Music is a wonderful thing. It can make us happy, it can make us want to dance, but at the same time it allows us to escape from the real world for a few moments. But music is not "just" that. Music is scientifically proven medicine. It leaves an impression on our brains that is deeper than any other human experience. Among other things, music can improve the memory of dementia patients and help them develop new memories. Let's see what music can heal.
Music is an effective medicine and can heal many things. Let's see which ones.
1. Low birth weight.
Babies who are born prematurely tend to require longer hospital stays where they are helped to gain weight and strength. To facilitate this process, many hospitals play music. A group of Canadian researchers found that playing music to premature babies reduces their pain levels and encourages better eating habits, which in turn help them gain weight. Hospitals use music that mimics the mother's heartbeat and womb to help premature babies fall asleep more easily. The researchers also claim that playing Mozart significantly reduces the amount of energy that babies use, thereby gaining weight.
2. Drooping plants.
Dorothy Retallack wrote the book The Sound of Music and Plants in 1973, where she examines in detail the effect of music on plant growth. Dorothy played rock music to one group of plants and calm and easy music to another group of plants. At the end of the study, the plants from the second group were uniform in size, full and green, and even leaning towards the music source. The rock music "forced" the plants to grow tall, but they were droopy, with faded leaves, and they leaned away from the source of the music.
3. The devastating consequences of brain damage.
Some researchers use music to treat brain injuries because it stimulates areas of the brain that control movement and speech. When playing music with a rhythm for walking and dancing, people with neurological impairments such as stroke or Parkinson's disease can regain a sense of symmetrical step and balance. The rhythm in music can serve as a cue for the brain to take steps.
Similarly, the rhythm and volume of the sound can help patients sing those words they cannot pronounce. A study of non-speaking autistic children confirmed the positive impact of music therapy on word pronunciation. Some of these children spoke their first words with the help of therapy.
4. Hearing loss.
Music cannot cure hearing loss, but it can prevent it. A study of 163 adults, 74 of them musicians, tested the participants' hearing through a series of hearing tests. The musicians thus heard better than the rest. A 70-year-old musician thus understood speech in a noisy environment better than a 50-year-old man who does not play music.
5. A damaged heart.
No, we're not talking about the heart damage that love brings. We are talking about heart damage that occurs after a heart attack. Music can help patients recovering from a heart attack or heart surgery by lowering blood pressure, slowing heart rate and reducing anxiety. As a preventive measure, we can try listening to "happy" music or songs that will make us feel better. Research shows that listening to songs that evoke a sense of joy leads to better circulation and dilation of blood vessels, which in turn promotes the good health of our veins.
READ MORE: Do you know why listening to certain music makes our skin crawl?
6. Poor sports condition.
A 2005 study conducted in Great Britain found that listening to music during recreation can increase athletic performance by as much as 20 percent. This is roughly equivalent to the boost some athletes find in illegal performance-enhancing drugs. For best results, try listening to fast-paced music during intense training and slower songs during cool-down.
7. Arrogant teenagers.
In a 2008 study, researcher Tobias Greitemeyer wanted to examine how song lyrics affect the attitudes and behavior of teenagers. He thus exposed one group of teenagers to "socially conscious" songs, songs with a positive message, such as Michael Jackson and Heal the World. He singled out the second group with a "neutral" message. The researchers in the study then "accidentally" knocked over a container of pencils. The group that listened to the positive songs immediately rushed to help and picked up five times more pencils than the other group.
8. Illiteracy.
A 2009 study comparing two groups of second-grade children with similar demographics found that learning music improved reading skills. The only major difference between the two groups was that one group was taught notation, music reading and other skills, while the other group was not. Each group was tested before and after the start of the school year. At the end of the year, the results showed that the reading skills of the second group improved slightly, while the children with music education achieved a significantly higher level of literacy, especially on the vocabulary tests.
9. Poor sales of alcohol.
A 1999 study proved that playing German songs boosted sales of German wine, and playing French songs boosted sales of French wine. Customers said they had no idea what music was being played.
10. Wine snobbery.
Have you ever bought a bottle of wine with a music recommendation? Well, cheap wine makers might want to consider this tactic. A group of researchers says that certain types of music enhance the taste of wine by as much as 60 percent. In the study, wine drinkers rated white wine as 40 percent more refreshing when they listened to fast and "refreshing" music (Nouvelle Vague, Just Can't Get Enough) while drinking the wine. The taste of red wine was accompanied by the rhythms of Carl Orff and Carmina Burana, which is why the wine was rated as 60 percent more "strong and heavy".
