharpest drop in mortality when exercise jumped from half an hour to an hour and a half each week.

Just getting up for a minute or two to interrupt bouts of sitting may also improve health, the study noted. And moving for as little as eight minutes a few times a day provides the same cardiovascular benefits as 30 uninterrupted minutes.

"If you cant find 30 minutes a day, try to find five or 10 or 15," Goff says. "Anything is better than nothing."

The "some is better than none" philosophy applies to dietary improvements, too, Goff says. According to the National Institutes of Health, an ideal meal plan includes lots of fruit, vegetables and whole grains, with limited amounts of fatty meat and tropical oils.

But eating an imperfect diet with more of the good stuff is better than giving up entirely. Thats a conclusion from a 2016 study that created food-quality scores from the self-reported diets of about 200,000 people. Over about 25 years, the study found, people whose diets scored lowest had a 13 per cent higher risk of coronary artery disease than did people in the second-worst group.

Even just switching out soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages can help eliminate a couple hundred calories a day and control weight. That helps lower blood pressure, levels of harmful cholesterol and the potential for diabetes all risk factors for heart disease, Goff says. Large long-term studies have shown that people who average one sugary drink a day have a 20 per cent higher risk of heart attack than people who rarely drink any.

Its not just food and diet, adds Michael Miller, director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and author of Heal Your Heart: The Positive Emotions Prescription to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. Heart strength can also come from battling stress by boosting emotional health in simple and unexpected ways, he says, such as enjoying a good laugh.

In a small 2005 study, Miller played movie clips for 20 people. When participants watched a scene that made them laugh, 19 of them experienced dilation of the blood vessels. In contrast, a stressful scene led to constriction in 14 of the 20 viewers. Since then, Miller says, other small studies have found similar results, including one showing that vessels stayed dilated for 24 hours. Dilation allows more blood to flow, decreasing blood pressure and heart rate.

"Cross-talk" between the brain and heart explains the potential long-term benefits of laughter, Miller says, particularly when laughter is intense enough to induce crying. Belly laughing releases endorphins, triggering receptors in blood vessels to produce nitric oxide, which in turn, dilates blood vessels, increases blood flow, reduces the risk of blood clots, and more.

People are far more likely to laugh when theyre with friends, Miller adds, adding yet more evidence of the health benefits of being social.

Accumulating evidence suggests that another easy and enjoyable way to help your heart is to listen to music. During recovery from surgery, several studies have shown, listening to relaxing music leads to a reduction in anxiety and heart rate. And in a 2015 study, Greek researchers found reductions in how hard the hearts of 20 healthy young adults were working after 30 minutes of listening to rock or classical music.

"I tell my patients to dust off their old LPs now that LPs are coming back and listen to a piece of music they have not heard in a long time but in the past made them feel really good," Miller says.

Also on his list of recommendations: mindfulness meditation and hugging. Both, he says, look promising in studies of heart health and heart repair.

"Considering that stress probably accounts for a third of heart attacks," he says, "it can have a dramatic effect if you do all of these things in sync."

The Washington Post

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Give your heart a little love - Winnipeg Free Press

Yi-Chou Hou,1 Yen-Ju Lin,2 Kuo-Cheng Lu,1 Han-Sun Chiang,3 Chia-Chi Chang,4 Li-King Yang1

1Department of Internal Medicine, Cardinal Tien Hospital, School of Medicine, Fu-Jen Catholic University, 2Department of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, 3Graduate Institute of Basic Medicine, College of Medicine, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, 4School of Gerontology Health Management, College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic ofChina

Background: Music therapy has been applied in hemodialysis (HD) patients for relieving mental stress. Whether the stress-relieving effect by music therapy is predictive of clinical outcome in HD patients is still unclear. Methods: We recruited a convenience sample of 99 patients on maintenance HD and randomly assigned them to the experimental (n=49) or control (n=50) group. The experimental group received relaxing music therapy for 1week, whereas the control group received no music therapy. In the experimental group, we compared cardiovascular mortality in the patients with and without cortisol changes. Results: The salivary cortisol level was lowered after 1week of music therapy in the experimental group (2.413.08 vs 1.662.11pg/mL, P<0.05), as well as the frequency of the adverse reaction score (3.355.76 vs 0.814.59, P<0.05), the severity of adverse reactions score (1.932.73 vs 0.332.71, P<0.05), and hemodialysis stressor scale (HSS) score (6.004.68 vs 0.8777.08, P<0.05). The difference in salivary cortisol correlated positively with HD stress score scales (r=0.231, P<0.05), systolic blood pressure (r=0.264, P<0.05), and respiratory rates (r=0.369, P<0.05) and negatively with finger temperature (r=0.235, P<0.05) in the total study population. The 5-year cardiovascular survival in the experimental group was higher in patients whose salivary cortisol lowered by <0.6pg/mL than that in patients whose salivary cortisol lowered by >0.6pg/mL (83.8% vs 63.6%, P<0.05). Conclusion: Providing music during HD is an effective complementary therapy to relieve the frequency and severity of adverse reactions, as well as to lower salivary cortisol levels. Differences in salivary cortisol after music therapy may predict cardiovascular mortality in patients under maintenance HD. Keywords: music therapy, maintenance hemodialysis, salivary cortisol

This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License. By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.

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Music therapy-induced changes in salivary cortisol level are predictive of cardiovascular mortality in patients ... - Dove Medical Press

In the past, the Museum of Modern Arts Young Architects Program has addressed environmental issues as thorny as geopolitical water conflict and the American suburb in crisis through glowing tubes and exquisitely detailed models. This years winner is no less ambitious, exploring the crossover between material science and architecture with a soft forest of glowing, solar-active yarn that is temporarily on displace in the courtyard of PS1, the Museum of Modern Arts Long Island City art outpost.

Lumen, as the installation is called, is the brainchild of Jenny Sabin, head of the Jenny Sabin Studio in Ithaca, New York (she also teaches at Cornell University). Its a structure of knitted light that will not only transform from day to night but will also respond to visitors who interact with it, Metropolis reports. The yarn will absorb light during the day and emit it at night, and the installation will include misting stations to create cooler micro-climates throughout the day. You can take a virtual tour (complete with some appropriately relaxing music) at Sabins website.

But the project has a purpose beyond looking seriously cool. Sabins work tends to operate at the intersection of emerging digital technologies, adaptive materials, architecture and science, she tells Metropolis. At the Cornell lab she directs, she works on projects funded by the National Science Foundation, among others, using adaptive materials and new digital fabrication techniques.

What does that mean?

At the end of the day, I would describe myself as a maker, who operates across disciplines with new digital tools and design experiments and who engages adaptive materials and nonstandard forms, she says. But, in all cases, human engagement and interaction is at the core. One of the fundamental questions that I ask is: How might buildings behave more like organisms responding to and adapting to their built environments?

Some of the research Sabins firm is doing could have implications for green building design and environmental engineering, though that would take thinking and funding big.

[W]hats amazing is thinking about the promise of these materials and how theyre programmed, which can then create large scale transformations at, say, the scale of a building faade, she tells Metropolis.

Click here to read the full Metropolis Q&A.

Rachel Dovey is an award-winning freelance writer and former USC Annenberg fellow living at the northern tip of Californias Bay Area. She writes about infrastructure, water and climate change and has been published by Bust, Wired, Paste, SF Weekly, the East Bay Express and the North Bay Bohemian.

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Solar-Powered Art Installation Coming to Long Island - Next City

Did you know that the library has a Friends of the Library organization? Friends of the Library groups exist nationwide to support libraries through fundraising activities and encouraging gifts to libraries. Our Friends group is responsible for many of the nice things we have in our building, including the comfortable chairs, kids puppet theater and wooden shelving where our first chapter books currently live. They also typically sponsor a performer for us during our Summer Reading Program.

The Friends of the Yankton Community Library, like many other Friends groups, also host monthly book sales to raise funds for library activities and goals. Those book sales are the first Saturday of each month from 9:30 a.m. 12:00 p.m. The next sale will be March 4. The Friends are always happy to accept gently used donations for the sale; books can be dropped off at the Circulation Desk, or you can call ahead and well meet you around back if you have some boxes. We will also be hosting a special sale from March 29-31 in the Library Meeting Room, so look for more details on that coming up!

The Friends are hosting their annual membership drive on March 12, 2017 with a Local Authors Event and Book Signing. The event will take place from 2 4 p.m. in the Library meeting room with light refreshments served. Participating Yankton authors include: Mark Adderley; Kathy Grow; Travis Gulbrandson; Bernie Hunhoff and the South Dakota Magazine staff; Brenda Johnson; Maxine Kinsley; Marilyn Kratz; James Reese; Loretta Sorensen; Randy Tramp; and Lois Varvel. For those that are interested, the authors will have books available for purchase and signing, but the event is free and open to anyone who wants to visit with the authors or learn more about the Friends of the Library organization.

You may be thinking, What about Gourmet Guys? Fear not! Gourmet Guys lives on. We have decided to move the event to the fall. It is scheduled for Oct. 7, 2017, so save the date. Tickets and more details will be available as we get closer to the event. For those of you that may not know, Gourmet Guys is the annual fundraiser for the Friends group. We invite several local Guys to cook for us, while you explore the Library, listen to relaxing music and visit with friends. This will be our 9th year and we look forward to hosting you this fall.

If youre interested in joining the Friends of the Yankton Community Library but cant make it to our March event, please reach out to Bob Nagy, Vice President and membership chair, or myself at tolson@cityofyankton.org or 605-668-5275. We would love to have you!

As for library events, we will be hosting a Birthday Party for Dr. Seuss on March 2 with games, activities and arts & crafts. Come ready to have some silly Seuss-style fun! Our teen program this month is March 18 and it will be Brush Bots, a robotics program. We are asking that teens register by March 10. Our afterschool Thursday events will continue at 3:45 p.m. with LEGO Club on March 9, Science Club on March 16, and a showing of Disneys Moana on March 23. We will also continue with open Wii play time on Fridays beginning at 3:30 p.m.

If you have little ones, also join us for our weekly Story Times on Mondays at 6:30 p.m. and Wednesdays/Thursdays at 10:15 a.m. Toddler Time, which is aimed at the littlest littles, is Tuesdays at 10:15 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. As the American Library Associations Libraries Transform campaign reminds us, 5 out of 5 doctors agree that reading aloud to children supports brain development so bring those kiddos to us! We also follow each morning session was with sensory play, activities that encourage exploration and play and another way to help babies and toddlers build language.

On Monday, Feb. 27, we will be hosting the Gitchie Girl authors Phil & Sandy Hamman from Sioux City. They will have a presentation at 6:30 p.m. followed by a book signing. Books will be available for purchase at the event. We are anticipating a big crowd, so get here early!

The Yankton Seed Library will be holding their monthly class on March 14 at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. and will focus on composting. Seeds will be available at the class.

Our Unplug, Unwind, Craft series continues on March 21st at 6:30 p.m. This months craft will be Zenbroidery. Registration is required and will open on March 1. The class will be limited to 20 participants.

We are looking forward to Oscars Weekend this Saturday & Sunday! On Saturday, we will be showing Florence Foster Jenkins (PG-13) at 9 a.m., Loving (PG-13) at 11 a.m., Kubo and the Two Strings (PG) at 1:15 p.m., and Arrival (PG-13) at 3 p.m. On Sunday, we will be showing Manchester by the Sea (R) at 1 p.m. and Hell or High Water (R) at 3:30 p.m. In March, we will be having Oscars Weekend Part 2 with even more Academy Award nominees. That will be Saturday March 18-19. Were currently finalizing those showings, so look for more information on that soon.

The best way to follow along with all of our library happenings is to follow us on Facebook by searching Yankton Community Library or check out our events calendar on our website at http://library.cityofyankton.org. Youre also always welcome to call or email us with questions at library@cityofyankton.org or 605-668-5275. We look forward to seeing you!

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We've Got A Friend In You - Yankton Daily Press

Rock 'n' Roll band Parikrama began their musical journey in the 1990s, and since then have created some memorable pieces while experimenting with possibly every type of instruments.

In an exclusive interview with News18, the members of the band spoke about how they realised music was their calling. "It was something that gave us a lot of satisfaction, a lot of happiness, as it still does. Music is something that actually is so relaxing. You can listen to music in any form of emotion that you're going through," they said.

A firm believer of inclusion of music in curriculum as well as making it accessible for underprivileged kids, Subir and Nitin Malik, along with their family, have initiated to donate instruments to Music Basti, a Delhi-based NGO that connects at-risk children with musicians and aims to nurture confidence through a creative and joyful music-led learning experience.

Since efforts like these need combined support, News18 has partnered with the crowd-funding organisation, BitGiving, to raise funds for Music Basti.

While they have done their bit, heres a chance to make a contribution and bring some difference in the lives of these little learners.

To contribute, click here.

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#MusicForACause | The 'Parikrama Family' Gets Candid With News18 - News18

Inhale. Exhale.

Students breathed quietly as they sat in the first session of Yoga Club, listening to the calm, relaxing music Rob Lombino had playing in the background.

Lombino,a Lehigh graduate studenttraining to become a certified yoga instructor, founded the club to interact with students on campus and promote healthy living. Now,as a result, students no longer have to go off campus or pay for yoga classes.

Fifteen students attended the first yoga club session, and Lombino said he has received many additional inquiries this week.The Yoga Club, a new Lehigh organization, held its first session in Maginnes Hall on Feb. 15.

The club welcomes students at any level of experience. Lombino surveyed the first classs attendees, and the majority of the students had never tried yoga before.

The addition of the Yoga Club to Lehighs campus will provide students who already practice yoga a way to meet others who share a common interest and give them the opportunity to do yoga together twice a week. The club also provides interested students an opportunity to try yoga for the first time.

Jocelin Gregorio, 18, had not taken a yoga class before the Feb. 15 session. After attending, Gregorio saidshe really enjoyed the class and felt like the instructor was knowledgeable about yoga. She plans to attend thesessions twice a week.

The club meets Mondays and Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m., but Lombino and the students in the club are working on scheduling Friday sessions as well.

The sessions begin with each student on a mat, as Lombino instructs the students to assume a pose. He explains how each pose is supposed to feel and which muscles are being stretched.

Additionally, Lombino walked around the room to adjust students who are not in the correct position so as to make the session a learning experience. Students are encouraged to focus on themselves rather than their surroundings.

Yoga club classes are free of charge, but attendees must provide their own mat. Haley Wolf, 19, thinks the club will attract students who are unwilling to pay for classes at Taylor Gym. Wolf has had some yoga experience and when she saw the flyer for the club she was eager to attend.

Garret Linderman, 20, agrees. Linderman considers himself to be at an intermediate level in yoga and enjoys the incorporation of meditation in yoga.

The Yoga Club is a great way for students to relieve stress, Linderman said.

Lombino says yoga is defined as to bring together. He believes doing yoga connects the mind, body and soul.

He feels yoga promotes healthy living and says he knows from personal experience that yoga, in combination with healthy eating and exercise, promotes weight loss. Lombino, who has been practicing yoga since high school, saidyoga has improved his life and he hopes the club can do the same for other Lehigh students.

School is so much easier now that Idoyoga because it teaches you to focus on the task at hand and block out all other distractions, Lombino said.

The Yoga Club is currently searching for a differentmeeting spot. Lombino said the club is hoping it can use the dance studio in the UMOJA house. In the spring, the club plans to practice yoga on the UC Front Lawn as a way to attract additional members.

Excerpt from:

Yoga Club encourages stress relief and healthy lifestyles - The Brown and White

by Jacob Meister | 2/23/17 1:00am

The beginning of 2017s music landscape has been uncontestably dominated by rap artists from a city that has recently become a key niche of American popular culture: Atlanta, Georgia. Following the release of Migos wildly successful Culture in late January, Atlantas unique brand of trap rap has maintained a constant presence on radio stations, late night talk shows and the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.

Undoubtedly, Future, another giant of the Atlanta trap music scene, realized that Migos recent success provided a fortuitous increase in media attention for trap music and artists from Atlanta. Future, whose real name is Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn, announced that his forthcoming album would arrive on Feb. 17, only to be followed by a second album a week later. True to his word, Future released his fifth album, FUTURE, last Friday.

The self-titled album, like the rest of the hip hop artists discography, excels at setting a mood that is almost tangible throughout the album. Future is known for his revolutionary practice of using auto-tune to synthesize his raps rather than to help him sing. Parts of his flow and lyrical style were picked up by other aspiring artists following Futures three-peat of hit albums and mixtapes in 2015: DS2, Beast Mode and 56 Nights. One just has to compare the recent works of Migos and 21 Savage to Futures DS2 to see his impact.

He continues to utilize his technique to marvelous effect, giving his songs a distinct, soulful aesthetic. Futures bouncing, synthesized drone-flow meshes together perfectly with eerie, upbeat instrumentals and quick snare beats of producers Metro Boomin, Zaytoven and DJ Khaled, among others. On FUTURE, like in his other work, his attitude often switches between two distinct personas. One is a no-nonsense, melodic trap king with an intense darkness inside of him, as found in Super Trapper, when he raps Rags to riches, **** these snitches, I aint scared, bruh / Cold and sheisty, put some prices on your head. The other version is a carefree, pill-popping kid from the ATL who, as in Mask Off, just wants to have fun. Sometimes the goal is to become the toughest drug dealer in Atlanta. Sometimes its just to have fun and make money in whatever way possible.

While these songs are pleasing to listen to and occasionally even relaxing, they obviously ring hollow lyrically. Like most trap music, theres not much below the surface. There are similar themes in every song: using drugs, selling drugs, using violence against competitors, making money and spending that money on luxurious vices (mainly women). Future uses an easily recognizable couplet form in most songs and rarely attempts to tell lyrically complex stories. Listeners dont hear the downsides of this lifestyle, but they arent listening to Future to think; theyre listening to, as one friend puts it, get pleasantly lit.

However, throughout the album, Futures graphic lyrics usually come off as deeply offensive to women and the LGBT community. Again, this is nothing new to trap music or to the rap genre or even to the wider music industry, but it simply gets tiresome when sexism and homophobia are present on every single song. On the albums first track, Rent Money, Future raps with many expletives boasting about the number of women he has won from other inferior rappers. Similarly offensive variations of the phrase appear consistently in nearly every single song on FUTURE.

A flat-falling skit at the end of Flip in which a woman calls into a radio station and wins a prize has a similar effect. Obviously, the skit was intended to be comedic, with the woman winning faulty condoms and geographic tracking devices so that she can find her significant other and tell him this his baby too. Im not sure who Futures intended recipients are. Lines, such as these, further stereotypes of absent black fathers and gold-digging black mothers who have children in order to procure more child support. It disturbs me that mainstream artists feel the need to perpetuate these kinds of dangerous norms in 2017.

Perhaps Future feels beholden to his roots in trap culture, or perhaps he feels that this is simply what will sell best. There is no denying that our country has proven time and again it will accept overt sexism and even sexual assault from the rich and famous.

Future even directly references the most recent instance of this on High Demand, rapping Grab on that pussy like Donald. If it works for a president to speak this way, it may as well work for a rap artist.

In the past, I have excused the lack of content in Futures music, but there is a point when the general mood is not enough to make an album worth listening to. Futures music has failed to develop in the way other rappers music normally does. Any song off of FUTURE could easily have been on DS2, his album from two years ago. The only difference would be the songs beat, which may be moderately more complex than the rest of the album. This is not enough.

The reason rappers go from being just rappers to being cultural icons is because they innovate. Kanye West essentially reinvents himself and the rap genre every time he releases a new album. Kendrick Lamar went from rapping complex lyrics on simple beats to telling masterful, completely planned American narratives while accompanied by live legendary jazz artists. Future continues to rap about the same themes, except now he has more money because his last album was so successful.

In all fairness, Future produces content much more frequently than either of those artists, but maybe he should consider giving up immediate, easy musical gratification in the name of improving himself as an artist. In his defense, recent reports allege that, due to a breach of contract agreement with his original A1 Label, Future may have to give up all profits from FUTURE and his upcoming album, HNDRXX. While it does not excuse the notable lack of development and quality of Futures music, as a business decision, it does make sense for him to release the new content as quickly as possible to fulfill the obligation. Even so, I want to see an Atlanta rapper go from being a trap lord to a rap god. But if Future wants to achieve that status, he needs to break away from his past.

Rating: 6.2/10

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Review: Future stuck in the past - The Dartmouth

Eat better, drink less, exercise more, sleep enough: It's common advice for heart health - and it's frequently ignored. Just 3 percent of American adults meet the standards for healthy levels of physical activity, consumption of fruit and vegetables, body fat and smoking, according to recent study.

But a major lifestyle overhaul isn't the only way to help your heart, studies suggest. Even small changes can make substantial differences.

Eventually, little changes can add up, says David Goff, director of the cardiovascular sciences division at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda.

RELATED: TRENDING LIFE & STYLE NEWS THIS HOUR

"Any small change you make in a positive direction is good for you," he says. "It's not an all-or-nothing phenomenon."

Physical activity is a perfect example, Goff says. Official guidelines, which recommend 30 minutes of moderately intense activity on most days, are based partly on evidence of substantial health benefits from doing 150 to 300 minutes of exercise each week, according to a 2011 review study by researchers at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. Those benefits include reduced risks of coronary heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure.

But the guidelines also come out of an assessment of what is obtainable for most people, Goff adds. And while it would be ideal to get at least 150 minutes of exercise weekly, getting less than that also has benefits. When the researchers looked at deaths from all causes, they saw the sharpest drop in mortality when exercise jumped from half an hour to an hour and a half each week.

Just getting up for a minute or two to interrupt bouts of sitting may also improve health, the study noted. And moving for as little as eight minutes a few times a day provides the same cardiovascular benefits as 30 uninterrupted minutes.

"If you can't find 30 minutes a day, try to find five or 10 or 15," Goff says. "Anything is better than nothing."

The "some is better than none" philosophy applies to dietary improvements, too, Goff says. According to the National Institutes of Health, an ideal meal plan includes lots of fruit, vegetables and whole grains, with limited amounts of fatty meat and tropical oils.

But eating an imperfect diet with more of the good stuff is better than giving up entirely. That's a conclusion from a 2016 study that created food-quality scores from the self-reported diets of about 200,000 people. Over about 25 years, the study found, people whose diets scored lowest had a 13 percent higher risk of coronary artery disease than did people in the second-worst group.

Even just switching out soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages can help eliminate a couple hundred calories a day and control weight. That helps lower blood pressure, levels of harmful cholesterol and the potential for diabetes - all risk factors for heart disease, Goff says. Large long-term studies have shown that people who average one sugary drink a day have a 20 percent higher risk of heart attack than people who rarely drink any.

It's not just food and diet, adds Michael Miller, director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in and author of "Heal Your Heart: The Positive Emotions Prescription to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease." Heart strength can also come from battling stress by boosting emotional health in simple and unexpected ways, he says, such as enjoying a good laugh.

In a small 2005 study, Miller played movie clips for 20 people. When participants watched a scene that made them laugh, 19 of them experienced dilation of the blood vessels. In contrast, a stressful scene led to constriction in 14 of the 20 viewers. Since then, Miller says, other small studies have found similar results, including one showing that vessels stayed dilated for 24 hours. Dilation allows more blood to flow, decreasing blood pressure and heart rate.

"Cross-talk" between the brain and heart explains the potential long-term benefits of laughter, Miller says, particularly when laughter is intense enough to induce crying. Belly laughing releases endorphins, triggering receptors in blood vessels to produce nitric oxide, which in turn, dilates blood vessels, increases blood flow, reduces the risk of blood clots, and more.

People are far more likely to laugh when they're with friends, Miller adds, adding yet more evidence of the health benefits of being social.

Accumulating evidence suggests that another easy and enjoyable way to help your heart is to listen to music. During recovery from surgery, several studies have shown, listening to relaxing music leads to a reduction in anxiety and heart rate. And in a 2015 study, Greek researchers found reductions in how hard the hearts of 20 healthy young adults were working after 30 minutes of listening to rock or classical music.

"I tell my patients to dust off their old LPs now that LPs are coming back and listen to a piece of music they have not heard in a long time but in the past made them feel really good," Miller says.

Also on his list of recommendations: mindfulness meditation and hugging. Both, he says, look promising in studies of heart health and heart repair.

"Considering that stress probably accounts for a third of heart attacks," he says, "it can have a dramatic effect if you do all of these things in sync."

Small lifestyle change help at any age, suggests a 2014 study that started by assessing cardiovascular risks in more than 5,000 young adults in the mid-1980s. Twenty years later, people who had made even small but positive changes - such as losing a little weight, exercising a bit more or smoking a little less - showed less coronary artery calcification than people who didn't change or changed in a negative direction. Coronary artery calcification is a risk factor for heart disease.

For the best chance of success, Goff suggests taking on one little change at a time.

"The idea is to make a small change and then make another small change," he says. "It's about changing the way you live over years and years, not hours and days."

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To take care of your heart, even little changes can help - Chicago Tribune

Special To The Washington Post.

Eat better, drink less, exercise more, sleep enough: It's common advice for heart health - and it's frequently ignored. Just 3 percent of American adults meet the standards for healthy levels of physical activity, consumption of fruit and vegetables, body fat and smoking, according to recent study.

But a major lifestyle overhaul isn't the only way to help your heart, studies suggest. Even small changes can make substantial differences.

Eventually, little changes can add up, says David Goff, director of the cardiovascular sciences division at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda.

"Any small change you make in a positive direction is good for you," he says. "It's not an all-or-nothing phenomenon."

Physical activity is a perfect example, Goff says. Official guidelines, which recommend 30 minutes of moderately intense activity on most days, are based partly on evidence of substantial health benefits from doing 150 to 300 minutes of exercise each week, according to a 2011 review study by researchers at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. Those benefits include reduced risks of coronary heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure.

But the guidelines also come out of an assessment of what is obtainable for most people, Goff adds. And while it would be ideal to get at least 150 minutes of exercise weekly, getting less than that also has benefits. When the researchers looked at deaths from all causes, they saw the sharpest drop in mortality when exercise jumped from half an hour to an hour and a half each week.

Just getting up for a minute or two to interrupt bouts of sitting may also improve health, the study noted. And moving for as little as eight minutes a few times a day provides the same cardiovascular benefits as 30 uninterrupted minutes.

"If you can't find 30 minutes a day, try to find five or 10 or 15," Goff says. "Anything is better than nothing."

The "some is better than none" philosophy applies to dietary improvements, too, Goff says. According to the National Institutes of Health, an ideal meal plan includes lots of fruit, vegetables and whole grains, with limited amounts of fatty meat and tropical oils.

But eating an imperfect diet with more of the good stuff is better than giving up entirely. That's a conclusion from a 2016 study that created food-quality scores from the self-reported diets of about 200,000 people. Over about 25 years, the study found, people whose diets scored lowest had a 13 percent higher risk of coronary artery disease than did people in the second-worst group.

Even just switching out soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages can help eliminate a couple hundred calories a day and control weight. That helps lower blood pressure, levels of harmful cholesterol and the potential for diabetes - all risk factors for heart disease, Goff says. Large long-term studies have shown that people who average one sugary drink a day have a 20 percent higher risk of heart attack than people who rarely drink any.

It's not just food and diet, adds Michael Miller, director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in and author of "Heal Your Heart: The Positive Emotions Prescription to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease." Heart strength can also come from battling stress by boosting emotional health in simple and unexpected ways, he says, such as enjoying a good laugh.

In a small 2005 study, Miller played movie clips for 20 people. When participants watched a scene that made them laugh, 19 of them experienced dilation of the blood vessels. In contrast, a stressful scene led to constriction in 14 of the 20 viewers. Since then, Miller says, other small studies have found similar results, including one showing that vessels stayed dilated for 24 hours. Dilation allows more blood to flow, decreasing blood pressure and heart rate.

"Cross-talk" between the brain and heart explains the potential long-term benefits of laughter, Miller says, particularly when laughter is intense enough to induce crying. Belly laughing releases endorphins, triggering receptors in blood vessels to produce nitric oxide, which in turn, dilates blood vessels, increases blood flow, reduces the risk of blood clots, and more.

People are far more likely to laugh when they're with friends, Miller adds, adding yet more evidence of the health benefits of being social.

Accumulating evidence suggests that another easy and enjoyable way to help your heart is to listen to music. During recovery from surgery, several studies have shown, listening to relaxing music leads to a reduction in anxiety and heart rate. And in a 2015 study, Greek researchers found reductions in how hard the hearts of 20 healthy young adults were working after 30 minutes of listening to rock or classical music.

"I tell my patients to dust off their old LPs now that LPs are coming back and listen to a piece of music they have not heard in a long time but in the past made them feel really good," Miller says.

Also on his list of recommendations: mindfulness meditation and hugging. Both, he says, look promising in studies of heart health and heart repair.

"Considering that stress probably accounts for a third of heart attacks," he says, "it can have a dramatic effect if you do all of these things in sync."

Small lifestyle change help at any age, suggests a 2014 study that started by assessing cardiovascular risks in more than 5,000 young adults in the mid-1980s. Twenty years later, people who had made even small but positive changes - such as losing a little weight, exercising a bit more or smoking a little less - showed less coronary artery calcification than people who didn't change or changed in a negative direction. Coronary artery calcification is a risk factor for heart disease.

For the best chance of success, Goff suggests taking on one little change at a time.

"The idea is to make a small change and then make another small change," he says. "It's about changing the way you live over years and years, not hours and days."

Keywords: heart exercise, small changes, heart health, diet, weightloss, last five pounds, BMI, exercise, workout, sugar consumption, LDL cholesterol

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