Music is more than entertainment and pleasant diversion—it can keep your body and mind in tune

In every high school movie ever made, the band geeks and the jocks just don't mix. The band geeks are scrawny and smart. The jocks are beefy bullies. It's a cinematic cliché that's accepted over and over without question. But as scientists learn more about music and its effects on the brain and body, they're finding evidence that suggests it might be time to shove this tired, one-note gimmick into a locker for good.

Music and Lyrics

When it comes to the health-boosting potential of music, there are two main delivery methods: Simply listening to music offers one set of benefits, while participating in music-making offers another.

According to Al Bumanis, MT-BC, a music therapist and spokesman for the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), "passive listening" to music can reduce heart rate and blood pressure, induce a relaxed state and change your mood. As evidence that the very act of listening to music, even passively, can affect one's physiology, Bumanis says, babies in neonatal intensive care units have had improved lung development and nursing ability when exposed to music. A 2003 study in Heart & Lung suggests that listening to music while you work out does more than pass the time and make it enjoyable— it might also increase your cognitive function, giving your verbal "muscles" a boost.

Strike Up the Band

A 2005 European study looked at the heart-bolstering, stress-busting effects of music and found that listening to music slowed breathing patterns in everyone studied. But the change was most drastic in those who had studied music, because they had learned to regulate their breathing with musical phrases.

This suggests what Bumanis says: Even more powerful than listening to music is the act of making music, especially when you make music with others. "It's in the here and now, it's reality- based, physical-based, it's communication between people. You're creating a groove with someone else." According to the AMTA website, drumming is one example of active music- making that healthy individuals can use for stress reduction. And, as Bumanis says, "Active music-making engages certain areas of the brain that guard against dementia and decline. It's frequently listed as an activity you can undertake to help prevent Alzheimer's disease." —By Andrea Decker