Music for your health

by Ben Miller | 04 Feb 2013

Tapping your foot to your favourite Benny Goodman track, humming along to Handel, or watching the local jazz group, you may be doing more for your health than you realise.

While scientists remain puzzled at why music helps in medical procedures, the secret to music’s positive influence on wellbeing might actually be that it allows us to choose what we play and who with.

Doctor doctor

Anecdotal evidence suggests that music improves the experience of people undergoing medical treatment. But scientists have struggled to prove why music complements medicine so well.

With cardiovascular disease the leading cause of death in Australia and new research suggesting that music may improve heart health, music may be key to improving the nation’s health. Harvard University’s Heart Newsletter has reviewed numerous studies suggesting that music treatment can improve blood pressure, heart rate and blood flow, and lessen anxiety and distress – crucial in preventing and treating cardiovascular disease.

While the research provides hope, there is doubt in the scientific community. Results are difficult to replicate and several trials actually suggest that music has little or no influence on recovery. Frustratingly, according to the conclusions of the Harvard University study, this uncertainty might be unavoidable.

“Contradictory results shouldn’t really be a surprise. One of the biggest hurdles to studying the effects of music on the heart is music itself. It isn’t a single, repeatable ‘therapy’.” Music and sounds that one patient finds soothing could easily be to another “like fingernails on a blackboard”.

To put the scientific dilemma another way, allowing patients to choose their own music is essential if the potential benefits of music in medical treatment are to be harnessed, but differing tastes in music prevent scientific proof of the benefits.

Weird science

Founder of Music Health Australia Sandra Kirkwood has studied the neurological effects of music, but she is convinced that the benefits extend beyond what a scientific study can prove. Kirkwood believes that music is important not because of a verifiable neurological effect, but because it empowers people to control their own surroundings. “You only have to see people in a snoezelen room to know that changing your own environment is important to wellbeing,” she explains.

Snoezelen rooms were first developed in the Netherlands in the 1970s. They are multisensory rooms where colour, light and sound can be changed, either by a therapist or the person in the room, to create different kinds of environments.

“People with dementia might spend time in the room while operators change the sound and light to alert the participant’s brain more,” Kirkwood says. “Or, if the participant is agitated, the sound and light can be adjusted to calm them down.”

Given that an estimated over 250,000 people currently live with dementia in Australia, and that this number is expected to grow to one million by 2050, finding ways to improve the quality of life of people with such conditions is a pressing concern.

Kirkwood does not suggest that we need to build more snoezelen rooms, but that we need to look at the reason snoezelen rooms improve wellbeing.

“As people use such rooms they become more active and control the environment they are in. They press buttons to turn lights or films on, or to trigger sounds and music. It is beneficial because people are active and actively participate in life.”

Freedom of choice

Choosing the music you listen to changes more than just the sounds you hear. Actively choosing who you listen to music with, and even choosing to participate in local music groups, brings people into contact with their community and improves social wellbeing.

Tessa Fothergill, Secretary of Bunbury Ladies Probus, is an advocate for local music groups, particularly choir groups. Tessa arrived as a stranger in Bunbury in her late 60s. Having sung in choir groups all of her life, she took a deep breath and went in search of her local choir group. She soon found an advertisement in a local paper and showed up at a rehearsal.

“There was instant camaraderie – thirty or forty people who were genuinely pleased to see me and who wanted to see me again the following week and the week after that. A choir is a wonderful community,” she says.

Recently, Tessa watched a choir perform and saw the importance of choir groups for older people. As 72 women performed, Tessa noticed that it was a “choir of all ages”.

“I looked at the group of women and saw white hair and black hair alongside flashes of auburn and blonde,” she says. “When you’re in your 70s it is too easy to live in a world made up of other 70-year-olds. But when you’re in a choir, you’re with people of all ages. Meeting younger people is essential if you want to stay active and engaged with your community.”

Control

As scientists continue their attempts to understand why music benefits health, two important effects of music stand out as key aspects of wellbeing.

As Sandra Kirkwood points out, “the ability to control your environment is vital to wellbeing”. Treatment plans that allow people to choose what music they listen to, or how they participate in music, empower people and help them achieve a sense of self-worth and confidence.

Further, as Tessa Fothergill explains, “learning music leads to both physical and social wellbeing – you start with mental stimulus, but it opens the door to emotional and social health.”

Making time for music – listening, watching and playing – may just be the most important health decision you make – for yourself and your community.