Music is Magic

Potent medicine for both body and mind. PREMIUM CONTENT subscriber access.

It was one decade ago, when I published my book about fusing Evidence-Based and Alternative Medicine. There, I described the Heavenly Toolset which included Music.

Emotionally intense music releases dopamine in those pleasure and reward centers of the brain, just like food, sex and drugs does. Autonomic responses such as goose bumps correlate with the amount of dopamine released, even when the evocative music is sad. So, the more intensely emotional a song is, the more we crave that song. …

Music is the social superglue, bonding us. Synchronous, coordinated song and movement are fundamental to creating strong cohesion amongst group members. Singing together with others stimulates release of the neuropeptide oxytocin, helping to forge connections. Singing together can
seem to create a sense of collective consciousness, larger than the single self. The Hallelujah chorus sung in church at Easter can provide this kind of group emotive expressive outlet. Music can also motivate and encourage, especially if done in social groups. ‘Call and response’ music and song is found across cultures and epochs. We see it in gospel choirs, chain gangs, marching soldiers, cheerleader squads, and marching bands. Nothing beats its ability to synchronize and energize.

“I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by.” — Billy Joel

Be the Rainbow * Bridge Heaven and Earth ebook

“Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity.” - Oliver Sacks:

Parkinson’s Pick-Me-Up

People with Parkinson's who participated in weekly dance training, had less motor impairment and showed improvement in areas related to speech, tremors, balance and rigidity when compared to those who did not do any dance exercise. And also improved were experiences of daily living, such as cognition, hallucinations, depression and anxious mood.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that has a fast progression of motor dysfunction within the first 5 years of diagnosis, showing an annual motor rate of decline of the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) between
5.2 and 8.9 points. We aimed to determine both motor and non-motor PD symptom progression while participating in dance classes once per week over a period of three years. Longitudinal data was assessed for a total of 32 people with PD using MDS-UPDRS scores. Daily motor rate of decline was zero (slope = 0.000146) in PD-Dancers, indicating no motor impairment, whereas the PD-Reference group showed the expected motor decline across three years (p < 0.01). Similarly, non-motor aspects of daily living, motor experiences of daily living, and motor complications showed no significant decline. A significant group (PD-Dancers and PD-Reference) by days interaction showed that PD who train once per week have less motor impairment (M = 18.75) than PD-References who do not train (M = 24.61) over time (p < 0.05). Training is effective at slowing both motor and non-motor PD symptoms over three years as shown in decreased scores of the MDS-UPDRS. - KA Bearss et al

Operating Room Mojo

Listening to soothing words and music during surgery appears to reduce pain levels and the need for pain relieving drugs after surgery.

An intervention consisting of an audiotape of background music and positive suggestions, played repeatedly for 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes of silence, was given to patients through earphones during the duration of their general anaesthesia. Control patients only got a blank tape. Before surgery, both groups reported similar pain levels, but for the first 24 hours post surgery, pain scores were much lower in the intervention group [average reduction of 25%.]. The intervention also led to reduced opioid consumption.

Postoperative dose of opioids within 24 hours after surgery. Data are calculated by bootstrapping owing to non-normally distributed outcome variables. Doses are in morphine milligram equivalents (MME) to account for different types of opioids (intravenous morphine=1.0, piritramide=0.7, tilidine=0.2, oxycodone=0.8) 2324 used in one centre. - H Nowak et al.

It is unclear what drives that analgetic effect induced by music. A study in mice showed that the auditory cortex is functionally connected to regions involved in nociception. The neuronal circuits depend on the physical location of the pain. Distinct thalamic nuclei are involved in the processing of nociceptive information perceived at distinct body locations. Viral tracing, microendoscopic calcium imaging, and multitetrode recordings in freely moving mice showed that the sounds inhibited glutamatergic inputs from the auditory cortex (ACxGlu) to the thalamic posterior (PO) and ventral posterior (VP) nuclei. Optogenetic or chemogenetic inhibition of the ACxGlu→PO and ACxGlu→VP circuits mimicked the sound–induced analgesia in inflamed hindpaws and forepaws, respectively. Sound-induced analgesia was knocked out when the circuits were activated.

Sound reduces pain in mice by lowering the activity of neurons in the brain’s auditory cortex that project to the thalamus. - W Zhou et al

Stroke Victim’s Voice returns

Stroke and brain injury survivors who lift their voices in joy, give these survivors and people living with dementia or other brain injuries a chance to tap into one of the few means of communication left to them. Though some types of aphasia knock out the ability to speak, often singing ability remains. Music-supported therapies include those such as melodic intonation therapy, which trains stroke survivors to communicate rhythmically to build stronger connections between brain regions. Other therapies focus on listening to music or teaching people to play musical instruments. Listening to music stimulates structural changes in the areas of the brain responsible for verbal memory, language skills and focused attention.

Danceable Beats Delay Dementia

Researchers used functional near-infrared spectroscopy with a color-word matching task to examine inhibitory executive function before and after listening to music, and correlated it with the subjective experience of listening to groove music. Groove rhythm enhanced executive function and activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex only in participants who reported that the music elicited a strong groove sensation and the sensation of being clear-headed. Individuals’ different psychological responses to groove music modulated the corresponding effects on executive function. Seems that these effects of groove rhythm on human cognitive performance are influenced by familiarity and beat processing ability.

Songs Bring Back Memories

Older adults who listened to some of their favorite music, increased the connectivity in their brains. Researchers discovered that music bridges the gap between the brain's auditory system and reward system. They studied a group of older adults and had them listen to a playlist for an hour every day for eight weeks, journaling about their response to the music. By scanning the participants' brains before and after listening, they measured their neurological response. Music created an auditory channel directly to the medial prefrontal cortex, the brain's reward center. And this area, medial prefrontal cortex, is one of the areas that loses its activity and functional connectivity in folks with dementia. Music that participants selected themselves provided the strongest connection between these two areas of the brain.

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This weekend was the birthday of one of my favorite angels, so I was binging on her songs. Here is her salve for your soul:

And from Carlos Santana, who also had a recent birthday:

"My job in this life is to give people spiritual ecstasy through music. In my concerts people cry, laugh, dance. If they climaxed spiritually, I did my job. I did it decently and honestly."

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REFERENCES

Laura Kragie. Be the Rainbow * Bridge Heaven and Earth: How-to Manual for Integrating Alternative and Evidence-Based Medicine.

KA Bearss et al. Parkinson’s Disease Motor Symptom Progression Slowed with Multisensory Dance Learning over 3-Years: A Preliminary Longitudinal Investigation. Brain Sci. 2021, 11(7), 895; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11070895

H Nowak et al. Effect of therapeutic suggestions during general anaesthesia
on postoperative pain and opioid use: multicentre randomised controlled trial. BMJ 2020;371:m4284 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m4284

W Zhou et al, Sound induces analgesia via corticothalamic circuits, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abn4663

L Williamson. The healing power of music for stroke survivors 4 May 2022, https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-power-music-survivors.html

T Fukuie et al, Groove rhythm stimulates prefrontal cortex function in groove enjoyers, Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-11324-3

MA Quinci et al, Longitudinal changes in auditory and reward systems following receptive music-based intervention in older adults, Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-15687-5

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