When Music Is Medicine:Memories of music cannot be lost to Alzheimer's and Dementia

My life would feel somewhat empty without music. If I am not listening to music, then I am usually singing, listening to my children singing or I'm playing music. Unless I am walking and then I am happy to hear the sounds of nature, but often I like to sing my gratitude to nature, crooning to her. It really does fill me up.

Music can move us, it can transform and transport us. Certain songs seem to touch me deep down in my soul and if I ever have difficulties expressing myself, it is to music that I will turn to help me release and heal. Oh the magic and power of music. Even songs that I have no idea what they are singing about, can be so powerful. Just like this one By DakhaBrakha, this song, it really moves me.

I close my eyes and I sail away with her voice, I am transported to another time, to a distant land that I somehow know, yet it seems so new to me. Totally at ease as the volume of music picks up and the other 2 women lend their voices to her's. Maybe I should try and find out what they are singing about, but then again I don't want to. I know that they cover traditional Ukrainian folk songs in their own magical way. But the depth of this song, the many layers, I find it so calming, so peaceful and so healing.

I used to work with the Elderly in nursing homes, within Ireland, England and in Australia. Most of the people in there had Alzheimer's or Dementia. It is heartbreaking to see people forget who they are and who their families are. It is also really heart breaking to see that some of these people are left in there with no one to visit them. No one to help them remember, to share memories with them. Most days a lot of them would revert back to their childhood and suddenly there were transformed. Their spark would return, a glimmer of who they use to be. You would see their eyes sparkle and then they would remember and be calling for their parents.

On one occasion whilst I was working in Australia I found an elderly gentleman up a tree, as happy as Larry. Trying to pick the apples. There were no apples on that tree and normally he walked with a zimmer frame. What I would have given to have seen him climb that tree. It was so great, to see this playfulness return to them if only for a short time.

But one thing that always helped them remember was music. When I was working in Ireland, I used to wake some of them up in the morning, by singing Good Morning from 'Singing in The Rain'. Every morning there was one lady who would get so excited and be singing with such gusto, it was amazing, because the rest of the time she would sit and just stare ahead. Unless you played music. I grew up watching all the old musicals and every nursing home I worked in, I would sing with the elders and I would watch them all become transformed.

Their faces would completely change and they would tell me all about those times in their life when they first saw that movie or heard that song. Through all that darkness that comes with Alzheimer and dementia there is a way in and it is through music. Music is sunshine for them, it is the light that brings them back to themselves, that helps them remember who they are.

So when I read this article entitled,

Study: Memories of music cannot be lost to Alzheimer's and dementia

It was something I already knew from experience, but here was the science behind why. So when we are listening to a piece of music that moves us, our brain is doing something magical called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), that special tingling we can experience, that sense of euphoria. As stated in the above article

Turns out that ASMR is pretty special. According to a recently published study in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease (catchy name!), the part of your brain responsible for ASMR doesn't get lost to Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's tends to put people into layers of confusion, and the study confirms that music can sometimes actually lift people out of the Alzheimer's haze and bring them back to (at least a semblance of) normality... if only for a short while. ASMR is powerful stuff!

What follows is a short video of an Elderly man called Henry, who is in a nursing home and mostly unresponsive until he listens to music. And immediately he is transformed, singing and tapping his foot and even when the music is taken away he is much more responsive and able to engage with others. For that period of time he remembers who he is and when he is asked what music means to him he says

It gives me the feeling of love, right now the world needs to come into music!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=fyZQf0p73QM

Music has the power to heal, it has the power to lift you out of yourself and help you remember, even when your brain is under attack from dementia and Alzhiemers. Music is a gift, it is medicine.



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Wow!!! What else can I say, I lost my Grandfather....to Alzheimer’s...the Grandfather that knew me. Yes music is so powerful, and as a musician it is so much a part of my life, I know you understand. Music touches the soul......
Resteemed Thank you!👍

thank you @silvertop, I am sorry to hear about your grandfather, it is such a heartbreaking disease. Music is so powerful and what a wonderful gift we get to share with others xx

This is so amazing and the video was quite incredible. I was just wondering the other day what would I be if I couldn't listen to my favorite music anymore - just an idea, as my eyesight is not what it used to be and who knows what else might fail me. I didn't go as far as Alzheimer, which is one of our worst nightmares... The idea that you can at least keep your music when everything else is lost is simply amazing!

it is amazing isn't it, my eyesight is the only thing that has been affected as well. Music really is so powerful and I have so many great memories of how it has helped people. Thanks so much @ladyrebecca, there is alot of research about sungazing helping to correct eyesight, I really need to do more, it is at sunrise and sunset, mind you sunset is definitely easier when you have kids xx

What a beautiful post. And I read it listening to the Rising Appalachia you shared on Discord, which I'm pretty much going to listen to all.week now. I have heard of music being able to help Alzeimers patients and have seen this video before but it makes it no more remarkable. Resteemed.

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thank you, and that video is really amazing and reminds me so much of all the lovely people I have worked with, much love xxx

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You and me both!!!!

If I don’t have a constant soundtrack, I go a bit stir-crazy (maybe you’ve noticed all the song references in most of my posts)...

Thanks for sharing that link to the research — I’d never come across that.

There’s a line from the Analects of Confucius about music being a barometer of mood and being able to ‘diagnose’ someone’s mental/emotional state, but couldn’t find the quote for you.

😊🙏🏽🎶

you are welcome, I really do love to sing my way through the day xxx

Oh yes, music really is amazing and I have heard about it being used in medicine too, extraordinary!

it sure is @zen-art, thank you for dropping by my friend xx

I can absolutely agree, and I've written about this as well.

I was health care surrogate for my dad, when he had Alzheimer's, and part-time caregiver for my mother-in-law, whose AD had progressed much further. And music was helpful - and moving - for them both.

In my dad's case, as a professional pianist, when it came time to find an Assisted Living facility for him, one of my prime directives was that it had to have a decent piano.

And the extraordinary thing is that, far from being upset at having his freedom thus limited, my dad almost immediately convinced himself that this was his new "gig," that he'd been hired to play, and that he was thus "earning his keep."

And earn his keep he did . . . although his playing gradually devolved, and he and I could both hear the difference, he was so damned good that no one unfamiliar with his playing would have heard anything but beautiful music. And he was beloved by the residents and staff alike, as he kept them entertained, and I have little doubt that this is a large part of why his AD never progressed as quickly as most, though his overall health deteriorated. He kept his brain alive through his playing.

He never lost his ability to play, playing every day as he did, and he never forgot who I was, even though he stopped calling me by name a year or so before he died. But he still introduced me as his daughter to anyone who stood still long enough.

I used to joke with my mom that I'd be fine in solitary confinement because I'd simply be playing all the music I loved in my head. ;-)

And yes, I sing all the time too, to Lolo, to the cats, to the goats, to the trees . . . and to the spirits of our beautiful place.

Music is indeed transformative. My life would be far poorer without it.

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Oh wow @crescendoofpeacethat is so amazing about your father, I can only imagine how much he improved the quality of life for everyone else in there too. Music is such a gift and such a powerful healer. I really do love to sing and it always lifts me up, I sing all the time for my sister, sending the power and love flowing out to her. Thank you for sharing your beautiful life story with us, I hope you are well my friend xx

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