Link between music and Alzheimer’s
Published 7:00 am Friday, January 16, 2015
Most of the time, videos posted on YouTube are purely for entertainment purposes, but sometimes those videos can really strike a chord and shed light on a serious issue.
Recently, I saw a YouTube video where a man sang and played his guitar to his mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s.
It was truly touching to see such an intimate moment play out between mother and son. But it was even more touching to see how quickly his mother’s behavior changed throughout the video. At first, she seemed confused, and was asking a lot of questions, but as soon as her son began to strum the guitar, her face lit up and she even sang along with him at one point.
It has been proven that music can help heal the mind. On UCLA’s Health website, various studies show a link between music therapy and Alzheimer’s.
According to the site, there isn’t a large amount of evidence to prove that music can bring back memory, but it has been proven that even if an Alzheimer sufferer can’t remember their own name, they can instantly recall a song and start singing along like the mother in the video.
But we’ve still got so much to learn about Alzheimer’s. Not just about how music therapy can help Alzheimer’s patients, but how to control the disease in general. My own grandmother suffers from the disease, along with as many as 5 million Americans, according to CNN.com.
But there is hope. Just last month, a study written in the journal “Aging” showed positive results for Alzheimer sufferers. According to a UCLA study, 9 out of the 10 patients, who suffered from various levels of dementia, said their symptoms improved after going through a rigorous program provided by UCLA. The program included giving patients Vitamin D, DHA supplements, normalizing their insulin levels, and enhancing their intestinal health.
While we’re still a long way from finding a cure to this memory robbing disease, there is hope for the people dealing with it.