Long Term Effects
Many musical therapy experts recommend making music a part of your daily life, because its effects can improve with time.
There is evidence that, over time, your language skills, creativity, happiness, and more, can improve with regular musical therapy.
The evidence is also stacked up strongly in favor of music's healing power! A positive link has been found for those suffering from things like autism, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Tourette's.
Why Does Music Have a Healing Effect?
There are neuroscientists who are working to discover exactly why music has healing powers. After all, it's pretty amazing that it can stimulate certain areas of the brain, speed healing, and decrease anxiety and increase optimism.
There are different components to music that can have an effect. Pitch, harmony, frequency, melody, and rhythm all effect the brain in different ways. We know that some of the brain locations are involved in helping to heal and soothe the body as well.
The brain can be taught and stimulated to perform better -- and it seems that music is the perfect vehicle to do that.
The Science behind Music's Healing Power
However, there is science behind music and its healing power and Dr. Mike Miller of the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, set out to study this.
He used high-tech imaging to measure blood vessel size while listening to music. What he found was that the lining of the blood vessel relaxed and opened up. It also produced chemicals that help protect the heart.
There is a catch here. It has to be music the person enjoys! If they do not, the vessels close up. This is a stress response -- the opposite of what we want.
Music can heal indirectly as well. You see, stress can have terrible effects on the body and mind long term. It can cause the blood vessels to become rigid, which does not allow the blood to flow freely. Arteries can harden as well. Blood pressure can rise overall. All of this is a recipe for heart attack and stroke!
Stress has a negative effect on the immune system as well. People who are stressed tend to get sick far more often. Those who are stressed often experience fertility and performance issues. Stress can even lead to anxiety and depression. It's an all-around bad mixture for the body!
That's why we see such positive effects from calm music. Music can make you feel great! When your mood improves, the stress gets chased away. It follows, then, that listening to music consistently can improve your health because it eliminates the factor of stress and its effects on the body and mind.
To Be Continued....
