Reciting the Iliad could have epic effects on your health. German physiologists have recently shown that such poetry can get your heart beating in time with your breaths. This synchronization may improve gas exchange in the lungs as well as the body's sensitivity and responsiveness to blood pressure changes.

Cardiovascular and respiratory responses are not normally in sync. Rhythmic fluctuations in blood pressure take place naturally in 10-second-long cycles known as Mayer waves, whereas spontaneous breathing normally occurs at a rate of approximately 15 breaths per minute.

Dirk Cysarz of the Herdecke Community Hospital and Institute of Mathematics at the University of Witten/ Herdecke wanted to explore the connection between these oscillating mechanisms, which are known to couple weakly at times. The type of poetry was a key aspect of the study. Cysarz and his colleagues specifically used Homer's Odyssey translated into German, which maintains the original hexametric pace of the verse--that is, six meters, or rhythmic units, per line. Hexameter is common in ancient epic poems, and both the Odyssey and the Iliad consist primarily of dactylic hexameter, which has three syllables per meter.

Several factors led the researchers to choose such verse. Cysarz says that one of his collaborators, speech therapist Petric Von Bonin, had extensive experience with this poetry form and felt it would yield the most promising results. Cysarz also cites historical accounts of Greek choruses and audiences gathering to recite more than 10,000 lines of hexameter without pausing. The verse must have produced feel-good effects, Cysarz surmises, "otherwise no one would want to listen to this poetry."

For this study, healthy subjects practiced three activities: hexameter reading, controlled breathing at six breaths per minute and spontaneous breathing. They recited while walking, breathing and lifting their arms. The researchers found increased synchronization between heart rate and breathing during the poetry readings but not during the spontaneous breathing. Controlled breathing also boosted synchronization, though not to the extent of recitation. Also, subjects found poetry reading stimulating but controlled breathing boring.

Cardiologist Juan Carlos Kaski of St. George's Hospital Medical School at the University of London has studied the effects of transcendental meditation on cardiac patients. He comments that other variables, such as vocal harmonics or differences in air-intake volume, may have caused the difference between the controlled breathing and hexameter recitation exercises.

Whether this recitation translates linguistically is another question. Rafael Campo, a poet and physician at Harvard Medical School, notes that hexameter in English is not one of the most appealing forms of poetry. He postulates, however, that something inherent in our physiology may have enabled this pattern of poetry to take shape.

Other studies have shown that rhythmic vocal recitations enhance cardiovascular activity. In 2001 physicians in Italy found that subjects who vocalized the Ave Maria in Latin or a typical yoga mantra in their original languages inherently slowed breathing to approximately six breaths per minute. Additionally, the poetry reading enhanced the baroreflex response--that is, the cardiovascular mechanism that adjusts to stabilize blood pressure. Increases in this response are a good sign for cardiac patients.

Cysarz wants to study the effects of this poetry recitation in people with hypertension. He expects that it will lower their blood pressure--and that patients will have fun while they're at it.