The Alternative Medicine Blog

How the Mind and Body Communicate (part XXVI)

Entrainment Music

For entrainment music to be effective in altering the mood state, the music needs to be first matched to the current mood state, and then slowly the music needs to move and match the desired mood state. When used properly, entrainment music has been proven to be effective in significantly reducing pain, tension, depression, anxiety and greatly contribute to an improvement in general mood, energy levels, and cognitive tasks.

How the Mind and Body Communicate (part XVI)

Drumming Proven to Help the Immune System and Reduce Stress

I live in the city and we have a neighbor who just gave his teenage son a DRUM SET for his birthday. Boy this kid, to the neighborhoods demise, has been practicing and practicing. Let me put it this way: He has not found his rhythm yet! Coincidentally, while waiting in my doctor's office for my yearly routine physical (more on this later), I came across a piece of literature with the above headline. I am going to share some points from it.

How the Mind and Body Communicate (part XV)

Music and Premature Infants

An analyses of 10 studies of music therapy for premature infants resulted in the finding that music improved infant oxygen saturation levels, increased weight gain, and shortened hospital stays. Furthermore, live singing increased tolerance for stimulation, and a pacifier-activated lullaby system reinforced non-nutritive sucking, reduced over-stimulation, increased visitation time in the neonatal intensive care unit and promoted parent infant bonding.(1)

How the Mind and Body Communicate (part XIV)

The previous post showed that music can have a great impact on the relief of pain. Now we will take a look at

Music and Aging

As we get older it seems our immune system is showing wear and tear and can be greatly impaired. To be more specific, NK-cell function is lessened. Natural killer cells or NK-cell count were significantly increased in Alzheimer's-, cerebrovascular-, and Parkinson's disease through music therapy. Changes in NK-cell count was independent of neurodegenerative disease.(1)

How the Mind and Body Communicate (part XIII)

Entrainment Music and Pain Reduction

In 1985 a gentleman named Rider (1) set out to study the effects of various genres of music on their vividness and activity level of suggested imagery, the potential for pain reduction, and the means to reduce muscle tension.

How the Mind and Body Communicate (part twelve)

Music Therapy

Music therapy's mission is to use music on a person to help physiologic, psychologic, and emotional assimilation of the person during treatment of an illness or disease.