Michael Mosley's 'Just One Thing' - Play an Instrument
- Music For Wellbeing
- May 31, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 1, 2024
In a recent podcast episode of 'Just One Thing' Michael Mosley explored the benefits of playing an instrument. Michael found out that playing an instrument can lower inflammation, lift your mood and strengthen your memory.
We have all experienced music lifting our mood and it is well documented that playing an instrument can strengthen memory and improve mental health but what this episode also explores is how it can lower inflammation.
Michael comments that 'many mental health conditions are now thought to be linked to levels of chronic inflammation in the body' and refers to a study where participants, using mental health services, were assigned to 90 minutes a week playing the drums. After 10 weeks there was a significant fall in the drum players levels of anxiety and depression and that reduction was maintained for 3 months after the sessions had finished.
A small study, carried out by researchers at the University of Bath, also found that an hour of piano lessons a week, for 11 weeks, enhanced how well the volunteers processed sight and sound.
It is thought that the complexity of learning an instrument is key. You are required to call upon so many mental processes that you undergo a 'form of multi sensory training.'
As Dr Sofia Seinfeld, from the Open University in Catalonia, comments in the episode 'music has the ability to put into play all the brain regions in a very powerful way.'
It's never too late to learn to play - try something new, feel good and improve your health.
Here's a link to the episode if you would like to find out more, available on BBC Sounds:
