Music's Effects on the Body

Isn't music great? Everyone has got to love it because of the wide variety and the ever increasing artists. It can turn a dull situation into a more comfortable and energetic situation. Not only is it useful for when you are driving but also when you are just plain bored. And it can relieve boredom almost anywhere as long as you have your iphone or ipod with you. But what about any effects on your body while or after you listen to it. Does it have any real use for anything other than fun? The answer is definitely a yes and the connection between music, physical, psychological, and mental health is strong as it has many health-promoting benefits. Music has some positive physical effects. In some cases music therapy is used in patients with high blood pressure, and heart disease. Music has important influence over changes in lower blood pressure that lead to changes in blood flow and heart rate. This promotes a much easier, healthy alternative to other sources of lowering blood pressure and heart rate. Particularly the cerebral blood flow increases and decreases in brain regions involved in motivation, emotion, and arousal. The chemical Serotonin released by music is the same chemical associated with stimulation from food, sex, and drugs, so it's no wonder why people have a strong love for music. Listening to music also controls the release of another chemical called melotonin. Melotonin is another substance released to control your sleep cycle. So not only does music provide a euphoria state of mind, but also on the opposite side of the spectrum helps in correcting someone's sleeping schedule. Brain neurons are hard-wired for music. Part of the brain, the cerebellum, is connected to the ears. And the cerebellum is used to coordinate and control movement. Listening to music can increase the speed of muscle reaction and positively impacts movement. It affects movement speed by keeping time, or synchronizing, with the beat. Music can aid your mental processes too. It helps make learning easier. For one it can be used to channel focus. If you use music to get the information to students, they may find it a lot more interesting and exciting. Also, it can affect learning in ways such as if you have ever listened to a specific repeating pattern. Learning through this method can increase retention. The reason behind this is because it helps the student retain the information better than without the rhymes or music. In areas such as memory, and it has been found to reduce the effect of Alzheimer's and dementia patients . This improvement is partly due to the effect music has on increasing the release of certain hormones in the body. "Carruth (1997) conducted an experiment to find out if music would improve the face-name recognition of nursing home residents with Alzheimer`s. There was a music condition and a no music condition. During the music condition, a therapist sang and played a guitar to a familiar song. The subjects were allowed to join the therapist in singing. Afterwards, the subjects were given a face-name recognition test. The no music condition received the test in the same manner, except for the singing. Four of the seven participants had a higher mean percent of correct responses during the music condition that during the no music condition." (clearinghouse.missouriwestern.edu) There are of course psychological benefits from music also. One of the most useful asset included with listening to it is that music has a soothing effect on the mind. It can be used to fight depression. The main reason involved in