The Bee Gee's 1977 hit song "Stayin' Alive" has just about the perfect tempo for performing chest compressions during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), according to the American Heart Association.
The song has 103 beats per minute, and doctors recommend compressing the chest 100 times per minute in order to perform CPR, a resuscitation technique that can increase a patient's chances for survival by up to 300 percent -- but only if the chest compressions are done at the proper rate.
Reuters asked Dr. David Matlock of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria to explain why he settled on that song, since many others have a similar tempo. Unsurprisingly, he said that the name of the song was a factor, as was the fact that so many people already have it pretty much memorized. "The theme 'Stayin' Alive' is very appropriate for the situation," said Matlock. "Everybody's heard it at some point in their life. People know the song and can keep it in their head."
His small study involved playing "Stayin' Alive" while CPR students practiced CPR on dummies. Five weeks later, participants were still able to perform chest compressions at the proper rate by playing the music in their heads.
A BPM Database search revealed that other candidates for accompanying 100 BPM CPR include the Backstreet Boys' "Quit Playin' Games (With My Heart)," Mariah Carey's "Heartbreaker," Everclear's "When It All Goes Wrong," Patty Loveless's "Strong Heart" and Fun Factory's "Don't Go Away."
SOURCE: Wired
No comments:
Post a Comment