How Music Affects Us and Promotes Health

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Music is one of the few activities that involves using the whole brain. It is intrinsic to all cultures and can
have surprising benefits not only for learning language, improving memory and focusing attention, but
also for physical coordination and development.

Of course, music can be distracting if it's too loud or too jarring, or if it competes for our attention with
what we're trying to do. But for the most part, exposure to many kinds of music has beneficial effects:

1Music heals

Effective therapy for pain

Overall, music does have positive effects on pain management. Music can help reduce both the
sensation and distress of both chronic pain and postoperative pain.

Listening to music can reduce chronic pain from a range of painful conditions, including osteoarthritis,
disc problems and rheumatoid arthritis, by up to 21% and depression by up to 25%, according to a paper
in the latest UK-based Journal of Advanced Nursing29.

Music therapy is increasingly used in hospitals to reduce the need for medication during childbirth, to
decrease postoperative pain and complement the use of anesthesia during surgery30.

There are several theories about how music positively affects perceived pain:

1. Music serves as a distractor

2. Music may give the patient a sense of control
3. Music causes the body to release endorphins to counteract pain
4. Slow music relaxes person by slowing their breathing and heartbeat

Reducing blood pressure

By playing recordings of relaxing music every morning and evening, people with high blood pressure can
train themselves to lower their blood pressure - and keep it low31. According to research reported at the
American Society of Hypertension meeting in New Orleans, listening to just 30 minutes of classical, Celtic
or raga music every day may significantly reduce high blood pressure.

Medicine for the heart

Music is good for your heart. Research shows that it is musical tempo, rather than style. Italian and British
researchers32 recruited young men and women, half of whom were trained musicians. The participants
slipped on head phones and listened to six styles of music, including rap and classical pieces, with
random two-minute pauses. As the participants kicked back and listened, the researchers monitored their
breathing, heart rates and blood pressure. The participants had faster heart and breathing rates when
they listened to lively music. When the musical slowed, so did their heart and breathing rates. Some
results were surprising. During the musical pauses, heart and breathing rates normalized or reached
more optimal levels. Whether or not a person liked the style of music did not matter. The tempo, or pace,
of the music had the greatest effect on relaxation.

Speeds Post-Stroke Recovery

A daily dose of one's favorite pop melodies, classical music or jazz can speed recovery from debilitating
strokes, according to the latest research. When stroke patients in Finland listened to music for a couple of
hours each day, verbal memory and attention span improved significantly compared to patients who
received no musical stimulation, or who listened only to stories read out loud, the study reports33.

Chronic headaches & migraine remedy

Music can help migraine34 and chronic headache35 sufferers reduce the intensity, frequency, and duration
of the headaches.

Music boosts immunity

Music can boost the immune function. Scientists explain that a particular type of music can create a
positive and profound emotional experience, which leads to secretion of immune-boosting hormones22.
This helps contribute to a reduction in the factors responsible for illness. Listening to music or singing can
also decrease levels of stress-related hormone cortisol. Higher levels of cortisol can lead to a decreased
immune response23-24.

2Music even makes you smarter

Music enhances intelligence, learning and IQ

The idea that music makes you smarter received considerable attention from scientists and the media.
Listening to music or playing an instrument can actually make you learn better. And research confirms
this.

Music has the power to enhance some kinds of higher brain function:

Reading and literacy skills11-13

Spatial-temporal reasoning14-15
Mathematical abilities16-17 - Even children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder benefit in
mathematics tests from listening to music beforehand.
Emotional intelligence

Earlier it has been thought that listening to classical music, particularly Mozart, enhances performance on
cognitive tests. However, recent findings18 show that listening to any music that is personally enjoyable
has positive effects on cognition.

Music improves memory performance

The power of music to affect memory is quite intriguing. Mozart's music and baroque music, with a 60
beats per minute beat pattern, activates the left and right brain. The simultaneous left and right brain
action maximizes learning and retention of information. The information being studied activates the left
brain while the music activates the right brain. Also, activities which engage both sides of the brain at the
same time, such as playing an instrument or singing, cause the brain to be more capable of processing
information.

Listening to music facilitates the recall of information19. Researchers have shown that certain types of
music are a great "keys" for recalling memories. Information learned while listening to a particular song
can often be recalled simply by "playing" the songs mentally.

Musical training has even better effect than just listening to classical music. There is clear evidence20, that
children who take music lessons develop a better memory compared with children who have no musical
training.

Note: For learning or memory performance, it's important that music doesn't have a vocal component;
otherwise you're more likely to remember the words of the background song than what you're supposed
to be recalling.

Music improves concentration and attention

Easy listening music or relaxing classics improves the duration and intensity of concentration in all age
groups and ability levels. It's not clear what type of music is better, or what kind of musical structure is
necessary to help, but many studies have shown significant effects21.

3Music improves physical performance

Music improves athletic performance

Choosing music that motivates you will make it easier to start moving, walking, dancing, or any other type
of exercise that you enjoy. Music can make exercise feel more like recreation and less like work.
Furthermore, music enhances athletic performance6-8! Anyone who has ever gone on a long run with their
iPod or taken a particularly energetic spinning class knows that music can make the time pass more
quickly.

The four central hypotheses explaining music's facilitation of exercise performance include:

Reduction in the feeling of fatigue

Increase in levels of psychological arousal
Physiological relaxation response
Improvement in motor coordination

Music improves body movement and coordination

Music reduces muscle tension and improves body movement and coordination 25-26. Music may play an
important role in developing, maintaining and restoring physical functioning in the rehabilitation of persons
with movement disorders.

4Music helps to work more productively

Fatigue fighter

Listening to upbeat music can be a great way to find some extra energy. Music can effectively eliminate
exercise-induced fatigue9 and fatigue symptoms caused by monotonous work 10.

Keep in mind that listening to too much pop and hard rock music can make you more jittery than
energized. Vary what you listen to and find out what type of music is most beneficial for you. You could try
classical music one day, pop the next day and jazz the third.

Music improves productivity

Many people like to listen to music while they work and I am certainly one of them. How about you? Did
you know you can perform better at your work with music? Whilst there may be many reasons for wishing
to listen to music in the workplace, it really improves your productivity27!

According to a report in the journal Neuroscience of Behavior and Physiology 28, a person's ability to
recognize visual images, including letters and numbers, is faster when either rock or classical music is
playing in the background.

5Music calms, relaxes and helps to sleep

Relaxing music induces sleep

Relaxing classical music is safe, cheap and easy way to beat insomnia 1. Many people who suffer from
insomnia find that Bach music helps them. Researchers have shown that just 45 minutes of relaxing
music before bedtime can make for a restful night2.

Relaxing music reduces sympathetic nervous system activity, decreases anxiety, blood pressure, heart
and respiratory rate and may have positive effects on sleep via muscle relaxation and distraction from
thoughts.

Music reduces stress and aids relaxation

Listening to slow, quiet classical music, is proven to reduce stress 3. Countless studies have shown that
music's relaxing effects can be seen on anyone, including newborns.

One of the great benefits of music as a stress reliever is that it can be used while you do your usual
deeds so that it really doesn't take time.

How does music reduces stress?

Physical relaxation. Music can promote relaxation of tense muscles, enabling you to easily release
some of the tension you carry from a stressful day.
Aids in stress relief activities. Music can help you get "into the zone" when practicing yoga, self
hypnosis or guided imagery, can help you feel energized when exercising and recover after exercising,
help dissolve the stress when you're soaking in the tub.
Reduces negative emotions. Music, especially upbeat tunes, can take your mind off what stresses you,
and help you feel more optimistic and positive. This helps release stress and can even help you keep
from getting as stressed over life's little frustrations in the future. Researchers discovered 4 that music can
decrease the amount of the cortisol, a stress-related hormone produced by the body in response to
stress.

6Music improves mood and decreases depression

Prescription for the blues

Music's ability to "heal the soul" is the stuff of legend in every culture. Many people find that music lifts
their spirits. Modern research tends to confirm music's psychotherapeutic benefits 5. Bright, cheerful music
(e.g. Mozart, Vivaldi, bluegrass, Klezmer, Salsa, reggae) is the most obvious prescription for the blues.

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