While all musical forms improved the functioning of the babies, parental singing had the greatest impact and also reduced the stress of parents singing. Research has shown that listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure and pain, as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness and memory. Music therapy is a wonderful option for children and adolescents in the hospital who are battling illness. This program includes a certified professional who uses music in a clinical manner to achieve goals that are individualized for each person. Music is used to reduce a patient’s pain, allow them to express themselves without words, and facilitate relaxation by singing, playing instruments, writing songs or listening to music.
Multiple studies have shown how playing music can actually make people happy. In fact, one study cited by Inc. found that listening to and playing music reduced anxiety and reduced depression levels in participants. Instead of wallowing in your worries, music gives you an outlet to focus your energy on positive activity, relieve your stress, lower blood pressure, and lower your heart rate so you feel better physically, mentally, and emotionally. Music therapy causes endorphins to be released; These act as natural painkillers.
Remember that this weakening makes us more susceptible to heart problems, learning disabilities, low bone density and increased blood pressure. According to studies, listening to 50 minutes of energetic music increases the production of antibodies in our body. If you’re one of those who don’t listen to a lot of music, it can be an excellent time to start. It has been found that music can facilitate the recovery of patients with heart problems.
Scientists have found that the emotions patients experience while listening to music have a beneficial effect on blood vessel function. The music made the study participants happier and resulted in increased blood flow in their blood vessels. But increasingly, researchers are discovering that the health benefits of music may go beyond mental health, and as a result, some health experts are calling for music therapy to be more widely integrated into health care. It is a tool in cases of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or Autism Spectrum Disorder. Music is like a gym for the brain, as it increases neural communication, elasticity and plasticity of the organ. Whether you have music training or listen to music, this will help us maintain a healthy brain into adulthood and old age.
Listening to music was also found to be more effective than prescription medications at reducing anxiety before surgery. For centuries, music has played an important role when it comes to our ability to deal with life’s biggest ups and downs. Only in recent years has research suggested that music can help fight depression and anxiety, along with a host of other mental health issues. Music therapy is a technique administered by health professionals to support people in striving to improve and control their mental health, functioning and well-being. Innes co-authored a 2016 study that found that listening to music could improve mood and well-being and improve stress-related measures in older adults suffering from cognitive decline.
In a randomized controlled trial, music helped improve depressed mood and depressive thought disorders in 28 people with schizophrenia. Another meta-analysis of 42 studies had similar results to the study mentioned above. Music therapy not only lowered blood pressure and heart rate, but also lowered cortisol levels. However, I have always House said that I try to find a balance between being a scientist and being a practitioner and from a practical point of view there is very little reason to avoid music as a way to improve your health and happiness. And music is one of the lifestyle choices we can make that relieves stress and anxiety, reduces pain and protects against illness.
Given the deep connection we have to music, it’s perhaps not surprising that countless studies have shown that it can benefit our mental health. A 2011 study by researchers at McGill University in Canada found that listening to music increases the amount of dopamine in the brain, a mood-enhancing chemical, making it a viable treatment for depression. In another study, slow-tempo music helped speed up recovery after exercise in 60 healthy subjects. The subjects also had a subjective feeling of faster recovery compared to listening to fast or no music. In another study conducted by the Cochrane Collaboration, music therapy was also successful in helping cancer patients struggling with their treatment options.
One study indicated that the body releases less cortisol, a stress hormone, when people listen to music. The same study referred to previous research that indicated that music had little measurable effect on cortisol levels. It can also lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, lower cortisol levels, and increase serotonin and endorphin levels in the blood. In another recent study, patients undergoing spine surgery were instructed to listen to self-chosen music the night before their surgery and until the second day after their surgery.
In one study, researchers found that patients who had hernia repair surgery and listened to music after surgery experienced decreased plasma cortisol levels and needed significantly less morphine to control their pain. In another study with surgery patients, the stress-reducing effects of music were more potent than the effect of an orally administered anti-anxiety medication. Evidence that music helps with memory has led researchers to study the impact of music on special populations, such as people suffering from memory loss due to illness. In a 2008 experiment, stroke patients going through rehabilitation were randomly assigned to listen to self-chosen music, an audiobook, or nothing on a daily basis. Patients were then assessed for mood, quality of life and various cognitive measures after one week, three months and 6 months after a stroke.
If your child or someone you know is battling cancer or another condition in the hospital, music therapy is a great treatment option. Along with traditional treatment plans, music therapy offers physical and mental health benefits. Music therapy is used to help with physical discomfort by improving breathing, lowering blood pressure, improving cardiac output, lowering heart rate and relaxing muscle tension.