Scientific Benefits of Music for Health

Scientific Benefits of Music for Health Did you know there are many benefits from listening to music? Not just beautiful beats and notes, but good music for us. Music can soothe a broken heart, motivate and get a great party started, but it also has some serious scientific benefits for our health and overall well-being. Listening to music has been shown to improve memory function, increase healing rates, enhance your workout and more. And here are the scientific facts about the benefits of music: Music Improves Memory Patients with memory loss can often remember the music or lyrics of certain musical pieces. Doctors often use music and song lyrics to help patients recall lost memories. Certain music can trigger someone's memory, for example someone can remember the moments of their wedding because of certain music that was played at their wedding. Want to remember something from the past? Listen to the songs you listened to during that time! Music and its effect on memory has been hotly debated in the scientific world, but researchers now have evidence that music and language processing, particularly memorizing information, rely on some of the same brain systems. Researchers have also found evidence that suggests the music we listened to as teenagers has a greater emotional connection to our brains than anything we listened to as adults. This idea of musical nostalgia is a fun exercise for anyone, but is most impactful for people suffering from memory loss, including those with dementia or Alzheimer's. Here is a story about the transformative power of music from a man whose father suffered from Alzheimer's: “As a family, we didn't know what to do when our father diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. We have gone through so many stages and now he seems to be getting worse. However, it seems music has made a comeback some memories of him! ” Music and musical training have also been shown to protect the aging brain and keep it healthy. Researchers from the University of Kansas Medical Center conducted an experiment in which they divided 70 healthy adults, ages 60 to 83, into three groups based on their amount of musical experience: no music training, one to nine years of music lessons and at least 10 years of music study. The participants, who had similar levels of fitness and education and were free of Alzheimer's disease, were given several cognitive tests: • Those with the greatest amount of musical experience did best on this test of mental acuity, followed by those with the least musical study followed by those who had never taken music lessons. • Compared with non-musicians, individuals with high levels of musical experience score significantly higher on cognitive tests, including those related to visual and spatial memory, object naming and the brain's ability to adapt to new information The really cool part? The benefits of music learning and training are still apparent even in participants who no longer play an instrument. Music Can Increase Sports Spirit Music not only distracts us from "body consciousness" aka aches and pains while exercising, it also has health effects. Listening to music releases endorphins in the brain. Endorphins give us a high feeling of pleasure. In addition to feeling euphoric, endorphins quell anxiety, reduce pain and stabilize the immune system. With high endorphin levels, we have fewer negative effects from stress. Playing music can also increase the effort we put in during exercise. In one study, researchers found that cyclists worked harder and rode farther when listening to faster music compared to music with a slower tempo. When the tempo slows, so does the rhythm of their bicycle pedaling. Their heart rate drops and their mileage drops. They reported that they didn't really like the music. On the other hand, when the tempo of the songs increased by 10 percent, the people covered more distance in the same time period, generating more force with each pedal and increasing their pedal cadence. For speed-based exercises like running or lifting weights, music can help set a rhythm and signal to the brain when the body needs to move. These signals help us use our energy more efficiently, so we don't feel tired as quickly. Music Helps Healing A study from the Austrian General Hospital Salzburg found that patients recovering from back surgery had improved healing rates and reported to doctors less pain when there was music in the standard rehabilitation process. "Music is an important part of our physical and emotional well-being, from the time we are babies in our mother's womb we listen to her heartbeat and the rhythm of her breath." - Chief clinical psychologist Austrian General, Franz Wendtner. Music is connected to the automatic nervous system (brain function, blood pressure and heart rate) and the limbic system (feelings and emotions). When slow music is played, the body's reaction follows, the heart rate slows down and blood pressure drops. This causes the breath to slow down, which helps release tension in the neck, shoulders, stomach, and back. Listening to slow music can help our bodies relax, meaning less pain and a quicker recovery time. Finnish researchers conducted a similar study, but with stroke patients. They found that if stroke patients listened to music for several hours a day, verbal memory and focused attention recovered better and they had a more positive mood than patients who listened to nothing or who only listened to audio texts. These findings have led to a clinical recommendation for stroke patients: listening to music daily during early stroke recovery in a way that is “individually targeted, easy to perform and inexpensive to facilitate cognitive and emotional recovery,” said Teppo Särkämö, study author. With brain imaging techniques, such as functional MRI, music is increasingly being used in therapy for brain-related injuries and diseases. Brain scans have proven that music and motor control share circuits, so music can improve movement for those suffering from Parkinson's disease and for individuals recovering from stroke. Neurological music therapy should be part of rehabilitation care, according to this group of doctors. They believe that future findings may indicate that music should be included in the therapy and rehabilitation regimen for many disorders. Music Reduces Stress and Relieves Anxiety Music has a unique relationship with our emotions, and research has found that it can be used as a highly effective stress control tool. Just as listening to slow music calms the body, music also has a relaxing effect on the mind. Researchers at Stanford University found that listening to music appears to change brain function as much as medication. Because music is widely available and inexpensive, it is an easy stress reduction option. So, what type of music best reduces stress? -Native American, Celtic, Indian string instruments, drums and flutes - the sound of rain, thunder and nature sounds -light jazz, classical music and easy to listen to HelpGuide.org, a non-profit mental health and wellness organization encourages individuals to practice a healthy sonic diet. They advise that “when choosing a location to dine, hold a business meeting, or visit somewhere with friends, be aware of the healthy environment, including noise levels and the type of music being played. Noisy and loud environments, such as those we try to ignore, can contribute to unconscious stress and tension without us realizing it. ” Just as junk food increases stress in our system, sonic diets or poor listening can do the same. Choose a calmer environment and setting to allow your body to relax and recharge. Making songs can also release tension and relieve stress. Dana Marlowe, a technology accessibility consultant, escapes the challenges of everyday work in her toddler's playroom: I just played with his toys - xylophone, baby piano. I almost had Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’. Research has shown that casual music making can short-circuit the stress response system and keep it from recurring or becoming chronic. WebMD tells us that “stress starts in the brain and then starts a chain reaction that activates the stress response in every cell of our body. Over time, these cellular switches can get stuck in the 'on' position, leading to feelings of exhaustion, anger, or depression as well as a number of physical ailments. " Music Improves Sleep Quality Insomnia and other sleep deprivation problems can ruin our lives. What if music could help? According to a study conducted by Harmat, Takács and Bódizs, 94 students (ages 19 to 28) with sleep complaints were taken to the laboratory. Participants were divided into 3 groups. The first group listened to classical music at bedtime for 45 minutes for 3 weeks. The second group listened to audio texts at bedtime for 45 minutes for 3 weeks and the control group had no intervention from the researcher. Sleep quality and depressive symptoms were measured using the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index and Beck Depression Inventory. The result? The participants who listened to music showed a statistically significant improvement in sleep quality and a decrease in depressive symptoms. No statistically significant results were found for the audio text or control groups. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes claims that "an estimated 40 million Americans each year live with chronic sleep disorders, while another 20 million experience difficulty sleeping from time to time." In one meta-analysis of 10 randomized studies, researchers tracked 557 participants with chronic sleep disorders. They found that sleep quality was significantly improved by music and concluded that "music can be helpful in improving the sleep quality of patients with acute and chronic sleep disorders." The various benefits of music above might encourage us to listen to music or play musical instruments more often. But if our goal is to improve and maintain health, of course if we only rely on music, that's not enough. It is necessary to implement a healthy lifestyle and music is only a support in this health matter.