How to Heal and Enhance Your Health with Music

“Music unites us all, it doesn’t need a language, it is a universal resource for being happy,”

Helena Bashkirova .

Music can modify neural activity in areas of the brain that control our emotions. Professor of music psychology Stefan Kölsch of the University of Bergen, Norway, has investigated how this strategy can help treat diseases. According to Kölsch,

“Emotions and negative emotional states block our ability to heal ourselves, but it is now known that music can trigger hormonal fireworks in the brain and that music can have a changing effect on brain neurotransmitters that can positively impact not only our mood, but also our health.”

 Music releases hormones such as serotonin, oxytocin and dopamine that can influence the autonomic nervous system, which unconsciously regulates vital processes in the body such as breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure and metabolism.

Kölsch's experiments indicate that music can trigger different emotions in certain brain structures and that, depending on the tonalities, specific neurotransmitters are stimulated, which in turn can undergo modifications.

Kölsch explains that there are four brain systems that are the source of emotions. Music activates the subconscious . It also affects the pleasure center in the brain, which is also the pain center.  Vital organs and functions are modulated in the brain stem.  Finally, music can have a relaxing effect and reduce stress .  The four systems influence each other, activate neurotransmitters, and can trigger feelings of happiness similar to those of sex, drugs, or food. Music can have a revitalizing or calming effect, scare us, or cheer us up.

When we make music together, for example, the brain releases what are known as endogenous opioids, which are brain neurotransmitters that reduce pain and at the same time generate very positive emotions that make us feel more connected to other people.

The effects of music on physical, mental and emotional health are so effective that it has been incorporated as therapy at different levels: from its use in hospitals in units for premature babies, through to schools with musical initiation, organizations that work with the rehabilitation of displaced children and young people and even victims of war; to homes and institutes where diseases such as Parkinson's, fibromyalgia, Alzheimer's and rehabilitation for drug use are treated. But also, in physical rehabilitation and improvement in sports performance; and to treat stress, anxiety and depression.

Music therapy harnesses the power of music in a therapeutic relationship to treat a variety of conditions and improve quality of life. A music therapist tailors sessions to your needs. You may sing or play instruments, listen to music, or discuss the meaning of lyrics. No musical knowledge is necessary, and people of all ages can benefit.

 

Music can have a decisive influence on different stages of life

The monochord is tuned to the same pitch as vital signs monitors to create a harmonic tonal atmosphere that is reflected in premature babies' heart rate and breathing, and is used in these cases because it has fairly low vibrations that correspond to what we imagine sounds to be like in the womb: wave-like, similar to the murmur of blood, says Friederika Hasselberg, a musicologist who works in the premature babies unit at the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

In early childhood education at the Max Planck Institute, neuropsychologist Daniele Sammler studies how our brains perceive and process music, and what is known as prosody, or the melody of speech, plays a central role. When children are born, they hear the rhythm and melody of their native language, almost instinctively detecting where pauses begin and end in order to register where a word starts and ends. Just as music has a rhythm, so does language.

On the other hand, turning music and rhythm into movement promotes motor skills and develops cognitive abilities in children such as perception, thinking, learning and memory. The auditory centers affect the motor centers.

As a tool for refugee rehabilitation, the Demetrios Karamintzas MitMachMusik integration project uses music education as a first aid measure to welcome children in Berlin, Germany who have been displaced from their countries of origin and burdened by war, dispossession and separation.

“They have learned how serious and valuable life is, and this project is about awakening that in the refugees who arrive here. It is about giving them confidence and giving them back their security by leaving behind everything that happened before ,” says Karamintzas.

According to Stefan Kölsch's observations, a practice such as that carried out in MitMachMusik provides these people who are re-adapted with a greater chance of survival because,

“Studies show that after playing music with others, people behave in a more peaceful, prosocial, altruistic and community-oriented manner, which is an important evolutionary effect because when people cooperate with each other, the social bond is strengthened.”

  

Mental and emotional healing: The healing power of vibration in Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Palliative Care

At its core, music is sound, and sound is based on vibration. Led by Dr. Lee Bartel, a professor of music at the University of Toronto, researchers are studying whether sound vibrations absorbed by the body can help relieve symptoms of Parkinson's disease, fibromyalgia and depression. Known as vibroacoustic therapy, the intervention involves using low-frequency sound — similar to a low rumble — to produce vibrations that are applied directly to the body. During vibroacoustic therapy, the patient lies on a mat or bed or sits in a chair with speakers that transmit vibrations at specific, computer-generated frequencies that can be heard and felt, Bartel says. He compares the process to sitting on a subwoofer.

The group is also examining what's called thalmocortical dysrhythmia, a disorientation of rhythmic brain activity involving the thalamus and outer cortex that appears to play a role in several medical conditions, including Parkinson's, fibromyalgia and possibly even Alzheimer's disease, says Bartel, who heads the co-lab.

"We've already seen glimmers of hope in a case study with a patient who had just been diagnosed with the disorder," Bartel says. "After stimulating her with 40-hertz sound for 30 minutes three times a week for four weeks, she was able to remember her grandchildren's names more easily, and her husband reported a good improvement in her condition."

The goal of all this work is to develop "dosable" and "prescribable" music therapy and music-as-medicine protocols that serve specific neurological functions and address the deficits that can arise from many of these neurologically based conditions. Rather than considering music only as a cultural phenomenon, says Bartel, art should be viewed as a vibratory stimulus that has cognitive and memory dimensions. 

"Only when we look at it this way do we begin to see the interface of how the brain and body work together ." ( article )

  

Music to improve physical performance and rehabilitation

According to a publication in The Health Science Academy journal, Dr. Costas Karageorghis, a world leader in music research for performance and author of over 100 studies, states that music can be thought of as “a kind of legal performance-enhancing drug.” Music improves athletic performance and can be a very compelling intervention to improve how one relates to both their actual performance and their ultimate outcome.

The same publication indicates 4 ways in which music achieves greater sports performance

1. Dissociation through music distracts the mind

Dissociation involves distracting the mind from the sensations of fatigue that come and go during performance. Research has repeatedly shown how music can improve performance by diverting attention from sensations of fatigue and pain when performing endurance activities such as running, cycling or swimming. In fact, sports scientists at Brunel University (UK), one of the leading centres for research into music serving athletics, have shown that music can reduce the rating of perceived exertion by 12% and improve endurance by 15%.

2. Music promotes flow states for internal motivation

Flow involves an altered mental state of awareness during activity. Although it is a feeling of energized concentration, it appears that the mind and body are operating on "autopilot" with minimal conscious effort. Some coaches and athletes refer to this as "being in the zone." It has sometimes been described as a mesmerizing state and can feel trance-like.

3. Movements synchronized to music can enhance your training level

Synchronizing music with repetitive exercise is linked to increased levels of work performance. Research supports the synchronizing aspect of rhythm as an important piece of skill and performance. For example, music can balance and adjust movement, thereby prolonging performance.

4. Several studies have linked music with positive feelings and memories.

Music can boost internal motivation by triggering good emotions, helping you experience much greater pleasure from the activity. This is magnified when a piece of music evokes an aspect of your life that is emotionally meaningful. Why is this important? Researchers believe that these factors can increase adherence to a long-term exercise program. Adherence is crucial for unconditioned individuals and for those in a rehabilitation program that involves exercise, such as physical therapy, treatment for chronic pain, or a heart condition.

 

Jymmin

In Leipzig, Germany, neuroscientist Thomas Fritz has created a movement-activated device called Jymmin that allows you to combine training with music in a way you have never experienced before, and that allows you to become more motivated and feel less pain and fatigue.

According to Fritz, after about 10 minutes of exercise, there is an improvement in mood that lasts for a long period, corresponding to what is known as the “Runner's High” or the runner's euphoria that produces a release of endorphins. The difference is that while it takes a runner 30 minutes of training to achieve this, with the Jymmin, which combines music and exercise, the person achieves it in 10 minutes.

The combination of music and physical effort activates the reward system in the brain. With Jymmin, for example, people with addiction problems experience euphoric effects that reduce their addiction. In patients with pain, it alleviates suffering and the fear of movement involving sensitive or injured areas. It is believed that this is due to an increased release of endorphins, hormones that act as an endogenous analgesic and increase motivation.

In both sport and rehabilitation, it is about training at the limits of individual performance. In sport, the athlete wants to go further, higher, faster, and the same applies to a convalescent person.

According to experiments, the effects of Jymmin are quite encouraging, as the physiological and cognitive response is very fast, and if done continuously, patients can reach their maximum individual performance. Possibilities of applying it as an adjuvant rehabilitation therapy are currently being studied.

Watch the video about JYMMIN here

 

Music to relieve pain and stress

In a meta-analysis of 400 studies, Levitin and his graduate research partner, Mona Lisa Chanda, PhD, of McHill University in Montreal, Canada, found that music improves the functioning of the body's immune system and reduces stress. Listening to music was also found to be more effective than prescription drugs in reducing anxiety before surgery (Trends in Cognitive Sciences, April 2013).

Levitin, who is the author of the book "This is Your Brain on Music" (Plume/Penguin, 2007), also points out in his analysis how music influences health. Researchers found that listening to and playing music increases the body's production of the antibody immunoglobulin A and natural killer cells, the cells that attack invading viruses and boost the effectiveness of the immune system. Music also reduces levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.

Meanwhile, researchers at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in Singapore found that palliative care patients who participated in live music therapy sessions reported relief from persistent pain (Progress in Palliative Care, July 2013). Music therapists worked closely with patients to individually tailor the intervention, and patients participated by singing, playing instruments, discussing lyrics, and even writing songs as they worked to come to terms with an illness or weighed end-of-life issues.

"Active engagement with music allowed patients to reconnect with healthy parts of themselves, even in the face of debilitating illness or disease-related suffering," said music therapist Melanie Kwan, co-author of the study and president of the Singapore Music Therapy Association. "When their acute pain symptoms were relieved, patients were finally able to rest."

Whether you want to improve your physical condition, heal emotionally or meet people who can benefit from this tool, make room for music in your life and allow it to activate the self-healing mechanisms in your body.