According to a recent study led by Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, listening to music regularly can lower the risk of dementia.
In a study led by Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, researchers found that listening to music regularly later in life can significantly lower the risk of dementia, further illustrating the neurological impacts associated with our favourite pastime. Looking at a sample group of 10,800 people over the age of 70, the study revealed that the people actively listening to music where 39% less likely to develop dementia, as well as a 17% lower chance of suffering more general cognitive impairments in the near future.
Backing up on previous work in the specific area, the Monash research follows a 2019 study at the University of Utah in the US, where results also found music to be beneficial towards the fight against dementia, as well as Alzheimer’s. Moreover, these recent findings also focused on individuals who actually still played a musical instrument, and if that was the case, results showed that they were 35% less likely to suffer from the condition, with cognitive impairments also falling to 22%.
Closing on the main reasonings behind these results, it has been suggested that the act of listening and engaging with music can be beneficial on a wide range of aspects regarding health in general, such as the common mood uplifting, or even in such instances, that it can have a positive effect on coping with neurological diseases, and even preventing them for that matter in fact. Remarkable to say the very least, music does have healing abilities, and as you may have guessed, we are all for it!
