Andrew Ferruzza

Karlianne Seri

WRT 102.73

8 April 2018

Can Music Be Used As Medicine?

For just as long as the human civilization has thrived on this planet, we have created, studied, and enjoyed music. In fact,  it’s nearly impossible to imagine a life without music. We experience this form of art on a daily basis: in television shows, on the radio, in commercials, and in the supermarket. For many people, music has transcended the boundaries of other art forms (such as painting, or writing). It is often considered to be the ultimate form of expression. In the past 50 years alone, an innumerable amount of styles have arose in music. From rock to pop to jazz, we cannot deny the massive effect that certain human beings have left on our society, just through their music alone.  However, it is important to recall the effect music can have on us mentally and acknowledge its enormous power to evoke nostalgic feelings and awake rested emotions from our memory. Several studies have suggested that music distracts us in medicinal ways, and that paying closer attention to its beauty and logistics can yield positive results on our brains and even certain diseases such as Parkinson’s and cancer.

Many psychologists and neuroscientists have described music as a “distractor” for the human brain. Which is why it works well as a form of therapy for people with high-anxiety and stress. As we know, anxiety tends to force us to not stopping about a certain thing. In turn, our lives start to revolve around this one thing, and thus–we have become victims of anxiety. However, in The Journal of Pain, Rick Nauert (PhD) explains that just simply listening to music can be “effective among those who can easily become absorbed in cognitive activities” (Nauert 1). The experiment conducted involved taking 143 people and have them listen to music for a certain period of time. During this period of time, they were instructed to identify certain features about the music (melodies, rhythms, etc.) and focus on explaining them. Also during the experiment, these people were subjected to shocks through their fingertips to simulate the pain. Surprisingly enough, the people became less focused on the pain they were receiving, and their “arousal” behind this pain significantly decreased; which means the music successfully acted as a distractor from the pain that they were receiving. Another interesting point about this experiment was the fact that low-anxiety people tended to not become interested in the activity at all, which probably means they didn’t feel it was necessary to have to distract themselves from any pain (Nauert 1). For very stressed and high-anxiety people, simply listening to music could be a natural “way out.”

A 2011 Harvard Health study stated the detailed explanation of how our ears interpret sound as music, and the various ways it can affect us in terms of stress relief, mood changes and even our balance. As soundwaves enter our ear, they stimulate vibrations on our eardrums, which are then processed by an important bone called the cochlea. The cochlea activates our auditory nerve, which in turn transmits the different pitches we hear into familiar melodies (aka, music) (Harvard 1). The study recalls a 2009 experiment in which it was assured that “music-assisted relaxation” could increase the effectiveness of our sleep patterns. These same experiments also confirmed that listening to calming music, such as classical music, usually made people feel sad or nostalgic, while uplifting, pop music tended to make people more upbeat, happy, and alert. Lastly, the study brought up an interesting account on the relationship between music and falling. It is common for senior citizens (age 65+) to often lose their balance and fall. However, this experiment was created to teach a random group of seniors to walk in time with all different kinds of music, in hope that they focus more on walking to a beat instead of just straightforward walking. The control group in the experiment did not get this training and at the termination of the lessons, the people who got the walking training fell about 50% less than the people who didn’t get it (Harvard 1). This shows music’s ability to grab our attention and distract us from even everyday activities. This can either be good or bad depending on the situation, but in this case it benefited senior citizens who often lose their balance.

The American Psychological Association dove further into the logistics, or roots, of music.  The idea is that sound is essentially created by vibrations and in turn music can be simply defined as organized sound. Their 2009 experiment, conducted by Lauren King (a Disorders Researcher at a Rehab Center in Ontario), involved the use of “vibroacoustic therapy,” which explores the notion that the use of these sound vibrations can help ease the symptoms of diseases like Parkinson’s, for example. The experiment, which involved 40 patients with Parkinson’s disease concluded to be a success, and the patients were reported to have stronger balance, and improved walking speed. The team also discovered that low-frequency sounds are more beneficial to the patients, as these sounds tend to contain more of the “rhythmic pulses” that help to stabilize the nerves. University of Toronto music professor Lee Bartel led the researchers in the experiment, and at the conclusion he explained how music could be seen as more than just an art form if we break it down into simple vibrations. He states, “Only when we look at it in this way do we start to see the interface to how the brain and body work together” (Novotney, 46). Vibroacoustic therapy is just one form of therapy that can exemplify the connection between our brain and body.

An article from the Nitte University Journal of Health Science further explains the benefits music therapy can have on common diseases, in this case; it’s cancer. As explained previously, one reason why music therapy winds up being very beneficial to most patients is because of its ability to distract the patient from what is causing them pain, and give them “control” of themselves (D’silva 2). On top of this, music also releases endorphins, which physically cancel out the pain the patient usually feels. An endorphin is simply a hormone that serves a psychological job in the connection of the brain and the nerves. The research team in this particular case sought out to collect a large sample of cancer survivors (who once contained all different types of cancer; including breast, and pancreatic) and subject them to music therapy. Both the control and experimental group in the experiment were recorded to have decreases in pain within the 5 consecutive days of the experiment. Another area of research was the “quality of life” of the patients after being subjected to the music therapy. This aspect also increased in both groups. The experiment concluded that music therapy is a successful intervention on both cancer patients and cancer survivors. It was also noted that the therapy has an effect through the patient’s physical self only after having an effect on their mental outlook and attitude on life. (D’silva 5). This proves again that music has more of a complex effect on us, rather than just being used for our listening entertainment.

Aside from music being used as a cure for diseases, several recent studies have shown that music can s”stick” in our brains until the very end of our lives. Neurologists at the Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Center concluded that music is stored in our brains as “procedural memory,” meaning that dementia–a disease that aims to destroy the memories of  events that occur in our lives– can’t touch this kind of knowledge (Wolchover 1). Procedural memory is similar to muscle memory, in a way that it is associated with repetitive activities and muscle memory. This kind of “storage” is virtually unforgettable, and music has the ability to awaken it. In a now-viral YouTube video, an experiment was conducted with elderly dementia patient Henry, who was given some jazz music to listen to. This is presumably the music that he grew up listening to. Almost immediately, Henry became emotionally drained and remembered the music from his era almost instantly. After the experiment, he described the exact experience by claiming, “it gives me the feeling of love!” Other recent studies have suggested that patients with severe dementia or Alzheimer’s were able to remember music from their time period almost instantly, in a similar way to that of Henry’s experience. Scientists have explained that the instantaneous memory is sparked by a combination of forming “new memories by harnessing procedural memory” and “strengthening new knowledge by tying it to emotions” (Wolchover 1). Because music can bond so effortlessly with our emotions, it it’s simple even for these kinds of patients to remember songs that they used to listen to and sing along with.

As demonstrated by these various experiments, we can see that music and musical therapy can have a massive effect on many different aspects of our mental health. In recent years, the use of music therapy has only increased, as scientists start to realize the many wonders that it can instill in us. Music is perhaps the most subliminal art form, it’s connection to us varies from person to person. Some choose to study it further, and learn more about its logistics, while others choose to just casually listen to its many styles. One thing is for certain, music has an undeniable connection to all of our emotional selves, and affects us mentally whether we realize it or not. Because of this very fact, I believe that music can truly be used as a medicine for the greater good of the human race.

Annotated Bibliography

Nauert, Rick. “Music Soothes Anxiety, Reduces Pain.” Psych Central News, 6 Oct. 2015, psychcentral.com/news/2011/12/23/music-soothes-anxiety-reduces-pain/32952.html.

This article was written by Rick Nauert, who was a clinical physical therapist with 14 years of experience, and holds a doctoral degree from the University of Texas. It goes on to explain the effects that music has on anxiety, and even goes on to describe an experiment in which high and low anxiety people were given music to listen and then were tested to see how resistant they were to pain. It is a good experiment to mention that backs up the claim of music being a “distractor.”

 

Harvard Health Publishing, –. “Music and Health.” Harvard Health, 1 July 2011, www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/music-and-health.

This Harvard Health study comes straight from Harvard’s medical school, and explains how music can affects various aspects of our mind and things like stress or anxiety. I also will use this article to explain how music is collected and processed into our mind (scientifically). Another good talking point from this article is how music affects balance and movement especially in elderly people, and how its various rhythms can be used to benefit these people and keep them in step.

 

Novotney , Amy. “Music as Medicine.” American Psychological Association, 1 Nov. 2013, www.apa.org/monitor/2013/11/music.aspx.

This article, which comes from the credited and well-known American Psychological Association, is a source I will use to mention the form of music therapy known as Vibroacoustic therapy. This type of therapy focuses on the vibrations that make up the organized sounds we call “music.” How can these vibrations be of use to diseased-people? The article does a good job of going behind all of this, and it are unique scientific explanations to explain how these vibrations can be processed by our brain and therefore used as a form of “medicine.”

 

D’silva, Fatima. “Effects of Music Therapy on Pain and Quality of Life among Cancer Survivors .” Nitte University Journal of Health Science, vol. 7, no. 3, 17 Aug. 2017, pp. 1–6

This is my print source, found from ScienceDirect. It was written mainly by Health Science students in their university’s Health Science Journal, but the primary author is MSc nursing student Fatima D’silva. I think this source was pretty unique to use, because it really goes into detail on how music affects people that were once diseased. In this case, the subject is cancer survivors, and the journal mainly recalls the effects that the experiment had — subjecting these kinds of people to music therapy. As we know, cancer survivors don’t always have the most positive outlook on their life. So seeing how music can affect this group of people is an interesting topic to touch upon.

 

Wolchover, Natalie. “How Music ‘Awakens’ Alzheimer’s Patients.” Livescience.com, 18 Apr. 2012, www.livescience.com/19765-music-alzheimers-patients-memory.html.\

My final source is an article from livescience.com that explains an experiment conducted by Andrew Budson and Boston University’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center. The experiment involved an elderly dementia patient named Henry, who was given some jazz music from his era to listen to. He immediately recognized it, and became very emotionally. This source, and the last paragraph will really be used to describe the effects music has on people who can’t even remember their own family. It explains how music taps on the  “procedural memory” part of our brains and also pulls on our emotional strings. The combination of these things is why older people are able to recognize music until the very end.