Everyone loves music! We sing along with it, dance to it, and often lose ourselves in it. Music makes even the most mundane activities entertaining. It can invoke a memory or induce a mood. However, did you know that music can also improve our health?
Listening to music has numerous health benefits:
- Improves mood. Listening to music can benefit overall well-being, help regulate emotions, and make us happier and more relaxed.
- Reduces stress. Listening to ‘soft’ music (generally considered to have slow tempo, low pitch, and no lyrics) has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety in most people.
- Lessens anxiety. In studies of people with cancer, patients who listened to music while receiving standard health care had lower rates of anxiety compared to those who received standard care alone.
- Improves exercise. Music can enhance aerobic exercise, boost mental and physical stimulation, and increase overall athletic performance.
- Improves memory. Repetitive elements of rhythm and melody help our brains form patterns that enhance memory.
- Eases pain. Patients recovering from surgery who listened to music before, during, or after surgery had less pain and more overall satisfaction compared with patients who did not listen to music as part of their health care.
- Provides comfort. In patients who have a serious illness and who are in end-of-life care, music therapy has been used to help improve communication, coping skills, and expression of emotions such as fear, loneliness, and anger.
- Improves cognition. Listening to music can also help people with Alzheimer’s recall seemingly lost memories and even help maintain some mental acuity.
With all these health benefits, why not turn on some music today and see what happens!
And why not make music yourself. Even someone as untalented as me can whistle. I find it a joyful noise.
As someone who has WQXR as a constant kitchen companion, I agree with this wholeheartedly! Nothing better for anything that a ails you.