Music therapy has been practiced for decades as a way to treat neurological conditions from Parkinson's to Alzheimer's to anxiety and depression. Now, advances reveal what's actually happening in the brain as patients listen to music or play instruments. Music therapy can help restore the loss of expressive language in patients with aphasia following brain injury from stroke, says Oliver Sacks, a noted neurologist and professor at
As an ombudsman in nursing homes who spends hundreds of hours entertaining seniors I know full well the healing powers music has.
Any big lesson here? – well just that it’s important to cultivate and nourish a love for all kinds of music. It keeps you young and alive. And now we know why.
2 comments:
This doesn't surprise me because my father discovered the power of music when he was confined to a nursing home rather early in his life because of physical incapacity.
His mind was still sharp and to pass the time he hosted a sort of live DJ session in the lounge of the nursing home every Saturday night. He had an old tape deck and I kept him supplied with a wide range of music tapes, mostly country hits and old rock and roll.
The Alzheimer's patients loved it, and they ended up loving him too. Their faces would light up when he'd come into the room, and many could keep time to the music, even though they had lost the ability to speak or even recognize loved ones. Music remained one of their few ways of communicating with the "outside" world.
Thanks Bonnie. It is a shame that many facilities do not invest in bringing in good music for their residents. Anthony
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