Classical music is best for stress reduction
plays an accepted role in modern medicine in treating children as well as adults . Some American colleges and universities offer degrees in music therapy , and many hospitals offer the therapy to their patients . There are different forms and approaches to music therapy , ranging from one-on-one or group sessions , instrumental or vocal , and or just listening to music , moving to it , or actively making it .
Music therapy has been used as an ancillary or adjunct treatment for everything from strokes and chronic pain to dementia and other neurological disorders . Parkinsons ’ s patients , for example , appear to improve their mobility through exercise programs involving body movements accompanied by music . Verbal memory has also been shown to improve in stroke patients undergoing music therapy .
A Cochrane analysis of 23 clinical trials concluded that music can have a beneficial effect on blood pressure , heart rate , respiration , anxiety , and pain in people with heart disease .
Some of the best evidence , reported in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry , points to the use of calming music to help treat anxiety disorders and depression . One study of ten critically ill post-operative patients reported that music was able to reduce the stress response even when patients were not conscious . Those who heard music required significantly less propofol to maintain deep sedation .
These patients also had lower blood pressures and heart rates as well as lower blood levels of the stress hormone adrenaline and the inflammation-promoting cytokine interleukin-6 .
Slow or meditative music produced a relaxing effect in patients , while faster tempos produced arousal . The subjects ’ heart rates and blood pressures , however , returned to their usual levels once the upbeat music stopped , indicating a state of relaxation .
Music-assisted relaxation can improve the quality of sleep in people with sleep disorders . Music can also help alleviate anxiety and pain ( which can be exacerbated by anxiety ) in patients before and after surgery , as well as help them feel less nervous when undergoing procedures such as colonoscopy . In part , music may simply distract people from their pain and other symptoms .
Up-tempo music can be used to motivate and energise people during physical or occupational therapy and even during conventional exercise programmes . Joyful music promoted triggered increases in blood flow , a benefit similar to aerobic exercise or statin therapy . American researchers found that music improved weight lifting , while a British trial reported that although energising music boosted strength , relaxing music had the opposite effect .
Tastes in music naturally vary . What enthrals one person may be just noise to another . Some research suggests that classical music is best for stress reduction , heart rate , and blood pressure , though this may , in part , relate to the age and tastes of the researchers who conducted the studies . If you don ’ t like Bach or Carnatic , it won ’ t help you much as you go into the operating room ( though it may help the surgeon ). So one prerequisite is to have people choose music they like . Some individuals don ’ t care for any music , and for them silence may be the best treatment .
You don ’ t need a reason to listen to or make music other than the pleasure or catharsis it brings to you . But if it also helps you deal with pain and anxiety , lifts you out of depression , helps you with some physical or psychological problem , or motivates you to exercise , then more power to you . Unlike new drugs or medical procedures , music needs no FDA approval or clinical trials – it ’ s usually free or inexpensive and won ’ t hurt even if it doesn ’ t help . n
Music therapy lowers blood pressure
Tastes in music naturally vary . What enthrals one person may be just noise to another
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