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11 amazing music cures

Posted by / May 15, 2012

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One of the most beautiful universals of humanity seems to be the enjoyment of music and it appears that it isn’t just pleasure we derive from this art form.

Inspired by the documentary Alive Inside that documents the positive effects music has on dementia patients, Jessica Hullinger at Mental_floss plumbed the research to find out what other bodily beasts music soothes.

1. Low Birth Weight

Babies born too early often require extended stays in the hospital to help them gain weight and strength. To help facilitate this process, many hospitals turn to music. A team of Canadian researchers found that playing music to preemies reduced their pain levels and encouraged better feeding habits, which in turn helped with weight-gain. Hospitals use musical instruments to mimic the sounds of a mother’s heartbeat and womb to lull premature babies to sleep. Researchers also say that playing calming Mozart to premature infants significantly reduces the amount of energy they expend, which allows them gain weight.

It “makes you wonder whether neonatal intensive care units should consider music exposure as standard practice for at-risk infants,” says Dr. Nestor Lopez-Duran at child-psych.org.

2. Droopy Plants

If music helps babies grow, can it do the same thing for plants? Dorothy Retallack says yes. She wrote a book in 1973 called The Sound of Music and Plants, which detailed the effects of music on plant growth. Retallack played rock music to one group of plants and easy listening music to another, identical group. At the end of the study, the ‘easy listening’ plants were uniform in size, full and green, and were even leaning toward the source of the music. The rock music plants had grown tall, but they were droopy, with faded leaves, and were leaning away from the radio.

Full story at Mental_floss.

Documenting the power of music.

Photo credit: Fotolia

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  • Anonymous

    if thats so, then i must start singing for the plants at home.for them to bloom. hahaha i agree with this post! your good.