Rx: Listen to Music
Is listening to music good for us? Does music help in healing medical ailments? Is there science supporting the benefical effects of the arts? These are just a few questions raised and being studied by scientists across the globe.
In a recent New York Times article (March 29, 2009), Michael Roizen, MD – chief wellness medical officer of the Wellness Institute at the Clevland Clinic – states listening to classical music on a consistent basis suggests “decreases in all-cause mortality, reflecting slower aging of arteries as well as cancer-related and environmental factors. Attending sports events like soccer or football offers none of these benefits.” (1) He states he’s not sure if the decrease in all-cause mortality is due to stress relief or other properties.
Dr. Michael Roizen is also studying the effects of singing to help patients with strokes to relearn language. Remember the 
1999 movie “Flawless?” The main character (Robert Deniro) suffers a debilitating stroke and is prescribed to take therapeutic singing lessons for his paralyzed larynx. His music teacher is his gay next-door neighbor. The outcome from taking singing lessons is positive, for relearning and regaining speech AND learning tolerance of different lifestyles.
Another researcher in neurocognition of music and language at U of Sussex in England, Stefan Koelsch, is studying the same subject, i.e., 
active music participation by patients suffering from depression. According to the Mr. Koelsch, “physiologically, it’s perfectly plausible that music would affect not only psychiatric conditions but also endocrine, autonomic and autoimmune disorders.”
The main purposes of the article was to shed light on the collaborative efforts of the music and medical fields to quantify the effects of music on patients diagnosed with certain disease conditions, and highlight several companies creating and marketing propietary music for ‘medicinal purposes’. Here are a few interesting points made in the article: unlike prescription medication with known side and adverse effects, listening to music has no side effects; prescribe music as a prescription, just like prescribing a drug or therapeutic modality. And finally, listening to music does affect mood and well-being.
The therapeutic effects of music is not new news…the method of delivering music, marketing and money needed for these new elaborate systems are. WHO is paying for the high-cost of audio systems fit for concert halls in hospitals? Instead, pay musicians to play in clinical settings. Music is their passion and their presence will help humanize an environment that can be frightening and dehumanizing.
Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing recognized the beneficial power of music on the sick. (2) Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, believed that the human body acts as a whole, so that when an organ is ill, the whole body is being afflicted, ie., humans are psychosomatic entities. (3)
Numerous investigations on the effectiveness of music on adult patients in critical care settings in the 1990′s showed reduced anxiety states (4-6), physiological relaxation as evidenced by reduced vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate and respirations), improved mood in critically ill patients on mechanical ventilation (7-8), and published accounts indicate critically ill patients enjoy and find music helpful in dealing with the environment and in coping with the critical illness itself .(6,9-10)
For healthcare professionals working inpatient and outpatient venues, and families with a loved one going through medical treatment, try music as a creative intervention by gathering the following:
- Headset
- iPod or CD player
- Playlist of the patients’ favorite music – soft, classical or sounds of nature
- Play the music on a consistent basis
Here’s my Rx for you…
‘Time to Say Goodbye’
by
Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman
Note: email me if you want the bibliography marti@martihand.com
Amenities in Hospitals’ 
families heal? Are there any long-term benefits of hotel-like services for patients? Or have hospitals strayed from their original missions and visions? I believe the latter may be true, i.e., hospitals have lost their original vision of healing the sick in an attempt to gain market share, but at least we’ll be able to attend a cooking class at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital.
assessing people diagnosed with lupus, aka, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). A qualitative study was conducted at the Medical University of Gdansk, Poland with 2 main goals. First, to examine the ways illness is perceived and experienced by patients with lupus and second, to assess the use of drawing as as a diagnostic tool. 
between foreign substances and its own cells and tissues. The immune system is designed to attack foreign substances in the body, but in lupus, something goes wrong with the immune system and begins to make antibodies that attack healthy cells and tissues causing inflammation, pain and damage to the body. 
with no known cause, red rashes on the face, chest pain when taking deep breaths, hair loss, pale or purple fingers or toes, sensitivity to the sun, swelling in legs or around the eyes, ulcers in the mouth, swollen glands, and feeling fatigued.
assessment tool in measuring illness perception is verbal communication. By drawing their disease, it had patients think about their disease in a different way, and produced “incredibly tangible” insight of the impact of lupus to the patients themselves and healthcare professionals.
Globally, May 12 is designated as International Nurses Day (IND) by the International Council of Nurses.
National Nurses Week focuses on highlighting the diverse ways in which nurses are working to improve health care. From bedside nursing in hospitals and long-term care facilities to research institutions, state and national governments, the nursing profession is meeting the ever expanding health care needs of society. The 1st National Nurse’s Week was observed from October 11-16, 1954. The year marked the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s mission to Crimea. In 1994, the American Nurses Association’s Board of Directors designated May 6 – 12 as the official dates to observe National Nurses Week, and established them for all subsequent years. 
Council of Nurses (ICN), there are more than 11 million nurses worldwide providing care in hospitals and rural health centres, schools, workplaces, homes, prisons, war zones and refugee camps.
across the life cycle: pregnant women, infants, children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. They are also there for the most vulnerable groups, such as the poor, refugees and displaced persons, street children, and the homeless…it is this element of humanity and caring that sets nurses apart.” Kirsten Stallknecht, president of the International Council of Nurses (ICN).
know this is also true for millions around the world who are restored to health and comforted in illness by the caring, compassion and expertise of nurses.” ~Christopher Reeve, actor and director
varying in degree of comprehensiveness, from small galleries to well-developed arts programs that spoke volumes of the mission and values of those organizations and their leadership. Clearly, these hospital systems valued and believed in holistic care, and created an environment conducive to healing on multiple dimensions: body-mind-soul-emotion. They were the pioneers, believing in the benefits of the arts and implementing such programs without needing scientific data. Those who managed these organizations gave their hospitals - souls.
increased presence of visual arts led to conducting a feasibility study in 1977 which recognized an interest in and a need for art in the health care environment. 
for patients, visitors, and staff. Employee specific programs including dance workshops, annual arts and crafts festival, an annual stage production, and weekly literary meetings.
works by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso and Botticelli from an online art website.
the subject looked at positive or beautiful paintings, such as Starry Night by Van Gogh and The Birth of Venus by Botticelli. Artwork considered ugly or plain included art by Pablo Picasso, Fernando Botero and Antonio Bueno. Remember, the subjects selected the art they considered beautiful, ugly or uncomely at the beginning of the study.
ugly things do not. But at least there is no suggestion that ugly surroundings make the pain worse.” 
Health from sharing current and future nurse wage information with other healthcare facilities in the Albany area, and give plaintiffs access to Northeast Health witnesses in order to further prosecute the action against other area defendants. Northeast Health is the first among Albany area hospitals to “settle out” of the lawsuit and similar suits are moving forward in Detroit, Chicago, San Antonio and Memphis. The company did not admit any wrongdoing and called the allegations in the lawsuit “completely false and offensive. (They’re not going to admit to exploitation and greed!) About 2,500 nurses are represented in the class.
doing, the hospital management team not only contributed to the growing nursing shortage, but also put patient lives at risk (!). I wonder if any of the hospital management team had any family member(s) in hospitals in northern New York? Most likely not, because low nurse-patient staffing ratios are directly linked to the quality of patient care. Northeast Health joined their brethren on Wall Street where greed, fear, short-sightedness and taking advantage are the main goals. ‘Taking advantage’ is defined in the dictionary as “to profit selfishly by exploitation.”
