Music therapy taps into long-term memory, which remains intact longer than short-term memory in dementia patients.

"One of our patients struggles to recall much from his past. He has Dementia. However, whenever he listens to songs in his mother tongue, it boosts his mood and reconnect with his memories," Neha Sinha, Dementia Specialist, Psychologist, CEO & Co-founder of Epoch Elder Care told me recently.

This made me wonder if music can really help elderly patients with complex neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's, Dementia and Multiple Sclerosis. Turns out that it can. While it does not specifically treat them, music definitely helps stabilize symptoms, fostering emotional well-being and improving the quality of life for patients.

Music And Memories To Treat Physical Symptoms

Behavioural challenges, such as aggression, anxiety, and social disinhibition, are common in patients with Dementia. Music therapy addresses these issues by creating a calming atmosphere and making them more open to treatment. "Listening to or engaging with music can soothe anxiety, regulate sleep patterns, and encourage them to be more receptive to assistance in performing their activities of daily life (ADL) more comfortably. Moreover, Reminiscence therapy, which helps recall events and discuss past events to improve their well-being, is known to be profoundly effective in treating such conditions.

Music therapy also taps into long-term memory, which remains intact longer than short-term memory in those suffering from Dementia. Familiar tunes or songs from childhood can stimulate certain neural connections, particularly if they are in their mother tongue. This soothes their anxiety, provides comfort and even prompts them to engage in social conversations.

Additionally, music therapy aids motor coordination, which is particularly helpful to those with Parkinson's. Incorporating rhythmic movements like walking or light dancing to music can improve muscle relaxation and enhance motor abilities. While there is no direct evidence linking music therapy to alleviating physical symptoms, its positive impact on mood and cognitive function makes patients more receptive to medical treatment.

Music Therapy Has Shown Significant Benefits

Healing with music is believed to date back to ancient Greece when music was used in an attempt to cure mental disorders. Throughout history, music has been used to boost morale in military troops, help people work faster and more productively, and even ward off evil spirits by chanting.

Music therapy does not involve specialists in most cases. It involves:

• listening to music
• singing along to music
• moving to the beat of the music
• meditating
• playing an instrument

Kidney disease is one of those conditions where myths quietly cause a lot of damage. Misinformation about symptoms, diet, medicines, and treatment can delay diagnosis, worsen kidney health, and prevent people from taking simple steps that could protect their kidneys early on.

Myth: Kidney disease is rare.

Fact: It’s actually quite common, but many people don’t even know they have it.

Myth: You’ll feel it if something is wrong.

Fact: Early chronic kidney disease (CKD) is usually silent, and symptoms often appear only after significant damage has already occurred.

Even something as simple as a slightly raised creatinine is often ignored.

Fact: Even mild elevations can signal a meaningful loss of kidney function.

Myth: Dialysis cures kidney disease.

Fact: Dialysis does not cure kidney disease. It only replaces some kidney functions to help keep the body in balance.

Myth: If dialysis is needed in Acute Kidney Injury (AKI), it means lifelong dialysis.

Fact: Dialysis in AKI may be temporary. In advanced CKD, however, it is often long-term or lifelong unless a kidney transplant is performed.

Diet myths don’t help either

Myth: More water is always better.

Fact: Hydration is important, but too much water isn’t helpful for everyone—especially in advanced CKD, where fluid intake may need to be restricted.

Myth: All kidney patients should eat the same diet.

Fact: Kidney diets are highly individualized. High-protein diets, often seen as healthy, can increase stress on damaged kidneys. Plant-based proteins can be a suitable alternative in many cases.

Myth: Herbal or indigenous remedies can cure or prevent kidney disease.

Fact: Many of these remedies are unregulated and may actually worsen kidney damage because of hidden toxins or heavy metals.

Myth: Painkillers are harmless.

Fact: Regular use of medicines like NSAIDs can quietly damage the kidneys over time.

At the end of the day, kidney disease isn’t just about treatment—it’s about awareness. Getting the facts right can make all the difference.

There are many components of weather that are reported to affect migraine, such as barometric pressure, humidity, temperature, and seasons. A drop in pressure (often before a storm) can create a pressure imbalance between the environment and the sinuses/inner ear, stimulating nerves and causing headaches.

Rapid shifts in temperature or intense cold/heat can trigger migraine attacks. Both high humidity and very dry air can trigger migraine symptoms. Bright Sunlight or Intense sun exposure, especially reflecting off snow or water, is a significant trigger for migraine.

Weather Changes: Brain Imbalances

Weather changes can cause chemical imbalances in the brain, specifically affecting serotonin levels, which are involved in migraine development. They can also cause inflammation or a "pressure difference" in the sinuses.

Both spring/summer (due to heat and allergens) and winter (due to cold/dry air) can trigger migraines and sinus problems. While many studies report weather as a trigger, some studies suggest that our perception of the trigger can exceed the actual statistical impact.

Often, it is a combination of factors, such as allergies in the spring or the flu in autumn, that triggers the headache, rather than just the air pressure.

Maintaining a migraine diary for at least 90 days helps identify specific weather patterns that trigger your attacks.

Seasonal Allergies And Sinus

Seasonal allergies do not cause migraine attacks, but migraine is commonly misdiagnosed as a sinus headache, because some symptoms can overlap. It is common for migraine to be associated with forehead and facial pressure over the sinuses, as well as a blocked or runny nose.

However, sinus issues may be accompanied by a fever rather than a migraine. Migraines can cause activation of the nerves in the face (referred to as cranial autonomic activation), which can lead to the blocked, congested feeling.

How To Stay Safe

If weather changes are a trigger for you, this can be difficult to avoid, and beyond your control, but it can be useful to keep an eye on the weather forecast. A preventive treatment may be needed to reduce the overall sensitivity to such changes, allowing you more freedom to plan your daily activities. When you think the weather might increase the risk, it is useful to treat early to shorten and completely stop the migraine attack.

Attacks that are treated early will have fewer debilitating symptoms by not becoming fully developed and severe. Drink enough water to make up for extra fluid loss on warmer days and during physical activities.

Consider taking water with you when out to remain well hydrated and to compensate for excessive sweating. Consider staying indoors during the peak hours of brightness if that is an option.

If going out, be prepared by wearing protective sunglasses or a hat to minimize glare and light. Use a humidifier to maintain indoor humidity between 40-50% to prevent nasal passages from drying out, especially in winter.

Psilocybin is the active ingredient found in magic mushrooms, and a new study shows that just one high dose (25 mg) is enough to cause alterations in the brain’s structures and help improve mental health.

The changes could explain why some people report psychological benefits from the experience, revealed the study published in the journal Nature Communications. The study found that the effect may last for up to a month after the experience.

In the study, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, and Imperial College London argue that the effect may lead to “subsequent improvements in mental health”.

"Psychedelic means 'psyche-revealing,' or making the psyche visible," said senior author Robin Carhart-Harris, Professor of Neurology at UCSF.

"Our data shows that such experiences of psychological insight relate to an entropic quality of brain activity and how both are involved in causing subsequent improvements in mental health. It suggests that the trip—and its correlates in the brain—is a key component of how psychedelic therapy works," Carhart-Harris added.

How A Psychedelic Trip Improved Brain Health

Psilocybin has been the subject of several studies in people that have found it appears to alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety. It has also shown promise in addiction medicine.

In the latest study on 28 people, none had a diagnosed mental health condition. The team gave the participants a 1 mg dose of psilocybin, which the researchers regarded as a placebo, and then monitored them with electroencephalography (EEG), which records brain activity from electrodes on the scalp.

One month after the placebo, the subjects were given 25 mg of psilocybin, a dose capable of eliciting a strong psychedelic trip.

After each experiment, the researchers measured the participants’ psychological insight, well-being, and cognitive ability. They also examined brain activity with functional MRI (fMRI) and brain connectivity with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).

The results showed that within 60 minutes of taking the 25 mg dose of psilocybin, the EEG revealed higher entropy — which means that the brain was processing a richer body of information under the psychedelic.

A month later, the researchers looked at their subjects' brains with DTI, which measures the diffusion of water along neural tracts in the brain, and found that they were denser and had more integrity. This is the opposite of what happens in aging, which makes these tracts more diffuse.

Also Read: Ibogaine: Why Donald Trump Is Pushing US FDA To Fast-track This Psychedelic

While the result is a never-before-seen sign of how psychedelics can change the brain, the researchers cautioned that more work needs to be done to better understand the meaning of this change.

The participants noted that they had experienced more psychological insight after taking the 25 mg of psilocybin than they had after the 1 mg placebo, and noted "feeling optimistic about the future".

A month after the study, they also did better on a test of cognitive flexibility.

"Psilocybin seems to loosen up stereotyped patterns of brain activity and give people the ability to revise entrenched patterns of thought," said Taylor Lyons, a research associate at Imperial College London and the first author of the paper. "The fact that these changes track with insight and improved well-being is especially exciting."

The findings could improve treatment for people with mental illness with psilocybin, for example, by ensuring that the right dosage is used to produce the right amount of brain entropy to promote insight.