Thursday, April 15, 2010

Music's Healing Power

Music weaves an intricate physiological dance with the body's neurons and blood cells and this dance is now being intensely studied by various researchers. Their findings are being applied in more and more hospitals. Music therapy has actually been used for thousands of years. Today, scientists are just beginning to understand how it works. It has already been shown that if certain slow pieces such as some of the works of Mozart are played, the listener's heart will adapt to the beat of the music.
Musical tones follow an intricate highway from the head to the rest of the body. The trip begins with sound waves traveling through the air and landing in the middle ear where they cause the eardrums and bones in the middle ear to vibrate. The brain transforms the mechanical energy into electrical energy and then sends the electrical impulse to the "thinking" part of the brain, the cerebral cortex which controls thought, perception and memory. The cerebral cortex then sends the impulses to the response centers of the brain that control emotion, arousal, anxiety, pleasure and creativity. Then there is yet another stop: the hypothalamus, a small area deep in the brain that controls heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, body temperature and the nerves in the stomach and skin. The hypothalamus strives to maintain equilibrium throughout the body. Think about how certain songs will give you "butterflies" in your stomach or goose bumps on your arms. This entire trip through the brain happens in less than a heart beat, but the journey has just begun.
First, these electrical signals are converted to hormones in the brain. Researchers have found that along with the need for fewer sedatives and the need to normalize blood pressure and heart rates, critically ill patients showed a 50% spike in growth hormone, produced in the pituitary gland, after listening to just one hour of Mozart piano sonatas. If patients or their families are unable to choose the music, a good choice is Mozart for the critically ill patients. The various hormones then leave the brain and flow throughout the body via the bloodstream where they calm or stimulate various systems.

Classical music is the most common choice among doctors and therapists. The vibration of stringed instruments in particular is thought to intertwine with the energy of the heart, small intestine, and the thyroid and adrenal glands as shown by research done at Cardiovascular Institute in New Jersey.

Listening to joyful music as part of an overall prescription for maintaining good heart health,
is defined as any music that brings on a natural high and maximizes the release of endorphins; the body's own feel good chemicals. Research has shown that hearing your favorite song causes your blood vessels to dilate, hence increasing blood flow. Healthy volunteers while listening to songs of their choice, researchers  discovered that the diameter of upper arm blood vessels increased by 26%. After listening to music which they hated however, these vessels narrowed by 6%. Research currently supports that any music the patient finds enjoyable will be healing regardless of genre.
We know music can calm, influence creativity and can energize. Music's role in recovering from disease is being ever more appreciated.

Harp music is so unique that it is the only instrument that has 20 to 50 strings and is completely open, unlike other stringed instruments such as a violin or guitar. When a harpist strikes a chord, not only are the notes of the chord vibrating, but the strings above and below those plucked also vibrate. These vibrations appear to be absorbed by the body.

This article is philosophical in nature and is for informational purpose only, it is not meant to treat or diagnose disease.
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