New Study Shows That Going to Concerts is Good for You

As most metal fans know, concerts are a great way to relieve stress. For many, live shows are the one place where, for a few hours, one can escape the pressures of the world at large and just enjoy themselves. And now a new study shows that this isn’t just a common sense notion–it’s a scientific fact.

The Center of Performance Science in London has released a study where they took saliva samples from 117 attendees at two concerts, and found that the concertgoers’s saliva contained fewer stress-indicating chemicals, such as glucocorticoids and progesterone, after attending a live performance.

Now, the study makes it clear that these test subjects attended a pretty tame show by anyone’s standard:

The study also focused solely on the effects of relatively calm, classical music; more research will be needed to ascertain whether other genres of music elicit different effects or whether attending other types of cultural events has different endocrine impact. Nevertheless, this study opens up the question of how engaging with music and the arts in cultural settings can influence biological and psychological states and, consequently, the potential of cultural events to enhance people’s broader health and well-being

Admittedly, scientists might have found higher levels of stress chemicals had they taken saliva samples from those in attendance that night at the youth center when Laura made out with Chuck even though Bobby was right there watching them. I can’t believe she did that, dude.

While anyone who’s ever blown off their hard day at a Napalm Death show already knows that live music is the ultimate stress reliever, it’s good to know that they now have an academic study to back them up–even if it wasn’t used to answer the really important questions.

[via Metal Insider]