Music as Medicine: What a Landmark WHO Review of 900+ Studies Reveals About Listening Daily

What if your daily music listening habit was one of the healthiest things you do? Not in a vague, feel-good sense — but backed by clinical evidence, randomized controlled trials, and the endorsement of the World Health Organization itself.

In November 2019, the WHO Regional Office for Europe published Health Evidence Network Synthesis Report 67, authored by Dr. Daisy Fancourt (UCL) and Saoirse Finn. It was the most comprehensive review of evidence on arts and health ever conducted — a scoping review of over 900 publications, covering more than 3,000 studies. The section on music was remarkable.

The WHO Findings: Music Across the Health Spectrum

The report organized evidence into two major categories: prevention and promotion (keeping healthy people healthy) and management and treatment (helping people who are ill). Music appeared powerfully in both.

1. Stress and Cortisol Reduction

Multiple studies in the review confirmed that listening to music significantly reduces cortisol levels — the body's primary stress hormone. A frequently cited study by Thoma et al. (2013), published in PLOS ONE, found that participants who listened to music before a standardized stress test showed significantly faster cortisol recovery compared to those who rested in silence or listened to the sound of rippling water.

A separate meta-analysis by Chanda and Levitin (2013) in Trends in Cognitive Sciences (McGill University) found that music modulates levels of cortisol, serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin — essentially acting on all four of the body's major neurochemical systems tied to mood, bonding, stress, and immune function.

2. Pain Management

The WHO review highlighted substantial evidence that music reduces perceived pain across clinical settings. A Cochrane Review by Hole et al. (2015) — a gold-standard systematic review — analyzed 73 randomized controlled trials with 7,000+ patients and found that music listening reduced post-surgical pain, anxiety, and analgesic (painkiller) requirements. Patients who listened to music needed less morphine.

The mechanism appears to involve both distraction and direct neurochemical effects. Music engages attention networks that compete with pain signals, while simultaneously triggering endogenous opioid release — your body's natural painkillers.

3. Mental Health and Depression

A meta-analysis by Aalbers et al. (2017), published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, found that music therapy combined with standard treatment was significantly more effective for depression than standard treatment alone. Participants showed greater reduction in depressive symptoms and improved overall functioning.

For daily listeners, the implications are clear: regular music engagement acts as a form of emotional regulation. Dr. Fancourt's own longitudinal research at UCL, following thousands of participants over years, has shown that frequent arts engagement (including music listening) is associated with lower incidence of depression and higher life satisfaction, even after controlling for socioeconomic factors.

4. Cardiovascular Health

Perhaps the most surprising finding: music affects your heart. Research reviewed in the WHO report showed that slow-tempo music can reduce heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate. A study by Bernardi, Porta, and Sleight (2006) in the journal Heart found that these cardiovascular changes were proportional to the tempo of the music — faster music increased physiological arousal, while slower music induced relaxation responses comparable to meditation.

Culturally Familiar Music Is More Effective

Here's where it gets particularly relevant for Punjabi music listeners. Several studies in the WHO review noted that the health benefits of music are amplified when the music is culturally familiar and personally meaningful. Generic "relaxation music" works, but music that connects to your identity, memories, and emotional landscape works significantly better.

A 2015 study by Groarke and Hogan in Psychology of Music specifically found that emotional engagement with music — not just passive listening — was the key predictor of wellbeing benefits. The more a song means to you, the more it does for your body and mind.

For Punjabi listeners, this means the music you already love — the songs tied to your family celebrations, your cultural identity, your deepest emotional memories — is precisely the music most likely to deliver measurable health benefits.

How Much Music Do You Need?

The research suggests that even 20–30 minutes of intentional music listening per day is enough to trigger meaningful stress reduction and mood improvement. That's roughly 5–7 songs. The key word is intentional — focused listening where you're actually paying attention to the music, not just having it as background noise.

Dr. Daniel Levitin, neuroscientist and author of This Is Your Brain on Music, recommends treating music listening with the same intentionality as exercise: "We don't question that 30 minutes of physical activity improves your body. The evidence is equally strong that 30 minutes of music engagement improves your brain."

The Bottom Line

The WHO didn't call music a "nice distraction." They documented it as a legitimate health intervention with evidence spanning pain management, mental health, cardiovascular function, stress reduction, and immune support. The data spans thousands of studies, tens of thousands of participants, and decades of research.

Your daily music habit isn't a guilty pleasure. It's preventive medicine.

References:
Fancourt, D. & Finn, S. (2019). "What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being?" WHO Health Evidence Network Synthesis Report 67. WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Chanda, M.L. & Levitin, D.J. (2013). "The neurochemistry of music." Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 17(4), 179–193.
Hole, J., et al. (2015). "Music as an aid for postoperative recovery in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis." The Lancet, 386(10004), 1659–1671.
Thoma, M.V., et al. (2013). "The effect of music on the human stress response." PLOS ONE, 8(8).
Aalbers, S., et al. (2017). "Music therapy for depression." Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
Bernardi, L., Porta, C. & Sleight, P. (2006). "Cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory changes induced by different types of music." Heart, 92(4), 445–452.

Your daily listening habit is backed by science. Make the most of it — explore music that moves you on ApnaMusic.