Music Therapy
Content Courtesy of the Forever Young Podcast with Christiana Egi and Cherrie-Marie Chiu.
Did you know that music is really good for your brain? After doing some reading on it, we thought it would be fun to chat about music and what it can do for your brain! Music is a universal language. It affects everyone, either negatively or positively depending on what you like, and what type of music is playing at the time. 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. So read on to find out more about how music therapy can affect our brain.
In our most recent podcast episode, we discussed that when thirteen older adults took piano lessons, their attention, memory, and problem-solving abilities improved, along with their moods and quality of life. So you don't have to become a pro, you just have to take a few lessons. So, do you want to learn a new instrument?
Although music provides great benefit to listeners, that people who play music have a double effect, that it literally lights up their brains. John Hopkins researchers have found that dozens of jazz performance and rappers improvised music while lying down inside of an fMRI (that is a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine) to watch and see which areas of their brains light up. Music is structural, mathematical, and architectural. It is based on relationships between one node to the next. You may not be aware of it, but your brain has to do a lot of computing to make sense of it. Listen to our full podcast episode on Music Therapy to learn more:
Music can help or encourage us to move. So that makes sense seeing so many people that are plugged in while they're at the gym. You can listen to audiobooks or podcasts, and even quick, fast-paced music for when you are doing cardio at the gym. That's exactly what music therapy helps you do. It encourages people to move and when you move, you increase your heart rate and get some cardiovascular exercise benefits. This can in turn improve muscle bone density, flexibility, balance, and coordination as well as more improvement.
Did you know that listening to music that is not from your era can help jumpstart creativity? So this means you need to listen to your children's music or the music that your parents listened to. Music can help recall memories as well. For example, listening to a specific song might help you remember the day you graduated from high school, or when you met that special someone. You know how you have your song, right? Music can also trigger an emotional response of happiness or sadness. Music is so impactful.
Much more than spiking creativity and happiness to recall memories, music is also being used for therapy, with anyone but mostly with older adults with Alzheimer's. There are two main types of music therapy, active or receptive. You don't need musical talent, so anyone can participate. With active music therapy, you're actively involved. It usually involves you know, playing some instruments dancing or singing. This type of activity encourages physical stimulation that can be beneficial for physical health. While receptive music therapy involves periods of time for mindful listening and typically involves curated recorded or live music. The song of choice also reflects the person's culture, generation, and personal experiences.
Music and Alzheimer’s
Music is linked to memory. As you go through life, you will likely associate certain songs, artists, and genres with major milestones and events, as we mentioned before. Alzheimer's disease affects certain parts of your brain, especially your short-term memory, but a patient’s long-term memory can stay with them. Music can be so powerful, not only in triggering memory, but also in reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and agitation.
It's interesting that musical memory sticks and that is often untouched by people who are living with Alzheimer's. People with Alzheimer's and other types of dementia, although they may find it hard to communicate (and this often leads to isolation and depression) music can provide a way for them to express and communicate with their caregivers. One of the most important things at Alexis Lodge is music and dancing, as it helps those with Alzheimer’s maintain a grasp on experiences and their identities. So music therapy helps them to keep that hold on reality and things that bring them joy. So while there is no cure, music therapy can at least improve the quality of life for people with Alzheimer's and other types of dementia.
Paying attention to music can ease pain and lessen stress too, especially for people suffering from cancer or chronic pain. Playing music or listening to music helps you breathe rhythmically. This can also improve your respiratory health, and help you release body tension by triggering happy hormones like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and all of these positively impact your overall health and quality of life. Depression and dementia are common diseases among older adults; music therapy is actually very important for these individuals to help improve their moods and the quality of their lives.
Sharing music with our loved ones can help them feel more at ease, and help them to communicate better and be more expressive. The best part about it is, it's just so easy to do! I mean, it's so easy to pull out our smartphones as everything is so easily accessible to find music our senior loved ones would find palatable and enjoy, music that's not going to stress them out. So it's just so easy to do for us to help improve everybody's mood.
I hope this encouraged our readers and listeners to either awaken a musical interest or at least try to play an instrument or learn something new. Every now and then, let's find a few minutes to listen to music and smell the roses during our busy days! Until next time, keep smiling because you’re never too old to become younger!
