Music is not just food for our soul, it turns out that our immune system laps it up too, as concluded by a recent study presented by Dr. Daisy Fancourt at the British Science Festival on Friday.
Fancourt, from the Royal College of Music and Imperial College London, investigated the link between music and hormones related to stress. In a stressful situation, our brain sends signals to little glands located on top of our kidneys to produce adrenaline and cortisol, two substances that help us fight the cause of stress or escape from it.
It is well-known to everyone that music can be relaxing. However, both adrenaline and cortisol are known to play a role in our immune system. Fancourt then examined whether music could affect our ability to fight infections by measuring compounds called cytokines, which act as messengers of the immune system.
“It can,” says Fancourt in her study, reports irishtimes.com.
In her experiment, levels of cytokines in the volunteers’ blood fell before and after listening to music for an hour, which increased the levels of several different cytokines, suggesting that music can indeed boost the immune system.
Music can also have an effect on mental health conditions, helping with low mood, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
