While a lot of medical intervention cannot be particularly fun for the elderly to engage in, singing is actually not a medical activity, it is a fun and hobby activity and therefore there is this intrinsic motivation to do singing and acquire its health benefits.
Singing is a multi-functional health activity because it got a lot of different components to it that is good for health and it is being link to cultures around the world.
Note that not every art program has health benefits but just looking at general engagement with arts for pleasure that naturally has health benefits.
12 Benefits of Singing for the Elderly
- Singing produces happy hormones called endorphins and also Oxytocin which makes us like each other more.
- Singing helps in social bonding
- Singing involves emotional expression or regulation which is good for mental health
- Singing can help us to get out of the house thereby reducing those sanitary behaviors that can be bad for physical health
- Singing also provides social interaction, can help to reduce feelings of isolation.
- Singing improves your peek flow measurements if you are singing to improve your breath out. Peak flow is a tool that measures the strength of your exhalations.
- Lower risk of depression
- Better preservation of cognition as we age
- Lowers risk of chronic pain or age related disability
- When we sing there is a lot of different response from our body, this can include reduction in stress hormones such as Cortisol,
- Singing reduces the inflammation in our immune system which is associated which include a range of conditions such as depression.
- Reduction in blood pressure and heart rates (multiple physiological benefits)
Does the type of song you singing matters when being used for therapy?
The more you features let say different journals or different type music starts to matter.
In a real world setting, singing is not just about the music, it’s about that social interaction like when you are heading to a concept performance and going to concepts is often a relaxing activity.
How to engage a singing activity with a senior with memory issues?
- Sing together with the patient because you are not performing.
- Sing low and slow at a pace and pitch so that your patient can keep up and is immersing in what you are doing.
- There should be a lot of chatting and remembering in what you are doing. So you should engage your patient and notice how the follow up.
- When singing with people that have memory issues, select songs that are not to wordy, that are repeatable, you can bunk it some harmony if you are feeling the mood, you can partner it with another song.
How important is it to be singing in a senior choir?
Certainly if you are in a group, then you have got some added social benefits particularly emotional state and well being from the choir. And this feeling of well being that singing gives research has shown that they last for a long time.
If you are a senior who is house bound and you can’t join a choir, there are still options for you, for you can join a virtual choir.
Virtual choirs are great for people who don’t have a local community choir or round table to go out and access one so you can still be involve.
This virtual choir led by Eric Whitaker has tens of thousands of subscriptions every year and there will be a great start for you.
This virtual choir led by Eric Whitaker has tens of thousands of subscriptions every year and there will be a great start for you.
How long do you need to sing before seeing the benefits it brings?
The more you sing in a good and healthy way with diaphragm, the more you improve your muscles and the greater awareness you have over your breathing and the more control have over your singing.
When you sing, there is an area of your brain that gets more blood flow - the pre-cortical areas. And there are the ones that are usually preserve in dementia when everything else is gone and this are concern with autobiography and emotions.
When you sing, sometimes it does something really strong and weird to you, that feeling is really important and it really awakens patients especially those with dementia.
How is musical memory connected to our other types of memories?
Music more often reminds us of our teenage years or our early twenties and that’s the period were we are having really important experience as people but perhaps not quite such sort of emotionally salient riches and vivid experiences, sensory experiences as those that we turn to have in those kind of childhood memories that turn to last us a life time.
Is musical memory stored in a different way?
There thus seem to be some evidence that it might be. One striking example of this is a man who has very profound amnesia, a noted musician and a conductor and then he contract a virus that attack his hippocampus, the region of the brain that’s very important for many aspects of memory.
This means that he lacks the ability to form new memories, and very much leave in a moment to moment type of awareness of things that are happening around him and yet he retains the ability to play and conduct music to a very high level.
Conclusion
A healthy society is one that is immersing with arts, Creativity is so intrinsic in having good mental health we need opportunities to tell our story. And music and the arts have been doing that throughout human history.
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