Playlists for Life...

[Coolnotes]

Radio Five Live mentioned they were going to run this issue this morning. Its been commonly known the therapeutic and medical benefits music can have on the brain and its increasingly used to counter dementia . 

Leading the way is Sarah Metcalfe and her husband. Feel free to post your own playlists .. mine will be up later. Hopefully we won't be needing them for ... well at least a year or two. ?!! But not dismissing the distress it can cause, but we all know the power of music to connect us . 

From Guardian 1/9/2017 

Music is neurologically special. If your brain were to be scanned while you listened to your favourite music, the screen would light up like a fireworks display. Not just the auditory cortex, but areas involved in emotion and memory, language and decision-making, movement and reactions.

Even if dementia erodes one part of your brain, music can still reach those other parts to tap into emotions, memories and even abilities thought lost.

The results can be astonishing – and profoundly moving. People who cannot speak can sing. People who struggle to walk can dance. People who have withdrawn into themselves take an interest in others again.

Psychologists have found that we lay down more memories between the ages of 10 to 25 than at any other time of life. So people can start by looking at what musical memories may be lurking in that “memory bump”. Once you have found the right music for an individual, research shows that listening for half an hour before difficult activities or times of stress should lead to a reduced need for psychotropic medication, reduced falls, and reduced stress and distress.

We recently visited a care home where a woman with severe dementia had been receiving a particular sedative 60 times every month. Since the introduction of a tailored playlist of music for her, she had not taken it at all, in 24 days.