Safe and Secure

It is reported in The Times today, that music helps stroke victims to make a quicker recovery. The research from Helsinki shows that if you listen to music, it helps you get back to normal.

My father had a serious stroke and he was left without speech, but underneath it all you could sense that his brain was still beating away. He could still read and used to spend hours pouring over the racing form in the papers and watching the racing on the television. He still liked a bet and would indicate his selections, which my mother would reluctantly take to the betting shop.  Gambling was very much against her principles, but she knew where her duty lay.

Now the irony was that inevitably she took more out of the betting shop than she put in.

I once told this tale to someone, whose wife was a therapist for stroke patients. He laughed and said that my father was one of many.  Her wife had once treated a bookmaker and he had made a remarkable recovery.

So could there be a link between brain stimulation and making a quicker recovery? 

After all working out which horses will win and listening to music are both pleasures of the brain, that need little input from others, provided of course your ears or eyes work.