Push Back Sadness and Encourage Health with Music and the Arts

If you love music or art — or merely love going to the theatre or to concerts — it is probable that you are feeling more healthy and are less depressed than people who don’t , a survey of just about 50,000 individuals from all socio-economic backgrounds from a county in mid-Norway shows.

The observations are drawn from the latest round of studies conducted for the Norwegian school of Science and Technology’s ( NTNU ) Nord-Trndelag Health Study, or HUNT, which used questionnaires, interviews, clinical examinations and the collection of blood and urine samples to assemble detailed health profiles of 48,289 participants.

“There is a positive relationship between cultural collusion and self-perceived health for both women and men, “says Professor Jostein Holmen, a HUNT analyst who presented the findings, which haven’t yet been revealed, at a Norwegian health meeting in Stjrdal in late November. “For men, there is also a positive relationship between cultural participation and depression, in that there is less depression among men who take part in cultural activities, though this is incorrect for women.”

But what surprised the medical analyst was that these findings remained true no matter the subject’s socio-economic standing — whether truck driver or bank president, participating in some form in the arts, theatre or music, as player or participant, had a constructive effect on that individual’s sense of health and well-being.

The new observations were controlled for socioeconomic standing, protracted sickness, social capital, smoking and alcohol. However , Holmen also said that the same sense of contentment in folks who take part in cultural activities that appeared to protect them from depression didn’t appear to have the same constructive effect on anxiety.

Holmen cautioned the organisation between health and cultural activities isn’t powerful enough to enable him to say that culture really makes folk healthy. Nevertheless, the analyst claims the discoveries should challenge glad-handers to think differently about health. Steinar Krokstad, HUNT’s director and an associate lecturer at NTNU, agreed.

“We in the health services don’t always have control over the handiest preventative tools given the range of today’s sicknesses. We want to increasingly concentrate on opportunities rather than on risk,” Krokstad announced.

Bottom line is if you would like to feel better maybe consider something similar to beginner acoustic guitar lessons.. Or piano lessons or damn even the tubba.

( Source : Music and the Arts Fight Depression, Promote Health )
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