Listen to the Music

During World War I musicians toured Veteran hospitals performing for wounded soldiers. The medical staff soon realized that the music wasn't just entertaining, it was healing. That was the birth of music therapy. Today it's used as part of a treatment plan for cancer and surgical patients, children with ADD, those suffering from mental illness and victims of Alzheimer's. But you don’t need a therapist to reap the health benefits of music. You just need a good playlist.

We often talk about the visceral effect music has on us, but as those perceptive nurses and doctors recognized some 90 years ago, it also has a physical effect. Research has shown that music can change your heart rate, respiration, brain waves and levels of an array of chemicals. It can dramatically reduce stress hormones, relieve anxiety, lower blood pressure and ease pain. Pleasurable music activates the reward centers of the brain, sending a flood of dopamine, the feel-good hormone throughout the body.

Listening to music stimulates virtually every area of the brain, from the primitive regions-the brain stem-to the executive function-the frontal lobe. It can improve your mood, alleviate stress, aid in concentration and promote energy. It can lull you to sleep or make you want to dance (in fact, even when you are perfectly still, listening to music activates that part of the brain responsible for movement).

Music can elicit a kaleidoscope of emotions (listen to enough movie soundtracks and you get the idea). It has the power to tap deep into our reserve of memories, evoking vivid images of a time and place long forgotten. Daniel Levitin, author or This is Your Brain on Music explains, "Throughout our lives, as we hear music, we create memory links between a particular set of notes and a particular place, time, or set of events." We all have a soundtrack to our lives.