The world is filled with music. We listen to it in our rooms, our cars, in the gym, and pretty much anywhere were we can plug in our headphones. There are all types of music genres, whether we like it or not. And it has recently been shown to have a stunning amount of power over our bodies. Repair Brain Damage Music is able to take stroke, lesion or other brain-damaged patients who have lost the partial ability to see or speak and return it to them. The Kenny Rogers Effect takes patients with visual neglect, the inability to recognize half of what they see, and lightens the effects of the damage.
Patients with left-side brain damage who can no longer speak can find they are able to sing words, often without trouble or training. After that, it’s Just a matter of time before they’re able to speak simple sentences with some practice. How Does it Work? Melodic intonation therapy, or singing until you can talk, takes advantage of the fact that language functions are located in the left brain, but music lives over on the right side of the brain. So, when you lose your ability to speak, you can train your brain to move those functions to the other side by associating music with language.
Listening to music you enjoy has an additional effect, since pleasurable music releases dopamine that simply makes certain parts of your brain function better (particularly if they were damaged before). Kick an Addiction As it turns out, performing music can be relaxing and can create a distraction from withdrawal symptoms; songwriting can help patients confront impulse control and self-deception and allows an output for negative emotions It has even been found that listening to music can help aid the detox stage of recovery from drug addiction, nd if applied frequently could cut down on the number of pain-killers patients need.
How Does it Work? Music directly affects chemicals called neurotransmitters, which relay information in our head. Drugs work in a similar way, except they make your brain lazy and convince it to stop making its own chemicals. But when you stop taking drugs, your brain isn’t making enough chemicals and it doesn’t know why because it relies on those drugs to get enough, so your body fails to function correctly. Introducing music can increase levels of some chemicals associated with heavy addictions, like dopamine and orepinephrine.
In addition, certain music lowers things like heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, etc. Boost Your Immune System Music may help boost your immune system. Recent studies have shown that intangible plinking noises can create a noticeable increase in recovery from a wide range 0T conaltlons, Including neart Olsease, lung allments ana even tne common cold. While the field of study is still young compared to “real medicine” like “pharmaceuticals” it turns out that sometimes all you need to overcome your horribly illness is some music.
Music reduces stress by reducing cortisol levels, a chemical in your brain that causes you to feel stress in the first place. Jazz, bluegrass and soft rock have been found to be especially effective at reducing stress and increasing health because of their similar musical qualities. If you’re wondering if your favorite music is helping your health, a good question to ask is, “Does this music make me want to riot? ” If you answered yes, then it’s probably not an optimal medicine. In addition to simply lowering stress levels, music also raises immune markers in your system, creating ore antibodies to fight disease.
This effect is compounding: Over time, the body can learn to recognize certain types of music (particularly choir or classical music) as immune boosting, continuing the improvement of the immune system. Prevent Seizures Good news: If you’re not one a small % to get seizures from music, you may be one of the luckier ones who benefit from decreased seizure activity as a result of listening to music. This effect has even been observed in coma patients. It’s been shown that music by Mozart played on the piano reduces seizure-causing activity in the brain ithin five minutes of exposure, with many cases showing immediate results.
Experimentation with other forms of music has been minimal, but for some reason there appears to be a connection between our brains and piano music. How Does it work? It’s theorized that “the super organization of the cerebral cortex … may resonate with the superior architecture of Mozart’s music” Scientists really haven’t fgured it out yet. But it has shown to help in some cases. Return Lost Memories If you have Alzheimer’s music could help you remember pieces of your past. Medical ractitioners have found that music shows the potential to unearth memories associated with music for patients, even ones in late stages of dementia.
How Does it Listening to music engages many areas of the brain in both hemispheres, which is why it can create brain activity other methods, like conversation, can’t. Another area it engages is the hippocampus, which handles long-term memory storage. When you listen to music you know, feelings associated with the song are returned by the hippocampus. Sometimes the memories even manage to come along with the relevant feelings. Even if memories aren’t recovered, emotions and attitudes are, allowlng people wno can’t even rememoer wno tney are Trom clay to cay at leas laugh and sing along with old songs that they love.
Increase Spatial Reasoning If only there were some way to make yourself seem smarter without working. Oh, wait, there is. Mozart music, especially piano music, can raise your spatial reasoning the equivalent of nine IQ points. And that’s an average, meaning there are some people who get even more of a boost from it. How Does it Work? There are a lot of theories, but some claim that Mozart’s music focuses the listener ore. Others say it increases activity in crucial regions of the brain.
No one really knows why it works Cure Parkinson’s At this point, you may be asking, “Sure, music can fix my brain, but can it fix my body? ” If you have Parkinson’s disease, music Just might be able to help. Victims of Parkinson’s suffer from muscle spasms, locking muscles, and balance problems. As it turns out, applying music can instantly resolve the physical issues of Parkinson’s in many victims. Take Rande Gedaliah, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2003 and found she had muscle spasms, balance problems and difficulty walking. The disease eventually led to a serious fall in the shower.
Things were looking pretty grim until one day she found out she could listen to music and suddenly be able to move with ease, the type of music determining the speed she walks at. We Are the Champions let her walk a slow clip and Born in the USA made her move faster still. When you’re locked in your room, listening to your old N’Sync CDs, have you ever noticed your foot tapping on its own? That’s not Just because you have terrible taste in music. It’s because the portions of the brain which deal with rhythm and ovement are so automated that it requires no conscious attention to move to a beat.
This movement isn’t handled by the same process as walking up the stair. Suddenly, patients with hypokinesia –an inability to initiate movement–can move instantly as their brain interprets the music and sends movement signals to their legs, essentially tricking their bodies into moving. Music also helps other Parkinson’s- related issues, including loss of balance and spasms. It’s also been found that playing music creates an improvement in people with the disease, and drum circles are being used as treatment in music therapy groups.
