Music and Health
Music is one of the most captivating boons that endures in this world. Be it a peppy day or a gloomy day, there’s all kinds of music to exhilarate as well as soothe you. While we all see music as a leisure time companion, most of us don’t know that it has amazing effects on our health.
Very few of us know that there is something called musical therapy where, a musical therapist uses music to help clients improve their physical and mental health. Music therapists use their techniques to help their patients in many areas, ranging from stress relief before and after surgeries to neuropathology such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Listening to your favourite kind of music decreases the levels of cortisol – the stress hormone and increases the level of dopamine – the “feel good” hormone in blood. Together, they do an amazingly good-end job at curtailing anxiety and stress. Also, depression is lessened by listening to meditative or classical music like Mozart’s symphonies. Such soothing music is also known to have reduced physical pain in cancer patients and others like the patients in intensive care.
Music increases your efficiency while carrying out any physical exercise. A research proves that runners who listened to motivational music were more efficient compared to the ones who ran listening to calm or no music. The same results were observed with cycling or any other type of workout. Another intriguing effect of music is that, it helps us eat less. When we listen to soft music during a meal, we tend to slow down to relish every ounce of it and ultimately, we consume less food.
Classical music is a cheaper and robust alternative for sleep-inducing pills. It is known to have helped considerable number of people suffering from insomnia. So next time, let Beethoven or Mozart help you get that much needed beauty sleep!
Neuroscientists have documented many anatomical changes that come with musical experience but the most profound one is the thickening of the corpus callosum – a band of nerve fibres that connect the left with the right hemisphere of brain. It also helps in thickening of the grey matter in brain where neuron signals are relayed. So, music also enhances cognition and memory. It strengthens learning which is proved by a research that shows that musicians are better at learning a new language. Musical notes help in the faster recovery of stroke and Alzheimer’s. It is observed that when stroke patients listened to music for two hours a day, their verbal memory and attention improved faster. Music has the potential of dramatically reviving the memory of Alzheimer’s patients. People with Alzheimer’s Disease and other age-related dementias remember things by listening to their dearest songs.
So, when life gives you a bad time, turn on your speakers and listen to your favourite song. Because, music is an inexpensive source of health and happiness. Make sure you exploit it well!
Written By: Priyadarshini S. Srinivasan
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