5 Health Benefits of Listening to Music!

Dissatisfaction is what drives us as human beings. The earliest mode of our communication that we derived was symbols. The symbols then graduated into alphabets, which later became the basis of the languages that we still use. However, at times even the words fail to describe the exact feeling of being alive. This is where music comes in. Music is a piece of life in the form of rhythm. For the moments we listen to it, it makes us feel alive. That is exactly why, music has become a part of our routines or the ultimate escapes from our routines. And, there is not a person on the face of earth who is not enamoured by music. Only the type and genre may differ!

Research over the past years has established the conclusion that music can benefit our mental health. That is possibly the reason why ‘music and its therapeutic potential’ has been a topic of supreme interest for researchers around the world! Apart from mental health, music also has some other health benefits that we are about to find out:

1. Music Lifts up your Mood: A team of researchers from McGill university from Canada in their research in 2011 concluded that listening to music increases the amount of dopamine produced in the brain - a mood-enhancing chemical helping in uplifting your mood instantly. This also makes it a feasible treatment for depression.
   
   
   
   
   

2. Reduces Pain and Anxiety: Another study led by Brunei University UK suggests that music may reduce pain and anxiety for patients who have gone under surgery.  A similar study suggested that Listening to calm, relaxing, self-chosen music "reduced pain and increased functional mobility significantly" among 22 patients with fibromyalgia. The reason for this according to the scientists is because listening to music triggers the release of opioids in the brain, the body's natural pain relievers.
   
   
   
   
   

3. Relieves your Stress: You may be listening to music just out of habit on feeling stressed. Well, it is scientifically proven as well, that it works! According to some researchers, music may help alleviate stress by lowering the body's cortisol levels - the hormone released in response to stress. After a long day, when you feel like you are done, down and dusted, turn up to music and spend your day with it!
   
   
   
   
   

4. Effective in Treating Heart Conditions: While this is considered as one of the latest developments of researches in this area, considering the sort of effect it has on heart rate, respiration, blood pressure etc. it may prove to be true as well! This is precisely why joggers / runners prefer listening to music! 
   
   
   
   
   

5. Takes us down the Memory Lanes: Certain songs / tunes have that ability to transport us back to a some point / events in our past be it good or bad. This again has been a recent matter of research if music may aid memory recall. In fact, the power of music is rated so high that it is even considered to be helpful in the treating of patients with early stages of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
   
   
   
   
   

As kids, when we found difficult to sleep or were hurt, mother sang to us lullaby to help us fall asleep. Be it any stage of our lives, music always stays around us in various forms. And nowadays, searching and listening the music of our liking (be it any genre or from any time or even the latest new releases songs) has become as easy as taking a walk in the park. The easy availability of music online has even smoothened the trade further.

“Spread Music, Spread Love. Live Music, Live Life!”