Musical Medicine & Dementia

I think we all know what tune plays in our head when asked to think of our favourite song. A song reminds us of different people, events and periods in our life.

Feeling automatically happy? Got a smile on your face as you are reading this? I bet You’re thinking of your favourite song right now. The favourites are usually the happy ones that uplift us or remind us of the good times. What about music as Therapy? People listen to music when they are happy, sad or just for motivation and energy. Music has a lot of power and influence, it is entertainment, pleasure and apparently music is not ‘just music’, music is also medicine.

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Music heals the soul and the body; it is one of the few activities that involve using the whole brain. According to Siedliecki SL’s study, classical music helps a lot with the concentration, it helps to reduce stress and it can also help students concentrate better while they are doing their homework or studying for an exam. Music can also help us with physical pain such as back pain and migraine according to studies from Austria’s General Hospital of Salzburg,  as well as emotional therapy. Music can reduce stress, depression and even improve our memory “Music can help patients remember tunes or songs and get in touch with their history.” Researchers from Norway’s Sogn Og Fjordane College claim.

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Music can be a very effective and helpful tool for people with Dementia. It helps people living with Dementia recall memories and emotions; there is no specific genre that one has to listen to. The favourite ones usually can help people with Dementia by improving their mood, their memory and even bring back old memories from the past. It can also help our loved ones with Dementia to talk more and communicate better.

A very good example of how music can help patients with Dementia, is the famous video of Henry Dryer. He was 92 year old at the time and had Dementia over a decade. He barely used to communicate with people and smile, until one day in the nursing home they decided to play his favorite music by Cab Calloway.

His story is also featured in the documentary, ‘Alive Inside’. Thanks to the music, Henry came to life again and started to sing, dance and answered a question when asked “what is music for you?” He replied “Music gives me the feeling of love, of romance”.

Another remarkable example of how music helps people with memory loss is ‘ME’, a woman pianist who is 101 years old and she lives with Dementia. ‘ME’ was born in Tennessee and learned to play the piano and violin when she was a child. Despite the fact that she rarely knows where she is and she has facial recognition difficulties, she is still able to play nearly 400 songs by ear on the piano just like before she was diagnosed with Dementia. She continues to learn new songs; she has even composed her own song.  “ME” is a wonderful example of an indomitable human spirit, and somebody who was gifted earlier in life and has maintained those gifts,” says Zachary Miller, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco.

Memories are made of this
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“Music imprints itself on the brain deeper than any other human experience,” says renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks who is also part of the ‘Alive inside’ Documentary with Henry. According to the researcher Brandon Ally, “Patients who were put through a series of memory tests learned more lyrics when they were set to music rather than just spoken”. Music can also evoke emotions that bring back memories even in the most advanced stage of Alzheimer’s. Musical aptitude and appreciation are two of the last remaining abilities in people living with Dementia. “Music does not require cognitive function that is lacking in most dementia patients.” Says Brandon.

An organization called “Music and Memory”, provides music therapy and helps people living with Dementia. The non-profit organization trains nursing home stuff, as well as family caregivers, how to personalize playlists by using iPods and related digital audio systems to enable those with Dementia to reconnect with the world though the use of music. People who want to help have the option to donate an iPod for the organisation if they do not need it or use it anymore.

Music is clearly influencing all of us more than we would first thought. Lifting our spirit, reminding us of memories we thought we had forgotten, inspiring us, bringing us to life, soothing and calming us… as Shakespeare himself said: “If music be the food of love, play on…”.

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