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Music has always been a great healer. In the Bible, David played the harp to help ease his severe depression of King Saul .

Music is a significant mood-changer and reliever of stress, working on many levels at once.
Many experts suggest that it is the rhythm of the music or the beat that has the calming effect on us although we may not be very conscious about it. They point out that when we were a baby in our mother's womb, we probably were influenced by the heart beat of our mother. We respond to the soothing music at later stages in life, perhaps associating it with the safe, relaxing, protective environment provided by our mother.

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter
Sat Mar 22, 7:00 PM ET



SATURDAY, March 22 (HealthDay News) -- Almost everyone has used music at one time or another to relax or perhaps to get energized. But the discipline of music therapy takes the use of music much further, from battling depression to combating cancer.

"Music therapy is an evidence-based practice that can affect changes in physical, psychological, social and cognitive domains through music experiences and the relationship that develops between the client and the therapist," said Cheryl Dileo, a professor of music therapy and director of the Arts and Quality of Life Research Center at Temple University in Philadelphia.


Just turning up the radio to your favorite tune to erase a blue mood doesn't qualify as music therapy, Dileo explained. "Self-help through music is not music therapy, although many people do use music for themselves, for example for relaxation to improve their moods, or to accompany exercise."


Music therapy, on the other hand, "involves an interpersonal process through which a trained therapist uses his or her knowledge and skills to address the client's assessed needs and issues," she said. "Although many people understand intuitively how to use music for themselves, when it is used within a music-therapy process by a trained therapist, it can be a powerful means to achieving positive physical, psychological, cognitive and social outcomes."


The uses of music therapy are myriad, according to Dileo. Music therapy can be used to reduce the anxiety of hospital patients undergoing difficult medical procedures. It can help lessen pain and improve mood, she said. Music therapy can also help depressed patients express their feelings.


Music therapy has been used to keep Alzheimer's patients calm and help them improve their memories at the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function at the Beth Abraham Family of Health Services in New York City.


At Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, board-certified music therapist Elizabeth Pociask uses music therapy to help new parents calm their infants.


"Music is a natural source of distraction. When a child is visibly upset, the introduction of a novel stimulus (turning on some music) will at least temporarily divert their attention away from what is upsetting them," she explained. "The parent's singing voice accomplishes the same thing and adds the element of familiarity -- the most comforting sound for an infant will nearly always be a parent's voice. When used regularly, music and/or singing can become a calming ritual, and the infant then learns to associate the music with relaxation or sleep."


Dileo said that music therapists should be board-certified, which means they've attended at least a four-year college program, as well as completed a supervised internship and have passed a national exam.


However, less formal music programs can be helpful as well. Katherine Puckett, national director of mind-body medicine at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, said that while they don't have board-certified music therapists on staff, the centers do use music as a means to help their patients.


"Music can activate the relaxation response, which helps promote deep breathing, lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, ease muscle tension and create less stress. That can help cancer patients sleep better, and difficulty sleeping is a common problem for cancer patients," Puckett said.


"Relaxing the body can also help relieve physical pain, and people may need less pain medication," she added.


The Cancer Treatment Centers of America keep a library of music available for patients to use, and they have special events, such as drumming circles, that help provide an emotional release for their patients, Puckett said. "Some people can release their emotions through talking, but sometimes people need a non-verbal release. We've had people moved to tears in our special events," she said.


"People respond to music -- you don't have to be sick to respond to music. It's relaxing, comforting and soothing," Puckett added.


More information


To learn more about music therapy, visit the

Fri May 16, 11:49 AM ET



NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Listening to half an hour of music each day may significantly lower your blood pressure, according to research reported at the American Society of Hypertension meeting in New Orleans this week.

In the study, researchers found that people with mild hypertension (high blood pressure) who listened to classical, Celtic or Indian (raga) music for just 30 minutes a day for one month had significant reductions in their blood pressure.

"Listening to music is soothing and has often been associated with controlling patient-reported pain or anxiety and acutely reducing blood pressure," study investigator Dr. Pietro A. Modesti, of the University of Florence in Italy, noted in a written statement from the meeting. "But for the first time, today's results clearly illustrate the impact daily music listening has on ambulatory blood pressure."

Ambulatory blood pressure refers to readings taken repeatedly over the course of a day.

A total of 48 adults ages 45 to 70 who were taking medication to control mild hypertension took part in the study. Of these, 28 listened to 30 minutes of "rhythmically homogenous" classical, Celtic or raga music daily while practicing slow, controlled breathing exercises. The remaining 20 participants, serving as the control group, made no changes to their daily routine.

Blood pressure readings obtained one and four weeks later showed that systolic blood pressure - the top number in the blood pressure reading - dropped significantly in the music listeners. In contrast, the control group experienced only small, non-significant reductions in blood pressure.

"We are excited about the positive implications for both patients and physicians, who can now confidently explore music listening as a safe, effective, non-pharmacological treatment option or a complement to therapy," Modesti said.

"Sadly, despite the global focus on prevention, it is predicted that 56 billion people worldwide will be hypertensive by 2025," Modesti added. "In light of these devastating statistics, it is reassuring to consider that something as simple, easy and enjoyable as daily music listening combined with slow abdominal breathing, may help people naturally lower their blood pressure."

By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer
Sat May 31, 9:17 AM ET


NEW YORK - Noted neurologist Oliver Sacks has found common ground with the pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church: Both men believe in the healing power of music.

Sacks, the best-selling author of "Awakenings" and "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," was to share the church stage Saturday with the famed gospel choir as part of the inaugural World Science Festival, a five-day celebration of science taking place in New York this week.

"It should be an exciting and unusual event," Sacks said in an interview this week. "I will talk about the therapeutic and beneficent power of music as a physician, and then their wonderful choir will perform. ... And the audience will make what they can of it."

Sacks' most recent book is "Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain," which examines the relationship between music and the brain, including its healing effect on people suffering from such diseases as Tourette's syndrome, Parkinson's, autism and Alzheimer's.

"Even with advanced dementia, when powers of memory and language are lost, people will respond to music," he said.

A Baptist church is an unusual venue for Sacks, a professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center who was brought up Jewish but is not a religious believer.

But the central role of music in church makes Abyssinian a good place to discuss the myriad ways that music affects the human brain, said Sacks, who was played by Robin Williams in the movie version of "Awakenings."

Abyssinian's pastor, the Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, said the choir is looking forward to performing with Sacks. He noted that music plays a central role in the healing power of prayer.

"What we have been studying ... is that when you pray, there's actually a physiological change in the body," he said. "Music is very much a part of this. There are certain notes that generate in the human body a kind of peacefulness."

Abyssinian was founded by Ethiopian sea traders in 1808 and is celebrating its bicentennial. It is a popular destination for European tourists who line up around the block in Harlem for Sunday services.

The event there is one of two Sacks is participating in during the World Science Festival. The other focuses on vision and the brain.

The festival was conceived by Columbia University physicist Brian Greene and his wife Tracy Day, a broadcast journalist.

"Our intent is to help shift the public perception of science, so that people realize that science is as important as art, literature, film, theater," Greene said.

Panelists include Nobel laureates as well as actors, dancers, philosophers and science journalists.

Greene said he hopes the festival will spread to other cities.

In the study, researchers found that people with mild hypertension (high blood pressure) who listened to classical, Celtic or Indian (raga) music for just 30 minutes a day for one month had significant reductions in their blood pressure.
"Listening to music is soothing and has often been associated with controlling patient-reported pain or anxiety and acutely reducing blood pressure," study investigator Dr. Pietro A. Modesti, of the University of Florence in Italy, noted in a written statement from the meeting. "But for the first time, today's results clearly illustrate the impact daily music listening has on ambulatory blood pressure."
Ambulatory blood pressure refers to readings taken repeatedly over the course of a day.
A total of 48 adults ages 45 to 70 who were taking medication to control mild hypertension took part in the study. Of these, 28 listened to 30 minutes of "rhythmically homogenous" classical, Celtic or raga music daily while practicing slow, controlled breathing exercises. The remaining 20 participants, serving as the control group, made no changes to their daily routine.

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Yeast Infection