Could Music Be One of the Most Underrated Medicines We Have?

Have you ever noticed how just a few notes of music can transport you back decades?

Perhaps it’s the song you danced to on your wedding day. The lullaby you sang to your children. The music that played during your first love, your greatest adventure, or one of life’s most difficult moments.

Within seconds, music can make us smile, cry, feel nostalgic or suddenly experience emotions we thought had long disappeared.

Most of us simply accept this as one of life’s little mysteries. But what if music is doing far more than stirring memories? What if it is quietly influencing our brains, our nervous systems and even our physical health?

As a doctor, I have become increasingly fascinated by this question.

Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science

For thousands of years, every culture has used music during healing rituals. Long before hospitals, MRI scanners or modern medicine, music accompanied birth, death, celebration, grief, prayer and healing.

Our ancestors didn’t think of music simply as entertainment. They understood it as something that could soothe, strengthen and restore. Somewhere along the rise of modern medicine, however, music became something pleasant rather than therapeutic – an enjoyable extra rather than something that might actively support health.

Today, science is beginning to revisit that ancient wisdom.

A New Generation of Research

One researcher who particularly caught my attention is Dr. Mei Rui at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas – one of the world’s leading cancer hospitals.

Rather than asking whether people simply enjoy listening to music, Dr. Rui is asking a much bigger question:

Can music produce measurable biological changes?

Her team is currently conducting a clinical trial involving patients preparing for brain surgery for cancer.

Researchers are comparing live music, recorded music and standard medical care while measuring stress, anxiety, pain, heart rate, blood pressure, cortisol (our major stress hormone) and inflammatory markers.

In other words, music is no longer being viewed simply as something that makes people feel better. It is being studied as something that may measurably influence how the body responds to stress.

That is a remarkable shift.

Looking Inside the Brain

Dr. Rui has also studied one of the most stressed groups of professionals imaginable: surgeons.

Using sophisticated brain scans, heart rate variability, sleep monitoring and burnout questionnaires, her team explored how listening to carefully selected music over several weeks influenced brain function and wellbeing.

Although this was an early pilot study involving a relatively small number of participants, it demonstrated that scientists can objectively study how music affects brain connectivity, physiological stress and emotional regulation. The findings are encouraging and point the way for much larger studies in the future.

Modern medicine is beginning to look inside the brain and ask questions that previous generations simply could not investigate.

Why This Matters as We Age

One thing I have noticed in my work is that many women become wonderfully intentional about caring for their health as they get older.

We pay attention to our nutrition.

We walk more.

We practise yoga.

We meditate.

We prioritise sleep.

Yet many of us overlook one of the simplest resources available to us every day.

Music.

Emerging research suggests that music may influence many of the systems that become increasingly important as we age, including:

• our stress response
• emotional wellbeing
• sleep quality
• heart rate variability
• memory and attention
• nervous system regulation

Music is not replacing medication or medical treatment.

But perhaps it deserves a place alongside the healthy habits that support our wellbeing.

Music Is More Than Entertainment

Think about the role music already plays in your own life.

When we’re grieving, we often turn to music.

When we’re celebrating, there is music.

When we’re exercising, travelling, relaxing or reflecting, music is often there too.

Even people living with advanced dementia, who may struggle to recognise family members, can often remember songs from decades earlier.

That tells us something extraordinary.

Music reaches places that words sometimes cannot.

Five Simple Ways to Let Music Support Your Wellbeing

You don’t need expensive equipment or specialist knowledge to begin using music more intentionally.

Here are a few simple ideas:

Create a Calming Playlist

Choose music that helps your body relax after a busy day.

Have an Uplifting Morning Playlist

Start the day with music that lifts your mood and energises you.

Listen with Intention

Instead of having music playing in the background, spend 10 minutes doing nothing except listening.

Sing

Even if you’re convinced you can’t sing, your nervous system doesn’t care whether you’re on key.

Pair Music with Slow Breathing

Even taking a few slow breaths while listening to calming music can help settle your nervous system.

My Own Perspective

For years I hesitated to describe music as medicine. Medicine, after all, was something prescribed. Something measurable.

Now, watching neuroscience evolve, I find myself thinking differently.

Perhaps music has not suddenly become medicine. Perhaps science has finally developed the tools to measure what humans have always intuitively known.

That music changes us.

Not only emotionally.

But biologically.

Final Thoughts

We cannot stop ourselves from growing older. But we can continue to nurture our minds, calm our nervous systems and create moments of joy. Sometimes that begins with a walk. Sometimes with a conversation. Sometimes with simply taking a deep breath.

And sometimes…

All it takes is pressing play.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Have you ever been prescribed listening to music as a stress-relief? Or as sleep solution? What do you use music for – background or intention?