Listening To Your Favorite Music Can Make Medicines More Effective

Music can lift our mood, reduce stress, improve sleep, boost self-confidence, and increase energy. What's more? Listening to your favorite song can also make medicines you're taking more effective, according to researchers at Michigan State University. Music-listening interventions have been studied as a tool to treat pain and anxiety. Jason Kiernan, an assistant professor in the College of Nursing, studied the effects of music-listening interventions on chemotherapy-induced nausea. The results were published in the journal Clinical Nursing Research. According to Kiernan, chemotherapy-induced nausea is a neurological phenomenon, and not a stomach condition. Benefits of music during chemotherapy treatment As part of the study, patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment were asked to listen to their favorite music for 30 minutes each time they needed to take their anti-nausea medication. They repeated the music intervention each time nausea occurred and continued for about five days beyond their chemotherapy treatment. Patients who listened to music while taking the medication reported a reduction in the ratings of nausea severity and their distress. However, Kiernan noted that it is very clear if it was the medication doing its job or the benefit of the music. In future studies, Kiernan will be looking at the amount of serotonin released after listening to unpleasant and pleasant music. Serotonin is known to cause chemotherapy-induced nausea and medications are given to cancer patients to block it effects, the expert explained. An earlier study had found listening to pleasant music associated with decreased levels of serotonin release while listening to unpleasant music led to greater stress and increased serotonin release. Kiernan is drawing inspiration from this study for his future study. Other known benefits of music Neuroscientists suggest that learning to play an instrument is beneficial for the brain. A study by Pontifical Catholic University in Chile found evidence that musical training improves working memory in kids. Music helps improve your physical health too. It can reduce anxiety, blood pressure. Listening to music at the gym helps calm your mind, boost physical performance and increase endurance. Research has also shown that listening to music while pregnant can benefit both the mother and the baby in the womb. While music provides calming and positive effects on the pregnant woman, it improves the baby's movement in your womb, increases his/her auditory senses, and improves the baby's overall development. Further, music can strengthen the bond with your unborn child.