Who hasn’t heard that music is the medicine of the soul? And it has been proven that music can have an important benefit for our mood, and currently, scientific studies have contributed to this theory. So, if you’re one of those who can’t live without your favorite playlist, check out this note that’s sure to encourage you to keep listening to your favorite song.
Music is an increasingly recurrent complement in hospitals, as it helps to reduce pain and favors the production of endorphins.
Music ignites our emotions through varied memories. Listening to music is one of the few activities that involve the use of the whole brain. It is intrinsic to all cultures and can have surprising benefits from listening to it. Find out below what the health benefits of listening to music are.
EFFECTIVE FOR PAIN
Some of the benefits of listening to music are that it can reduce the chronic pain of a variety of painful diseases, such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, by up to 21% and depression by up to 25%, according to studies.
Music therapy is increasingly used in hospitals to reduce the need for medication during childbirth, decrease post-operative pain, and supplement the use of anesthesia during surgery.
All of this happens because music serves as a distractor, gives a sense of control and causes the body to release endorphins to counteract pain. In addition, slow music helps decrease breathing and heart rate, avoiding the feeling of distress.
ACCELERATES RECOVERY AFTER HAVING A STROKE
A daily dose of one of your favorite melodies whether it’s pop, classical or jazz can speed recovery from debilitating hemorrhages or paralysis, according to the latest research, when stroke patients listen to music for a couple of hours each day, verbal memory and attention span improves significantly.
CHRONIC HEADACHES AND MIGRAINE
Another benefit of listening to music is that it can help those who suffer from migraine! It also helps fight chronic headache and reduce the intensity, frequency and duration of headaches.
INCREASES YOUR IMMUNITY
Scientists explain that music can create a deep and positive emotional experience, leading to the secretion of immune stimulating hormones.
This contributes to a reduction in the factors responsible for the disease. Listening to music or singing can also decrease levels of cortisol, the stress-related hormone. Higher levels of cortisol can lead to a decreased immune response.
INCREASES MEMORY PERFORMANCE, LEARNING AND IQ
Studies have confirmed that listening to music or playing an instrument can really make you learn better. Mozart’s music and baroque music activate the left and right brain. Simultaneous left and right brain action maximizes learning and information retention.
The information being studied activates the left hemisphere, while music activates the right hemisphere of the brain. In addition, activities that engage both sides of the brain at the same time, such as playing an instrument and singing, make the brain more capable of processing information.
IMPROVES CONCENTRATION AND ATTENTION
Relaxing music improves the duration and intensity of concentration at all ages and skill levels.
IMPROVES BODY MOVEMENT AND COORDINATION
Music reduces muscle tension and body movement and improves coordination. It also plays an important role in the development, maintenance and restoration of physical function in the rehabilitation of people with movement disorders.
WHAT’S UP WITH THE BRAIN AND THE MUSIC?
The very evolution of music, its stages, its use as a distinctive and cultural trait make it seem infinite, so different in every region, epoch, culture, subculture, niche, stratum, band, urban tribe, person… and so on to infinity. And if that were not enough, music, that which makes life right, has powerful effects on the human body.
There have been many scientific studies that have addressed the effects of music on people, including animals and plants. What has been found is no small thing, let’s know a little about it.
Different studies have been carried out with the passage of time, and in them it has been found that music, for example, affects the chemistry of the brain.
And it is that the music that is pleasant to us makes us release dopamine, a neurohormone released by the hypothalamus, and that is related to pleasure; however, it has other beneficial functions such as being present in the processes of learning, behavior, motor activity, sleep, humor, attention.
This is why other studies have found in music the relationship in the improvement of motor activity in the treatment of patients with Parkinson’s or increased spatial reasoning in autistic patients and support in therapies of patients suffering convulsions.
INTERESTING FACT…
When you listen to music your brain is activated in different areas regarding tonality, rhythm and lyrics of the songs.
So now you know, if you want to feel better and listen to your favorite music, kill two birds with one stone and enter this new therapy that we are sure will be the best medicine you can take.
