LISTENING to your favourite music is beneficial if you suffer from heart disease, a study suggests.

Combined music and exercise produced the most benefit, according to research presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2013 in Amsterdam.

A total of 74 patients with cardiac disease were divided into three groups.

At the end of the trial, the patients who had combined music and exercise had significantly boosted measures of heart function, as well as improving their exercise capacity by 39%.

The group which only took exercise improved their capacity by 29%, while the group which took no exercise but listened to their favourite music for half an hour a day improved their exercise function by 19%.

Professor Marina Deljanin Ilic said: "The combination of music and exercise led to the most improvement."