Alzheimer's Disease: Music Brings Patients 'Back to Life' - East Idaho News

Alzheimer’s Disease: Music Brings Patients ‘Back to Life’

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GETTY H 122211 Headphones?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1334235912140iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Henry Dryer sits slumped over the tray attached to his wheelchair.  He doesn’t speak, and rarely moves, until a nursing home worker puts his headphones on.  Then Dryer’s feet start to shuffle, his folded arms rock back and forth, and he sings out loud in perfect sync with his favorite songs.

“I feel a band of love, dreams,” said Dryer, 92, who has dementia.  “It gives me the feeling of love, romance!”

Henry is one of seven patients profiled in the documentary Alive Inside, a heartwarming look at the power of music to help those in nursing homes.

“There are a million and a half people in nursing homes in this country,” director Michael Rossato-Bennett told ABC News.  “When I saw what happened to Henry, whenever you see a human being awaken like that, it touches something deep inside you.”

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, affecting 5.4 million Americans.  The disease swiftly robs patients of their memories and other brain functions, forcing most to live out their final years in nursing homes.

Rossato-Bennett said he took on the documentary project to promote Music & Memory, a nonprofit organization that brings iPods with personalized music to dementia patients in nursing home care.

“When I end up in a nursing home, I’ll want to have my music with me,” said Dan Cohen, executive director of Music & Memory.  “There aren’t many things in nursing homes that are personally meaningful activities.  Here’s the one easy thing that has a significant impact.”

Cohen said the personalized playlists, chosen by loved ones, make patients light up.

“They’re more alert, more attentive, more cooperative, more engaged,” he said.  “Even if they can’t recognize loved ones and they’ve stopped speaking, they hear music and they come alive.”

Alive Inside
premieres Wednesday, April 18 at the Rubin Museum in New York City.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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