Music’s Surprising Power to Heal

 Music is everywhere. It is in birds’ singing and rain’s sounding. It is in wind’s blowing and stream’s splattering. We can’t imagine our lives without music.

Amidst the fanfare that the modern world is so used to, there is a gloomy corner carved out of the side effects of the same modernity. Depression, anxiety, or lack of concentration seem to be the order of the day, but there is hope in the form of music. So, how does music affect the brain, and does it impact the health?

And how does music help people?

When the body is stressed, our heart beats faster, and we take in more air. Studies show that music can help us reduce the effect of this by lowering blood pressure and the respiration rate.

Music can also help to reduce pain by helping the body to increase the production of endorphins (natural pain relievers).

Some hospitals also use music therapists to help seriously ill patients. For example, teaching cancer patients to sing and play simple musical instruments can help to make them more positive, and encourage them to co-operate more in their own treatment.

Joke Bradt in his work “Music Therapy for Premature and Newborn Infants” writes that music is a cure for people who are down with cancer. He did more than 30 researches and observed more than 1900 patients.

Especially, classical music helps patients who are seriously ill.

I can name such composers as   Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, the greatest Italian composer,  and Frederic Francois Chopin, the brilliant Polish composer.

The sonatas and violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi are full of power and calm, which are very important for in a struggle with hopeless illnesses.

And the waltzes by Frederic Chopin are very melodic and energetic, which give sick people belief and hope for the indispensable recovery.

Their music is a real therapy.  In this intervention, music therapists chiefly help clients improve their health across various spheres. Music is used as a sanative to address the physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of a person. The intervention is designed to manage stress, relieve pain, promote wellness, express feelings, and promote physical rehabilitation among others. Music therapy is also found to be very effective in treating seizures, depression, ADD, insomnia, or conditions like premature infancy.

Robert J. Zatorre is a neuroimaging researcher with research in musical processing. He says that music can also help overcome mental, emotional, and physical handicaps, because within each person there is a part which only music is able to reach. Doctors find that patients with serious communication problems can improve by learning to express themselves through music, movement, and dance.

The benefits of music are not confined to people who are ill. Music can help us in our daily lives. For example, you can prepare yourself for important occasions such as an exam, or a big match, by humming an appropriate tune. It can also act as a tension or pain reliever for activities such as going to the dentist, or it can simply give expression to our moods. Listening to music gives your brain a break and helps you get through the day.

War music may be as important as weapons. This kind of music is a march with a strong regular rhythm which in origin is most frequently performed by a military band. We know the greatest marches written by Ludwig van Beethoven, George Frederic Handel and Wilhelm Richard Wagner. This music helps on the battles’ fields to win every time and enemies get defeated.

Music can sound very different. Some pieces sound complicated and intricate, others may be just a few bars repeated many times. Some melodies are almost impossible to remember, but others may haunt you for a long time.

“Music is born of emotion”, Confucius observed. It can become a kind of universal language understood by all people on the planet if they are prepared to acquire it.

The list of resources:

1. Music Therapy for Premature and Newborn Infants

ACADEMIC JOURNAL ARTICLE by Bradt, Joke
Music Therapy Perspectives , Vol. 23, No. 2 , July 1, 2005

2. Dissociation between Musical and Monetary Reward Responses in Specific Musical Anhedonia Mas-Herrero et al., Dissociation between Musical and Monetary Reward Responses in Specific Musical Anhedonia, Current Biology (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.01.068

3. http://www. buzzle.com , submitted by T. Makhrina