If you paint, dance or play a musical instrument — or merely enjoy going to the theatre or to concerts — it is probable that you are feeling more healthy and are less depressed than folk who do not a survey of almost fifty thousand people from all socio-economic backgrounds from a county in mid-Norway shows.

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

“There is a positive relationship between cultural participation and self-perceived health for both ladies and men, “says Professor Jostein Holmen, a HUNT analyst who presented the observations, which havenot 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, although this is not right for women.”

But what shocked the medical analyst was that these observations held true no matter the person’s socio-economic standing — whether van driver or bank president, participating in some way in the arts, theatre or music, as player or player, had a constructive effect on that individual’s sense of well-being and health.

The new discoveries were controlled for socioeconomic status, protracted illness, social capital, smoking and alcohol. However , Holmen also claimed that the same sense of well-being in people who take part in cultural activities that seemed to protect them from depression didnot seem to have the same beneficial effect on anxiety.

Holmen cautioned that the association between health and cultural activities isn’t powerful enough to enable him to say that culture really makes folk healthy. However, the analyst claims the findings should challenge congressmen to think differently about health. Steinar Krokstad, HUNT’s director and an associate teacher at NTNU, concluded.

“We in the health services don’t always have control over the best preventative tools given the range of today’s illnesses. 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 like beginner acoustic guitar lessons.. Or drum lessons or damn even the violin.

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