Archive for relaxing music
Music – Medicine For The Heart
Posted by: | CommentsThe power of music to integrate and cure. . . is quite fundamental. It is the profoundest nonchemical medication. – Oliver Sacks “Awakenings”
Music as a healing force goes back several centuries. Apollo was worshipped by the Greeks as the god of both music and medicine. Healing and sound were considered a highly developed sacred science in the Egyptian and Greek education systems. Soon after World War I and World War II, community musicians of all types, both amateur and professional, serenaded veterans, suffering both physical and emotional trauma from the wars. The medical profession is now embracing the value of music in the healing or palliative care of a wide variety of patients: the chronically or terminally ill, the disabled, the neurologically impaired, and the mentally challenged. Music therapy programs are popping up in hospitals and treatment centers around the country.
Heart disease is the primary cause of death in the United States. Those who suffer from heart disease either die prematurely or suffer a marked decrease in quality of life. Increasing evidence is proving that music is soothing for the heart. Marconato and collegues reported in the Arq Bras Cardiol. in 2001, decreased stress levels and increased personal satisfaction, higher consumption of fiber-rich food, lower cholesterol intake, and a better perspective on life in people on receptive music therapy . White in the American Journal of Critical Care in 1999 showed that in patients with an acute heart attack, music therapy was associated with reductions in heart rate, respiratory rate, and myocardial oxygen demand. Guzzetta went further and reported in Heart Lung in 1989, that the incidence of cardiac complications was found to be lower in patients admitted to the coronary care unit with a presumptive diagnosis of heart attack, if they were subjected to music and relaxation therapy. Thorgaard and associates reported in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing in 2004 that specially selected music had a positive effect on the well being of patients and their opinion on the sound environment during invasive cardiac procedures. Other studies have demonstrated health benefits of music during and after cardiac surgery.
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