You may not be a fan of disco—but you might change your tune if you knew that it could save your life.
As it turns out, the name of the Bee Gees hit song, "Stayin' Alive," is more apt than you probably realize. In a recent study, doctors and medical students at the University of Illinois Medical School found that when it came to stopping cardiac arrest with CPR, they could find the perfect heart-pumping rhythm when listening to the disco hit: around 100 chest compressions per minute, much faster than most people realize.
In the study, subjects performed CPR on mannequins while listening to the disco hit, pumping in time to the music. The average number of pumps per minute was 109, just slightly above the ideal rate. Five weeks later, the subjects were asked to perform the same procedure without music, but told to think of the song while they worked. In that case, the average rate was still very close: 113 per minute.
The study's author, Dr. David Matlock, says that although both numbers were above the recommended rate, it's better to pump too fast than too slow. "It drove them and motivated them to keep up the rate, which is the most important thing," he told CNN.
Matlock believes that his promising results warrant further research on real patients, so it looks like the Bee Gees may be getting a second life in the medical world. Hopefully, the hospitals will skip out on the disco balls and bell bottom pants.
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