Next time you see a cancer patient banging his head to the mammoth-beats of Led Zeppelin, do not ever ask why. He might just be channeling the music’s healing property to his ailment and health as a whole.
Does it sound ridiculous? Wait until you hear about Music Therapy. Music therapy is a budding field in personal well-being and health care that uses music as a healing medium. Practitioners on this field believe in the profound impact of music on people’s health and psyche. No wonder there are more and more medical institutions that utilize background music to help heal their patients.
Music, according to music therapists, is an effective way to calm the nerves of patients who are traumatized by a disease. It has a huge role in the success of the pain management stage of the healing process. Music also helps ease muscle tension and it keeps the patient more focused.
Music has a direct effect on our brain waves. Music with harder beats keep the mind alert and more focused, while those with sluggish tempos promote a calm meditative state-of-mind. This may explain why kids who listen to The Ramones are more hyperactive and their elder brothers who dig dirge-y stuff like Sabbath are more laid-back. Well, we can point out the possibility of other extra-musical inputs that these people might be taking, but that would be dwelling far off the topic.
Let us go back to the main issue. Music, including its beat and structural changes, can also reduce stress via altering the heartbeat rate and breathing to a much calmer state. This explains why musical therapy can effectively aid the treatment of a patient with chronic stress.
If there is one area of physical well-being that music really hits good, it is our mental health. Music can function as an agent that promotes a more positive mental state. Through soothing music, depression and anxiety are kept off our mental territory. The result of this is very advantageous. A positive state-of-mind thwarts the body’s tendency to give in to stress. When the body gives in to stress, physical and mental health will break down next.