Listen Up: The Benefits Of Music Therapy
I had a proud mommy moment this month as we released my son Randy’s first music production. Randy has been the topic of my stories around ONDAMED as I discovered the healing potential of ONDAMED through him. Remember, I used it to dissolve a 1cm thrombus on his heart valve when he was 5 and he proved to be unresponsive to Coumadin treatment. His response to ONDAMED enabled him to avoid an already scheduled open cardiac surgery. Randy’s healing was my inspiration to bring this transformational technology and its personalized method to millions of people around the world. This work truly is a mission of the heart.
Randy, now 20 has grown to be a very emotionally connected man, and found his creativity and soulful passion in music. His debut single DIARY from his up and coming EP Lockedown can be found here.
As I enjoy his music, and connect all the dots to our efforts to bring healing, I was looking into the subject of Music Therapy and the healing powers in music and found this interesting article by Beverly Merz, Executive Editor, Harvard Women's Health Watch.
The article points that a growing body of research attests that music therapy can improve medical outcomes and quality of life in a variety of ways. Music can evoke emotional responses to relax or stimulate people, or help them heal.
A few of the ways music supports healing:
Improves invasive procedures. In controlled clinical trials of people having colonoscopies, cardiac angiography, and knee surgery, those who listened to music before their procedure had reduced anxiety and a reduced need for sedatives. Those who listened to music in the operating room reported less discomfort during their procedure. Hearing music in the recovery room lowered the use of opioid painkillers.
Restores lost speech. Music therapy can help people who are recovering from a stroke or traumatic brain injury that has damaged the left-brain region responsible for speech. Because singing ability originates in the right side of the brain, people can work around the injury to the left side of their brain by first singing their thoughts and then gradually dropping the melody. Former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords used this technique to enable her to testify before a Congressional committee two years after a gunshot wound to her brain destroyed her ability to speak.
Reduces side effects of cancer therapy. Listening to music reduces anxiety associated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It can also quell nausea and vomiting for patients receiving chemotherapy.
Aids pain relief. Music therapy has been tested in patients ranging from those with intense acute pain to those with chronic pain from arthritis. Overall, music therapy decreases pain perception, reduces the amount of pain medication needed, helps relieve depression, and gives people a sense of better control over their pain.
Improves quality of life for dementia patients. Because the ability to engage with music remains intact late into the disease process, music therapy can help to recall memories, reduce agitation, assist communication, and improve physical coordination.
It is clear that adding music to your life can help relax your brain waves, take you back in memory lane to favorite times, bring up emotions and impact your mind and spirit. The facts above just reinforce the added healing power music contributes to our life. So put your headphones on, or your speakers, and turn up the volume:
