A University of Illinois medical school study confirms that disco could save your life.
Dr. David Matlock, on the school’s Peoria campus, has shown that the ’70s Bee Gees hit, “Stayin’ Alive” is, at 103 beats per minute, the perfect metronome for CPR.
Matlock had heard of a link between the tune and CPR. In 2006, Dr. Alson Inaba, an ER doctor in Honolulu, published findings of such a link in the Journal of Emergency Management.
Matlock’s goal was to validate Inaba’s observations. His study had subjects doing CPR on mannequins while listening to the song on iPods. Later, they did the same drill without the music.
The test showed that the song and the beat stuck in their heads, yielding compression rates within an acceptable range of the 100 per minute recommended by the American Heart Association.
“Some in the study didn’t have any intrinsic rhythm,” Matlock said, “but the averages were within the guidelines.” He will present his findings at an American College of Emergency Physicians meeting in Chicago on Oct. 27th.
CPR can triple a heart-attack victim’s chances of survival, but the proper rhythm is essential.
Inaba’s students seemed, without the music, to push and release too quickly — around 150 beats per minute — to allow the heart to completely expand and fill with blood. Matlock’s subjects, on the other hand, were dangerously slow without the tune in mind.
The technique already has saved lives. But should you find yourself using it, be prepared to explain the falsetto.
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cleroux@tribune.com
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