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Healing Harmonies: Music Used to Treat Stroke, Dementia, and Even Cancer

March 22, 2018 - 08:05 AM Maybe you've heard the age-old saying, "Music has charms to soothe the savage beast." Back then, people believed in the healing power of music. Today, hundreds of years later, medical research shows they were onto something. Music therapy is now a growing part of many treatments. For example, when a massive stroke tried to take James Rodriguez's speech, the Music and Medicine program at Virginia's Sentara Healthcarehelped him get it back. James belts out "Amazing Grace" and all the old hymns that bring back happy memories from his days in the church choir. How Music Therapy Works We actually use more of our brain when we sing the same phrase versus when we speak......

Music may reduce pain, anxiety after surgery

March 19, 2018 - 08:05 AM A new study has identified a simple strategy that may aid recovery for patients who have undergone surgery: listening to music. Published in The Lancet, the study found that patients who listened to music before, during or after a surgical procedure experienced less pain and anxiety than patients who did not listen to music. In recent months, Medical News Today have reported on a number of studies citing the potential benefits of music for the medical world. Earlier this month, for example, researchers found listening to music in the operating theater may improve surgeons' ability to close wounds. But how does music help patients? According to the authors of......

Egyptian Doctors, Therapists Explore Healing Powers of Music

March 15, 2018 - 08:05 AM CAIRO — Have you ever thought about how music can be used in psychotherapy or to regulate blood pressure? For Egyptians, the answer is probably no. On Oct. 8, the Ministry of Health announced that it would hold a survey on non-infectious chronic diseases such as high blood pressure in a number of provinces so that needs for medicine and treatment can be reassessed. A source from the Ministry of Health told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that music therapy is unlikely to be part of this study. “Despite our belief that the percentage of people with high blood pressure in Egypt is one of the highest [in the Middle East] due to heavy......

Live music shown to reduce stress hormones

March 12, 2018 - 08:05 AM For the first time, a study has demonstrated that attending a public cultural event can induce a measurable effect on an individual's internal hormone levels. The "stress hormone" - cortisol - was reduced across the board, among other intriguing changes. Often, science takes a little while to prove things that humans have always believed to be true. This study is a prime example, dovetailing neatly into folk understanding. There are no societies on Earth that do not have a musical heritage of some description. The primal and emotional aspects of listening to, and taking part in, musical pastimes are well-known. Over the decades, the study of music has expanded from a purely analytical......

9 Healing Benefits of Music

March 08, 2018 - 08:05 AM Music… loved, cherished, and admired by humans for countless ages. It’s shaped culture and society in very profound ways. It has started social revolutions and shifts in collective consciousness. There is a magical feeling that can come from music and its enchanting spell has affected billions of people in sometimes life-changing ways, as it continues to do to this day. In recent decades, many studies have been done on music to see exactly how much of an impact and just how influential it is on human beings and other sentient life. The discoveries are absolutely fascinating. Music as a Healer Mystics, sages, and others have mused about the healing properties of music. They......

Music exposure benefits babies' brains

March 05, 2018 - 08:05 AM Early music training can help children to develop a wide range of perceptual skills, and it may help them as they learn to speak, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Previous research has indicated that music training when young can improve infants' ability to process musical sounds and speech. However, it has not been clear from these studies whether perceptual differences between musicians and non-musicians are due to music training. It may be that people who already have superior auditory skills are more likely to become involved in musical activities. In addition, the quality and style of music training vary widely,......

6 Ways Music Can Heal You

March 01, 2018 - 08:05 AM I love music enough to incorporate sound healing into my practice, and I see the joy it brings people every day. But, here are some things you may not know about the power in music: 1) When we listen to music our brain releases dopmaine which is a feel good chemical essential for the healthy functioning of the central nervous system; it has effects on emotion, perception and movement. 2) Music is proven to physiologically affect heart rate, breathing and pulse rate resulting in physical chills of pleasure. A study was undertaken by Dr Mike Miller of Baltimore, who measured the effects of music on the cardiovascular system by measuring blood vessel size before, during and after......

The power of music: how it can benefit health

February 26, 2018 - 08:05 AM "I think music in itself is healing," American musician Billy Joel once said. "It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music." Most of us would wholeheartedly agree with this statement, and it is this universal bond with music that has led researchers across the globe to investigate its therapeutic potential. We can all think of at least one song that, when we hear it, triggers an emotional response. It might be a song that accompanied the first dance at your wedding, for example, or a song that reminds you of a difficult break-up or the loss of a loved one. "We have a such a deep connection to music......

Can Music Heal Trauma? Exploring the Therapeutic Powers of Sound

February 22, 2018 - 08:05 AM An increasing number of music therapists are now treating people touched by traumas both big and small, highlighting humanity’s deepest connections with music in the process. Imagine you are a newborn baby in an intensive care unit. Maybe you were born prematurely, or didn’t get enough oxygen during the delivery. There might be an IV in your tiny arm, with a small board holding it down so you can’t rip it out. You might have a tube going into your nose. You are alone, finally stabilizing after a traumatic event. But then, the doctors come in. “It’s as if you are finally safe in your nice warm bed and suddenly, out of nowhere, someone rips the sheets off of......

Being moved by sadness-evoking music linked to high empathy

February 19, 2018 - 08:05 AM During sad or debilitating moments in life, many people turn to melancholy music to drown their sorrows and make themselves feel better. Researchers from the University of Durham in the United Kingdom, and the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, have pinpointed three underlying factors that characterize the strong emotional responses that highly empathic people feel from music including "relaxing sadness," "moving sadness," and "nervous sadness." t is not only common for listeners of sad music to report feelings of sadness, but also to describe the experience of listening to sad music as highly enjoyable. In previous studies that have explored this paradox, potential explanations......

News

Healing Harmonies: Music Used to Treat Stroke, Dementia, and Even Cancer

Music may reduce pain, anxiety after surgery

Egyptian Doctors, Therapists Explore Healing Powers of Music

Live music shown to reduce stress hormones

9 Healing Benefits of Music

Music exposure benefits babies' brains

6 Ways Music Can Heal You

The power of music: how it can benefit health

Can Music Heal Trauma? Exploring the Therapeutic Powers of Sound

Being moved by sadness-evoking music linked to high empathy

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