Dr. Mercola November 04 2008 98,446 views
More than 7,000 runners who recently raced in a half-marathon in London were under the influence of a powerful performance-enhancing stimulant -- pop music.
The music at London's "Run to the Beat" race was selected on the basis of the research and consultation of sport psychologist Costas Karageorghis. He has learned how to devise soundtracks that are just as powerful, if not more so, as some of the less legal substances that athletes commonly take to excel.
The link between music and athletic performance is just one example of the inroads scientists and doctors are making into understanding the amazing power that music has over your mind and body. Science has shown that music really can kill pain, reduce stress, better your brain and basically change how you experience life.
Listening to music is a great way to make exercising more enjoyable. MP3 players are an excellent way to do this. But as science is now beginning to document, music may have a much greater impact on your health than previously imagined.
Exercising to Music Can Boost Your Verbal Skills
For example, while studies have shown that exercising alone has the capability to improve your mood and increase the speed of your decision-making process, listening to music while exercising has been shown to improve verbal fluency as well.
A 2003 study published in the journal Heart Lung found that listening to music while exercising boosted cognitive levels and verbal fluency skills in people diagnosed with coronary artery disease.
Coronary artery disease has been linked to a decline in cognitive abilities. In this study, signs of improvement in the verbal fluency areas more than doubled after listening to music compared to that of the non-music session.
Music Reduces Stress and Improves Healing
Music is a great mood regulator, whether it’s used in conjunction with exercise or not. Loud, upbeat music generally has a stimulating effect, whereas slow music can act as a sedative.
It’s very encouraging that more and more health professionals are beginning to realize the value of simple techniques such as music, using it as an adjunct to promote healing even in more conventional medical settings. As pediatrician Linda Fisher stated in the article above, it’s the music’s rhythm, melody and tonal quality that puts the patient in that “special place of peace” where healing can be achieved faster.
For example, harp music might be particularly helpful for people who have heart trouble. Harvard researchers have shown that the rhythms of healthy hearts may be similar to those found in classical music, and that certain rhythms, such as that of harp music can cause your heart to beat more normally.
Other studies from the early 1990s concluded that music significantly lowered the heart rates and calmed and regulated the blood pressures and respiration rates of patients who had undergone surgery.
Music therapy has also been shown to:
One study published in the October issue of The Journal of Clinical Nursing found that pregnant women listening to soothing music showed significant reductions in stress, anxiety and depression.
The researchers concluded that,
“The findings can be used to encourage pregnant women to use this cost-effective method of music in their daily life to reduce their stress, anxiety and depression.”
Just more evidence that some of the simplest things in the world can benefit your health in profound ways.
Since depression, general stress and anxiety are very common issues facing many pregnant women, this is excellent advice, especially in light of the ever increasing use of antidepressant drugs during pregnancy. Although some studies claim that using antidepressants during pregnancy does not raise your risk of having a baby with birth defects, others have shown that they can cause severe rebound effects in your baby.
Clearly drugs are rarely the best choice for pregnant women who are depressed. There are so many better options – music being one of them.
In addition to various types of music, like classical, nature sounds such as birds, rainstorms, frogs or ocean waves are also often used as a stress-relief tool. The sounds have a calming effect and can help patients relax while undergoing medical procedures.
Another exceptional, and more scientific, tool to help you dramatically reduce the stress that is a prime contributor to all forms of disease, while maximizing your awareness and potential for growth, is the Insight audio CD. Many of the patients at my clinic have received enormous benefits from it. Layered beneath the soothing sounds of natural rain is a “binaural beat,” which can help you achieve dramatically powerful states of altered consciousness.
How Can Your Workout Benefit From Music?
As stated earlier, exercising to music has more benefits than just making your workout more fun. As sport psychologist Costas Karageorghis explained, listening to music while working out can:
According to Karageorghis' research, music is most effective when you are losing steam and need some motivation to keep going -- not as a constant stimulus. He recommends doing two workouts with music to every one without, so the effect of the music is not dulled.
Committing yourself to a regular exercise routine is just as important as following a nutritious eating program. Taking into consideration these positive benefits from music and exercising, I would encourage those working out at their local gyms to add a little music to their workout routine.
How I Listen to Music
There are many ways you can listen to music. In my mind, the 21st century way is not to purchase music at all but merely to rent it. There are many services available but the one I use is Rhapsody. For well under $200 a year you can download as many as you want of the over 4 million songs available.
This is typically far less than you would pay to purchase them, and you can transfer them to your MP3 player to listen to them offline. You can also use the most incredible, inexpensive system to stream the music to your home stereo system with Sonos.
Hey!
Three Dog Night played a dance at RIT(Rochester Institute of Technology) where I was a student- '69 or '70. It was awesome!
My dad, a dairy farmer, always played polka music on the radio while milking the cows. Seems fitting for Minnesota, eh? Oh, and he had an award-winning dairy in his day.
GammaGirl:
What music is stressful and what is relaxing depends on the ear of the listener. I myself love all sorts of music from classical to heavy metal (but not rap or jazz). What "relaxes" me at any time depends upon my mood at that time. If I'm stressed out and frazzled, I simply cannot go straight to listening to classical even though I love Beethoven and Mozart. I use music to "dial down" the stress, first by listening to the loudest, hardest music (heavy metal) and then toning it down to 80s pop, and then eventually to classical. If I'm in a "tizzy" I am simply too stressed out to appreciate the calmness of Moonlight Sonata. But if I'm already calm and relaxed, to go straight to Metallica would be a shock to the system. Also, if I need to keep alert (like when driving), classical will not do that for me. But it's great for meditation purposes. Individual taste and tolerance should not be criticized if it obtains the desired results.
CCurtis - yes, true, we all have different music preferences...just like food preferences. However, it would be interesting to know from research if some music is objectively better than others for obtaining certain results. My sister hates classical music...but I bet in a study, it would still have a resultant calming effect on her. (Possibly she hates it because it she can't relax and doesn't like the conflict of the music effecting her that way?) I think there is some way the mathematics of music is a key to the mathematics of our body energy and responses. Would love any links anyone has to music in cancer therapy, etc.
That CD is my house cleaning music! Instead of decapitating heads, I'm destroying dust! There can be only one!
By the same token the wrong selection of music will have a negative effect. The problem for such approaches is that they fail to take into account the essential differences between people which affect their sense pereption - in this case of sound and music. In general, women react differently to music than men. Whereas men prefer louder music with a strong beat, women prefer lighter softer music with a less racey feel.
Singers who have health problems lose their hearing spectrum and also elements in their vocal spectrum. When they age they lose their vocal abilities. We see this when singers cancel their appearance or when they finally cease performing.
This is not really surprising because illness alters the profile of biochemical components in the blood which of course are an essential feature of sense perception - affecting the function of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and mouth, and skin. Poor flow of blood, lack of blood volume, impaired levels of blood glucose, pH and blood cell content: all affect sense perception.
Musicians who have health problems are unable to perform satisfactorily. They lose their ability to reproduce sounds, to concentrate and to keep to the beat.
Listen to the music that you like to listen to. It serves as a memory - of when you were in good health. It takes you back in time to when you were well. The wrong music can be as damaging as the right music can be rejuvenating.
Graham
Hi Graham,
and then there are the rare people......like Beethoven
"Whereas men prefer louder music with a strong beat, women prefer lighter softer music with a less racey feel."
Just a generalization. I am a woman and I prefer harder rock and metal; soft slow music bores me almost 100% of the time.
On a related note, I notice that men seem to enjoy listening to female vocalists, and vice versa. Perhaps a pleasing voice of the gender we are attracted to is more soothing to us as well. I don't have many female friends, so perhaps it is predictable that I do not usually enjoy female singers, either. I'd like to see some sort of study on that.