Introduction
Music is a part of everyone’s lives,
whether it is from walking around with an iPod in all the time or just catching
bits and pieces of the newest songs in the car or out in public. It is apparent
that music is everywhere and now it is entering another part of society,
medicine. For a long time, music was not look upon as a way of healing, but
that it quickly starting to change. It is popping up in practices of healing
everything from depression to Alzheimer’s to serious brain injuries. Music is
taking its place in aiding, healing, and curing in the medical field in many
different ways and does not seem to be slowing down any time soon.
Music Therapy
According to Farlow Music Therapy
services, Music Therapy is the prescribed
use of music and musical interventions for the purpose of restoring,
maintaining and improving emotional, physical, physiological and spiritual
health and well-being. Music therapy is the more well known and one of the
first ways that music started making its move towards toward the medical field.
It is used to heal everything from mental illnesses to help people with
patients with Alzheimer’s disease. For example, Dale Marcell spends his time
creating drum circles trying to help patients deal with many different
problems. He started off by drumming for students with attention deficit disorder and when he saw the improvement
he continued his work. He has continued on with working with people with
Alzheimer’s disease, prisoners, battered women, and children with disabilities
(McClelland). Another great story of the triumphs of music therapy is the story
of one of Emily Keebler’s patients. A young girl came to her dealing with the
passing of her mother and worked with Keebler to be able to make it through
this emotionally draining experience. She lets her patients guide the sessions,
such as, an older Alzheimer’s patient coming in and laying down the rule that
there would be no sad songs. Keebler said, “Hospice is all
about what they want. It's not about trying to get them to go anywhere they
don't want to go. It's all about being present with people." When it came to treating the girl who’s
mother passed away, Keebler let the girl go and just write and play what she
wanted, which ended in her writing and recording a song about her mother. It helped
her realize that she would be okay and that no matter what she will always have
and love her mother (Frankel). It is very true that music is a great source,
but in today’s world, it is hard to think of music and not think of technology
at the same time. Music technology grows everyday with new ways of listening,
sharing, and recording.
Medical Technologies
Involving Music
In generations before, people would
have thought that music had no place in the medical field. It was something for
enjoyment and just a leisurely love of most people. It has been making its way
into every part of medicine though from therapeutics to neurology. Neurologist,
Oliver Sacks, is one person that really sees how important music is in the
lives of every person. “In
many different circumstances, music may arise involuntarily within a person, as
attested to by Sacks' initial presentation of cases of sudden intense affinity
for music and development of musical skills, of so-called brain worms or tunes
that automatically repeat within the mind, and of musical seizures and
hallucinations. Despite the range of individual experience of music, from incomprehension
of melody, rhythm, or harmony, to perfect pitch to synesthesia, it seems that
anyone could have a sudden loss or gain in musicality.” The seeming
universality of musical mental imaging, even in the deaf, has encouraged the
therapeutic use of music to treat an increasing number of illnesses, including
the results of severe brain damage, congenital conditions, and such degenerative
neuropathies as Parkinsons and Alzheimer's (Olson). One of the most impressive
technologies incorporates one of the most looked down upon music genres,
hip-hop. “Researchers at Purdue University developed a small pressure sensor
that can be implanted to monitor pressure in places like the bladder or a blood
vessel damaged by an aneurysm” (Boyle). The issue with this device though was
trying to figure out how they would power such a small implant without a
battery. “Ziaie and fellow researchers placed the device in a
water-filled balloon and tested it with rap, blues, jazz and rock music “(Boyle).
It turned out that hip-hop worked the best. “It contains a lot of low frequency
sound, notably the bass,” Ziaie said. How it would work is when the frequency
falls outside the required range, the cantilever would stop vibrating, and the
sensor would take a pressure reading and transmit data as radio signals. Ziaie
said this type of measurement would be taken for a couple minutes every hour or
so to keep tabs on a person’s bladder or blood pressure (Boyle). Music’s big impact
on medicine is going to continue to grow and maybe one day someone’s favorite
song will be saving lives.
Music in Other Parts of Medicine
Just like music can find a place in
every part of someone’s day, it is finding a place in every part of medicine.
Some other places in medicine that you can find music is, surprisingly, the
operating table. Surgeons
say music makes them more relaxed and focused, and recent research shows patients
are also feeling the benefits of music in the operating room. “Some doctors
choose loud rock 'n' roll for routine operations and Mozart for trickier ones;
others prefer jazz, reggae, or opera. There is even a category known as
"closing music"-raucous sounds to suture by.” Many operating rooms
come equipped with a sound system, and surgeons often plug their iPods with
whatever music gets them going into a sound system and patients may even be
given headphones. Brian Jacob, a surgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York,
thinks music helps everyone in the operating room. "You're basically
sending a message to the people around you that it's a cool place to be,"
he says. Jacob sometimes asks patients for requests, but they usually say that
whatever is on is fine: "They want me happy" (Macar). Another way
music is involved in medical advances is not scientifically, but as a
supporter. One of the most inspiring contributors to health research is
Children Helping Children started by child prodigy, Jourdan Urbach. At
first, Jourdan performed at Beth Israel for patients in the playroom, or beside
the beds of those too ill to leave their rooms. In
addition to his musical efforts, “he founded Children Helping Children (CHC), a
non- profit organization, and describes its mission: "to raise money for
national medical organizations, surgery scholarship funds for the
disenfranchised, home health care for those with advanced forms of neurological
disease, and cutting-edge research targeting neurological disease
globally." “To date, CHC has raised more than $1.4 million to benefit such
groups as the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Children's Hearing
Institute, Cold Spring Harbor Labs, Institute for Music and Neurological
Function, Beth Israel's INN, and Mott Children's Hospital's Ronald McDonald
House (Lewis).” It is clearly apparent from all the different places music is
popping up that music has pervaded every part of the medical field.
Conclusion
Music is no doubt a big part of every human beings life
whether or not they accept it with open arms or tolerate it. No one would have
ever guessed when people started recording and selling music that one-day is
would possibly save someone’s life. That is where technology is taking the
world to today though. Whether it is saving someone from a physical or mental
illness, music is being used in so many different ways to better people’s lives
today. So, the next time someone turns on the radio in the car or an
intolerable song comes on in the elevator, just remember that one day that
music might be saving someone special’s life. It will be an interesting and
melodically enjoyable ride to see where else music can go in the world of
medicine.
References
Boyle,
Rebecca. “Hip-Hop Basslines Could Power Implantable Medical Devices”, n.d. http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-01/bumping-rap-beats-could-power-implantable-medical-devices.
26 Feb. 2012. (It is the true crossover of music into medicine. It is music
powering a new medical implant.)
Frankel,
J. “Comfort & Joy.” Mountain Xpress, February 1, 2012. (Tells
stories of Emily Keebler’s patients being able to use music therapy to deal
with physical and mental illnesses. Shows what big impact music can have on
healing.)
Lewis,
K. “Jourdan Urbach: Saving Lives Through Music.” Listen 62, no. 5
(January 2009): 8. (This article discusses how a musically talented, young boy
begins using music to help ill people in so many different ways.)
Macur,
Juliet, Vincent M Mallozzi, and Somini Sengupta. “Scalpel, Suture, iPod.” New
York Times Upfront 139, no. 2 (September 18, 2006): 5. (This article
discusses how surgeons are now playing music in the operating. It shows that
music has made its way into every part of the medical field.)
McClelland,
Susan. “Music: The Power of Positive Percussion.” Maclean’s 116, no. 22
(June 2, 2003): 63. (Shows how music has been helping already in the medical
field. Dale Marcell’s work with music has improved many people’s lives and will
continue to.)
Olson, Ray. “Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the
Brain.” The Booklist 104, no. 1 (September 1, 2007): 4. (This article
discusses how neurologist, Oliver Sacks, believes music effects the brain.)
