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Nov 13, 2009, 8:38 AM
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By Dr. Michael Gordon
Lately, a lot of media attention has been paid to music. Almost every day, something is reported about the benefits of music. Most music lovers don’t have to be convinced of the benefits and enjoyment that music provides.
Many seniors have enjoyed music all their lives, and many, having been exposed to music lessons as children, have continued to play or listen to music as they’ve aged.
I was lucky to be brought up in a musical family. My late grandmother had a beautiful voice and sang in a Yiddish choir. As a child, I accompanied her on the piano as she practiced, and she would shlep me to productions at New York’s Yiddish Theatre on 2nd Avenue, where I saw epic Yiddish musical productions. My mother played the piano, and my father loved music, and I recall buying classical recordings from my very early childhood years. It was at the Brighton Beach subway station after a Yiddish Theatre production that my bubby experienced the first symptoms of a brain tumour that months later resulted in her death. I will never forget that scene on the subway platform.
There now seems to be a new dimension to the effects of music on our minds and souls, and in our health-conscious culture, if you can show that something is “good for your health,” it’s a real media and public winner.
I recently heard a radio advertisement that started with two young children singing together and featured a voice extolling the benefits of the Royal Conservatory of Music’s “Smart Start” program for children, which purportedly enhances children’s “neural networks.” According to the program’s website, “Recent research has revealed that music is a crucial building block in early childhood development, and the global leader in creating and providing such breakthrough programs is the Royal Conservatory.” If this is so, it would be a wonderful gift from a grandparent to a grandchild to enrol them in such a program.
Next, I came across an announcement from researchers at the University of Maryland’s school of medicine that said the cardiovascular benefits of music are similar to those found in their previous study of laughter. The principal investigator, Dr. Michael Miller, said music that made study participants feel good caused tissue in the inner lining of blood vessels to dilate, or expand, which increased blood flow. The study showed that compared to the baseline, the average upper arm blood vessel diameter increased 26 per cent after joyful music, while listening to music that caused anxiety narrowed blood vessels by six per cent. Apparently, listening to enjoyable music is good for your heart and blood vessels – a finding that doesn’t require a change of clothes or the purchase of expensive exercise or sports equipment.
Topping it all off was the wonderful 2007 movie Young at Heart, directed by Stephen Walker, about a volunteer choir of seniors. Their exuberant director teaches them to perform the most contemporary and outstanding music, with the final result being a community concert that rocks the audience and brings enormous joy to the performers.
The message to seniors and family members reading this column: get out there and sing, play, listen to and promote anything and everything related to music. The joy can be endless, and the benefits seem to be extraordinary.
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Dr. Michael Gordon is Medical Program Director, Palliative Care Baycrest Geriatric Health Care System in Toronto, Canada and Professor of Medicine, at the University of Toronto. He is co-author with Bart Mindszenthy of Parenting Your Parents.
Parenting Your Parents is available in bookstores and online at: Indigo-Chapters, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It is available in a US edition: Parenting Your Parents: Support Strategies for Meeting the Challenge of Aging in America.
For bulk orders email info@dundurn.com. Call: 416-214-5544 or Fax: 416-214-5556
Dr. Gordon is the author of the engaging memoir Brooklyn Beginnings: A Geriatrician's Odyssey, published by I-Universe.
Brooklyn Beginnings is available in bookstores and online at: Indigo-Chapters, Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and I-Universe
His latest release is Moments That Matter: Cases in Ethical Eldercare: A Guide for Family Members, available online at Amazon.ca.
Visit Dr. Michael Gordon's website.
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