Researchers and scientists are discovering more and more ways music therapy benefits your health. In fact, I’ve read several articles on the subject lately. And I notice how they say that doctors and caregivers integrate music into patient care a lot more these days.
Hmm…music therapy benefits sick people. What a concept.
And now, it seems, there’s an effort to get music to do even more than just comfort the sick. And an example of this is the National Institute of Health, at Georgetown, working to figure out how. They’re connecting neuroscientists with musicians and music therapists to study your brain’s circuitry.
Because as former NIH Director, Dr. Francis Collins said, your “brain is able to compensate for other deficits sometimes by using music to communicate.” An article I read said Dr. Collins is not only a geneticist. Be he “also plays a mean guitar.” And talking about how your brain compensates, he also said, “it would be a really good thing to know which parts of the brain are still intact to be called into action. To know the circuits well enough to know the backup plan.”
I remember my Mom’s recollection of her mother’s condition in a nursing home. Grandma got to the point where she could barely recognize her loved ones. But Mom said Grandma could still remember the words to old hymns she hadn’t sung in decades. And her face would light up with a smile when someone sang one at her bedside.
Music therapy can help stroke survivors retrain their brain pathways to communicate. And Parkinson’s patients sometimes walk better to the right beat.
My personal guess is…it ain’t rap.
Kids experience other music therapy benefits even when they’re not sick (go figure). Like how learning to play an instrument improves how the brain processes sound. And that can help improve their reading and listening skills.
I believe one huge obstacle researchers and music therapists will face is Western medicine’s stubborn resistance. Because, currently, the status quo for most so-called “doctors” is drug therapy. For just about everything. And until they figure out a way to make more money from music therapy, they’ll keep pushing drugs.
OK, medical rant over.
Well, except for this last note. And what 98-99% of all those doctors, music therapists, researchers, and scientists don’t realize (or at least acknowledge) is where music originates. (hint: not musicians, radio, or Apple Music)
As someone who’s unashamed to admit he’s a Christian, everything beneficial points back to God for me. And that’s why I take time, just about every single day, to talk about what’s going on around this planet He created. And I connect the dots. In this music therapy article, the dots are those points in your brain’s circuitry I mentioned earlier.
It’s all WAY to complicated for me to ever believe an explosion could have constructed a planet. Much less a human brain. Nope. You and I are part of God’s complex design. And you and I are part of the only species made in God’s image. All the rest are amazing examples of His limitless creativity. But only you and I are examples of His eternal, relational love.
That’s a tune I’ll keep singin’ as long as I can.
He’s living and He’s life…He’s personal to talk to…
Relational with every son and daughter.
He’s good and so much more….He’s loving to the core…
Jesus is the Living Water.
And each time a soul is saved all the angels above sing…
Our God is living, personal, relational, good…and loving.
(from my song “Our God Is LPRGL”)
Stay tuned,
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