Listening to music can help get relief from physical pain, new research shows.
The power of music in lifting the moods and healing the mental wounds is well-known. However, there exists very little data about the benefits of music on handling physical pain. LloydsPharmacy in UK interviewed 1,500 people, aged between 16 and 24, and found that listening to music helped relieve persistent pain, Daily Mail reported.
Pop music (21 percent) ranked first in relieving pain, closely followed by classical music (17 percent) and rock/indie music (16 percent). "Bridge Over Troubled Water," title song of Simon and Garfunkel's album with the same name, Robbie Williams' music video "Angels," "Albatross," a guitar-based instrumental by Fleetwood Mac (British-American rock band), "Candle In The Wind" by Elton John, and finally The Commodores' (American funk/soul band) "Easy" were some of the notable works that majority of the participants found effective in relieving pain.
"People in pain should try to find some activity to get fully engaged in," David Bradshaw of the University of Utah Pain Management Centre, told the British daily. "Listening to favourite music is excellent for that because it can involve both thoughts and feelings.No matter how anxious you may feel, if you can get absorbed in the music this can help with your pain."
Now that the benefits of music have been found, the researchers are planning to develop new therapies to help relieve pain. "After speaking to many people who are living with pain we were interested to learn just how many found music beneficial, which is why we're now trialling the use of music within our pain service in some of our pharmacies," Andrew Mawhinney, pharmacist at LloydsPharmacy.
The findings support previous studies that proved the health benefits of music. Studies have shown that live music helped premature babies grow healthy, overcome initial difficulties with sleeping, breathing and feeding; children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD (neurobehavioral disorder of childhood) to concentrate;and musical training at childhood helped brain development.
