Music and its benefits

Music and its benefits 

American artist Billy Joel famously observed, "I think music in itself is healing. It's a powerful manifestation of humanity. It is something that affects us all. Everyone likes music, regardless of their cultural background. This is something that most of us would heartily concur with, and it is this global interest in music's healing potential that has prompted researchers to study it.

Each of us can name at least one song that makes us feel something when we hear it. It can be a song that you associate with a terrible breakup or the loss of a loved one, or it might be a song that played during your first dance at your wedding.

According to Barbara Else, senior adviser of policy and research at the American Music Therapy Association, "We have a such a deep connection to music because it is 'hardwired'" in our bodies. "Our physiology, functioning, and being are echoed by the elements of music, such as rhythm and melody."

Given our strong bond with music, it may not come as a surprise that multiple studies have found it to be good for our mental health. According to a 2011 study conducted by McGill University researchers in Canada, music therapy may be an effective way to cure depression because it boosts the brain's production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that improves mood.

And earlier this year, MNT covered a study indicating that listening to hip-hop music, especially that of Kendrick Lamar, may aid people in understanding mental health conditions. The study was published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

But as more studies reveal that music therapy may have health benefits that transcend beyond mental health, some health professionals are asking for music therapy to be more extensively used in healthcare settings.

lowering discomfort and worry

A famous line from Bob Marley is, "One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain." Some studies suggest that this claim may be accurate.

Earlier this year, MNT covered a study from Brunel University in the UK that claimed music can help surgical patients feel less pain and anxious.

More than 7,000 patients who underwent surgery were included in 72 randomised controlled trials, and it was discovered that those who listened to music afterward experienced less pain and anxiety than those who did not, and they were also less likely to require painkillers.

This study is only one of many that praises music's ability to reduce pain. Danish researchers discovered in March 2014 that listening to music may help fibromyalgia sufferers, who experience exhaustion and pain in their muscles and joints.

22 fibromyalgia patients who listened to soothing, self-selected music experienced "significantly reduced pain and increased functional mobility," according to the researchers.

But why does music seem to reduce suffering? While the precise mechanisms are still unknown, several experts think that one explanation is that music-listening causes the brain's natural painkillers, opioids, to be released.

A powerful stress-reliever

There are various research that support the idea that listening to your favourite music might help you feel better when you're anxious.

For instance, a study reported by MNT last month indicated that playing music to babies instead of talking to them, even when the talking featured baby jargon, resulted in longer periods of calmness.

The repetitive nature of the music the infants listened to, according to the study's researchers, including Prof. Isabelle Peretz of the Centre for Research on Brain, Music, and Language at the University of Montreal in Canada, may have helped the infants feel less distressed by encouraging "entrainment"—the capacity of the body's internal rhythms to synchronise with external rhythms, pulses, or beats.

Another study from 2013 indicated that, regardless of social variables, listening to music benefited youngsters at the UK's Great Ormond Street Hospital to feel less pain and anxiety as well as stress.

According to some experts, listening to music may reduce cortisol levels in the body, which is the hormone released as a result of stress.

However, according to the review by Dr. Levitin and colleagues, the sort of music one listens to may have an impact on this stress-relieving effect, with soothing music being the most likely to do so.

According to Dr. Levitin and colleagues, the impact that music has on brainstem-mediated metrics like pulse, heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature is yet another way that it may reduce stress.

According to them, soothing music causes drops in cardiovascular measurements whereas stimulating music causes rises. These effects are primarily mediated by tempo: slower music and musical pauses are linked to lower heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure, while faster music is linked to higher levels of these parameters.

Numerous experts feel that music may be useful for treating heart issues because of how it affects heart rate and its potential to reduce stress.

Earlier this year, MNT covered a study by researchers from the UK's University of Oxford that was presented at the British Cardiology Society Conference in Manchester, UK. They found that repeated musical phrases may help control heart rate and lower blood pressure, though they cautioned that more research is needed in this area.

Rhythm and memory

Certain songs have the power to bring back memories of specific times or occasions in our lives, some of which bring us joy and others which we would prefer to forget.

Researchers are increasingly examining whether music can improve memory recall in light of this.

In a 2013 study that was featured in the journal Memory & Cognition, 60 persons who were learning Hungarian were enrolled. The adults were assigned at random to one of three learning tasks: singing the phrases, speaking unknown Hungarian words in a rhythmic manner, or speaking the words out loud.

Researchers discovered that participants who sang the sentences had considerably higher recall accuracy than the other two groups when asked to recall the phrases. The authors conclude that their findings "indicate that a 'listen-and-sing' learning method can facilitate verbatim memory for spoken foreign language phrases."

According to data from these studies, music may aid memory recall for persons with cognitive illnesses like Alzheimer's disease.

The impact of music on memory recall in people with early-stage dementia was examined in a study published in the journal Gerontologist last year.

For the study, 89 dementia patients and their careers were divided into three groups at random: a singing coaching group, a music listening coaching group, and normal care.

The findings showed that both the singing and music-listening groups performed better on cognitive tests than the usual care group in terms of episodic memory as well as mood and general well-being. Reliable Source. In comparison to the standard care group, the singing group had superior working memory.