Go ahead and splurge on that music-streaming service; listening to music is potentially very good for your health. Studies have shown listening to music can improve your mood, fend off depression, improve your blood flow, lower your levels of stress-related hormones like cortisol, and even ease pain. Kim Innes, a professor of epidemiology at West Virginia University’s School of Public Health explains that music seems to “selectively activate” neurochemical systems and brain structures associated with positive mood, emotion regulation, attention and memory in ways that promote beneficial changes.
Alan Turry, managing director of the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy at New York University adds, “Music is a way to bypass our rational side and to get in touch with the emotional life we often keep hidden. If people are having trouble, there’s usually a way that music can help.”
