Nutrition for Musicians

Everybody talks about how learning music is good for the brain development of the little ones but if (fortunately or unfortunately) the kid shows a prodigy potential the risk of injuring the mind and body goes up the roof if parents are not very careful.  

Emotional traumas, worth of self and beliefs about the world are formed in the first 8 years (including the 9 months pregnancy) of our lives.  Physically, a child’s body is less prepared than an adult’s for repetitive movements and overuse and its brain is not yet fully capable of adapting to mental stress.  

This might end with inaccurate stress responses towards different situations putting a lot of stress on the adrenal glands (responsible for managing stress hormones) at an early age.  

Continuous stress “perception” will end up with adrenal fatigue and the areas of brain responsible for deciding the level of stress and the intensity of reaction will lose the ability to judge properly.  

At this point, the brain might send intense stress signals to the adrenals (even for simple situations that do not require so), but the adrenals are too exhausted to react.  

This means that the balance of the whole body is shaken. Hormonal imbalances (especially through puberty), auto-immune disease (especially digestive and allergies), anger management issues, depression, anxiety and perfectionism will be the first signs of deeper and more challenging issues.  

If not feeling safe enough to share, children can endure a lot of physical and mental pain without mentioning it. So parents have to be attentive to the subtle changes in their kids’ behaviour.  

David Garrett, one of the very few living artists who shed some light on what goes on in a prodigy child’s mind and body, thanks to his openness, we know that he spent a couple of his teen years in excruciating physical pain before breaking away to Julliard

It took him a decade to talk about it openly! 

While he had some natural resilience to break away before this breaks him, most of the musicians will never talk about it at any age. But one can tell by reading their news, “numbness in limbs, back issues, herniated disks, respiratory system disease, drug abuse and suicides tell it all!  

There are 2 ways to avoid this:  

• If you are a parent, you can prevent this at an early age by adopting a holistic approach in the journey of your little ones. Special nutrition, mind support, stress management and stress release are a must to get through the long hours of practicing and early start of career mentally and physically healthy  
• If you are and adult musician who already went through a tough childhood without physical and emotional support. The stress of this period is still stored in your system, and might manifest violently putting your career at risk. As an adult, it has become your responsibility to maintain your wellness and make sure your past is not affecting your future.  

From Paganini and Beethoven to Bernstein, the list of composers with drug abuse, mental and physical challenges is endless. 

But nowadays we have the knowledge of how to maintain the health and humanity of our future and current artists so let’s not deprive them from the advantage to live a happy balanced life. They should not be punished for their talent or for making our lives sound a bit more beautiful!