It seems your piano teacher extolled the virtues of Mozart with good reason. Listening to music composed by the prodigy can actually improve health by reducing blood pressure, a new study says.

Researchers found that listening to a Mozart sonata lowered the systolic blood pressure of elderly patients by five per cent.

The systolic blood pressure is the top number of a blood pressure reading and measures the blood's pressure at the time the heart beats. The bottom number indicates blood pressure when the heart relaxes and fills with blood.

If both blood pressure numbers are too high for too long, more damage is done to blood vessels.

This can lead to an increased risk of stroke, heart disease and death.

The study also found that listening to an audio-guided relaxation program lowered systolic blood pressure by 6.4 per cent.

"Higher systolic blood pressure is very prevalent in the elderly population," lead study author Jean Tang, an assistant professor in the college of nursing at Seattle University, said in a statement.

"This program may provide yet another way to help manage hypertension in conjunction with medication, lifestyle changes, exercise, diet and stress management."

The researchers did caution that the blood pressure decreases alone will not drastically lower the patients' risks for heart disease, stroke or death.

The findings were presented at the American Heart Association's annual fall conference of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research.

Tang, along with researchers from the Swedish Heart and Vascular Institute, included 41 elderly patients with high blood pressure in the study.

The researchers had subjects listen to either an audio-guided relaxation program, which included instructions for relaxing the entire body accompanied by ocean sounds, or a Mozart sonata.

The patients listened to either CD three times a week for four months.

Study subjects found it easier to relax when following the relaxation CD, the researchers said. That could be because subjects who listened to Mozart did not focus on relaxing their bodies because they were busy enjoying the music.

The relaxation program had a calming effect on the nervous system that relaxed the blood vessels, which lowers blood pressure.

Listening to a relaxation program is an easy way to supplement ongoing care for chronic hypertension, the researcher concluded.

"This is a self-regulation tool that promotes patient autonomy in managing their health," Tang said. "Nursing homes or senior living facilities may use this without a doctor's order. It's noninvasive, available and has been around for 20 years."

As many as nine in 10 Canadians will develop high blood pressure, or hypertension, in their lifetime if they don't follow a healthy lifestyle, according to Blood Pressure Canada.

A healthy person's blood pressure reading should be less than 140/90, while a patient with kidney disease or diabetes should have a reading lower than 130/80.

Risk factors for developing high blood pressure include smoking, having high cholesterol, being overweight, following an unhealthy diet and a lack of exercise.