Fed2 Star - the newsletter for the space trading game Federation 2

The weekly newsletter for Fed2
by ibgames

EARTHDATE: January 24, 2016

Fed2 Star last page Fed2 Star: Official News page 6 Fed2 Star next page

REAL LIFE NEWS: SEE, I TOLD YOU SINGING SHOW TUNES WAS GOOD FOR YOU!

by Hazed

If you love to sing songs from the musicals then you could be staving off dementia, according to a new study.

The research found that those suffering from moderate to severe dementia had a marked improvement in their memory when they sang along to songs from movies and musicals in group settings, when compared to those who simply listened to the sing-alongs.

Researchers worked with elderly residents of a care home on the East Coast in a four-month study. They ran 50-minute sessions including songs from musicals such as The Wizard of Oz, Oklahoma and The Sound of Music. They found that people who sang their favourite songs showed a marked improvement.

Jane Flinn, one of the scientists involved in the study who works at George Mason University in Virginia, concluded singing was beneficial.
“Even when people are in the fairly advanced stages of dementia, when it is so advanced they are in a secure ward, singing sessions were still helpful,” she said.

“The message is: don’t give up on these people. You need to be doing things that engage them, and singing is cheap, easy and engaging.”

I assume that it’s not that show tunes have any special magic about them, it’s just that the particular residents involved in the test happened to like those songs. Or at least to know them well enough to sing along. My guess is that the improvement was more to do with the activity of singing, and the shared experience of singing in a group, which is always uplifting.

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/singing-show-tunes-helps-fight-dementia-study-article-1.1513903

Fed2 Star last page   Fed2 Star next page