If you’ve ever heard someone describe a concert or album as "life-changing," they might not be exaggerating. Listening to and playing music has been repeatedly linked to improved quality of life—data says it can elevate our mood, help us relax, and even treat certain conditions like depression and anxiety. Now, a new study points to another potentially enormous health benefit.
Analyzing data from more than 10,800 people aged 70+, researchers from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, found that "always listening to music" is linked to a 39% reduction in the risk of dementia compared with "never/rarely/sometimes" listening. It’s also linked to a 17% "lower incidence of cognitive impairment," along with higher scores in "overall cognition and episodic memory (used when recalling everyday events)." Meanwhile, playing an instrument was associated with a 35% "reduction in dementia risk," while regularly engaging in "both music listening and playing" was associated with a 33% "decreased risk of dementia" and a 22% "decreased risk of cognitive impairment."
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Can music "promote cognitive health"?
The study, published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, was led by Monash honors student Emma Jaffa and Professor Joanne Ryan. While Jaffa notes in a statement that "causation cannot be established," she says these findings suggest that "music activities may be an accessible strategy for maintaining cognitive health in older adults." Ryan added, “Our study suggests that lifestyle-based interventions, such as listening and/or playing music can promote cognitive health.”
However, the authors report "no significant association" between these activities and "subjective cognitive wellbeing." In an intriguing detail, they emphasize that the associated benefits were strongest among participants with higher education (16 years or more), with "inconsistent results" among those with 12 to 15 years of education.
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The benefits seniors get from music
It’s an exciting update—now you have one more excuse to record that singer-songwriter demo or build out an indulgent vinyl collection. But lowering dementia risk isn’t the only benefit seniors might see from making or listening to music. In the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging from 2024, which surveyed people between ages 50 and 80, 75% of respondents said music helps them relax or relieve stress; 73% said it brings joy; 65% said it improves mental health, mood, or attitude; 60% said it helps motivate or energize; and 31% said it helps keep their minds sharp. According to the published report, "those who said their physical health is fair or poor, and those who say they often feel isolated, were less likely to listen to music every day."
Joel Howell, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School, noted the positive benefits of music—from helping treat health issues like depression and anxiety to tapping into a deeper level. “Music has the power to bring joy and meaning to life," he said. "It is woven into the very fabric of existence for all of humankind."
Poll director Jeffrey Kullgren, M.D., M.P.H., M.S. talked about the potential of music in traditional healthcare. “While music doesn’t come up often in older adults’ visits with their usual care providers, perhaps it should,” he said. “The power of music to connect us, improve mood and energy, or even ease pain (like 7% of respondents said it does for them), means it could be a powerful tool.”
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Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.