As
a reminder the main thrust of the music therapy/childbirth lecture is
to support moms (and dads) as they put together their own music
listening playlists or CDs to support rhythmic breathing, act as a
positive diversion from pain and stress, etc., to be used during
labor and delivery.
Also,
I'm looking forward to recording my second music album this spring or
summer. This is music for child development, autism and special
needs. As a reminder, one song, “High 5,” from David's Basics in
Education (music album #1) is still a free download for a limited
time.
This is part eight of my blog posts where I describe music therapy interactions I've had that are indicative of why music is so healing, meaningful, enriching and sometimes life changing!
This
post describes a music therapy session with an elderly gentleman with
severe Alzheimer's and who recently sustained broken vertebrae in his
back from a fall.
This
was my second visit with him and this day he was writhing with pain.
From talking with hospice aids who had just finished cleaning him up
they reported details of his extreme discomfort. He would not respond
to my voice so I started playing age appropriate popular music. From
the start he became quiet and more settled. Then when a song finished
he resumed moaning with pain. Every time I would play a song he
stopped and became quiet.
This
session gives me a great opportunity to re-visit information and
research about music therapy and pain management. Below is an excerpt
from my MT Research Sheet that is available on my site
musicfromthestart.com, in the resource center (home pg - bottom
left).
Music
has been clinically proven to:
4.
DECREASE THE PERCEPTION OF PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL PAIN
First,
if we are experiencing physical or emotional pain we have to utilize
many neural pathways to feel that
pain.
Similarly, when we engage in music listening to act as a positive
diversion from pain, for us to attend to
the
music we again have to utilize many neural pathways to attend to that
music... leaving less (neural
pathways)
to perceive pain. Neural pathways are microscopic nerve endings all
through our body that ultimately
connect
to our brain. An example I'll use here is lets say we were on our
couch with a splitting headache and
someone
at our door said that a youngster on a bike was just struck by a car
outside. Most of us, getting up off
the
couch, going outside where neighbors and paramedics would be
attending to the youngster, would not feel
the
pain in our head anymore. Why? Because we would be utilizing many
neural pathways to perceive the
commotion
outside (task at hand) leaving less to perceive pain.
And
second, regarding music’s psychophysiologic effects, Helen Bonny,
PhD (as cited in Tsao et al., 1992),
alludes
to studies with coronary intensive care patients finding that those
who listened to sedative music
increased
their tolerance for pain and decreased their need for pain
medication. Ms. Bonny’s explanation for
this:
“sedative music is capable of stimulating the brain to produce
peptides which are natural pain killers.”
Also
in the resource center more detailed information about MT and pain
management can be found in my MT Pain Management monograph.
So, "Why
music??"... because PREFERRED music is an effective positive
diversion from physical and emotional pain. Also, it (music)
physiologically affects our nervous system while causing chemical
reactions to naturally decrease pain.
In
upcoming posts I will continue with other
music therapy/health and wellness related blog posts.
Also,
go to my website www.musicfromthestart.com,
and choose the tab at the top "Wounded Warriors Patriotic
Music." If you purchase a patrotic song for $.99 all the
proceeds go to The Wounded Warrior Project.
My
prescription this week???
Choose
some favorite to listen to (with no distractions) and chill...
AND!!!! Please share with others, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter ... Thanks
