Healing with the Power of Music: What We Know, What We Can Do?

However, not least due to severe side effects and a lack of trust, drug-based medicine has now ground to a halt. More and more researchers are therefore taking an interest in the ways in which alternative therapies work and the power of music. One of them is Stefan Kölsch. The question of which influence music has on our brains, to what extent it increases intelligence, improves language acquisition in children, works wonders for neurological disorders and even prevents dementia, is a hot research topic, not only promising key observations about our cognition, but also promising specific therapies, such as for stroke patients. Music initiates a complex physiological dance of the body’s neurons and blood cells, and various researchers are now intensively studying this dance. We now know that making and listening to music not only gives us goose bumps, but also quite literally gets under our skin. It is able to bring about significant changes to the brain’s network and structure, which have positive mental and physical effects. For a number of years, neuroscientists, psychologists and doctors have gradually been unravelling the secret of music, which has since taken on a key role in the treatment of seriously ill people in both psychology as well as neuroscience, and is regarded as an answer to the increasing number of chronic diseases, both physical and mentally. The book is a passionate plea for a new branch of medical research that explores the importance of music to our health: told personally and unpretentiously, based on cutting edge research and featuring many case studies. Healing with the Power of Music explains how music works in the brain, why it significantly influences human evolution, and how music promotes development in children, keeps us fit in old age and how it can be used for medical therapies. It also contains numerous practical tips for how we can integrate music in our everyday lives to support and promote health and well-being.