Sound healing: can you drum your way to better health? Sing your way to serenity? Tune up your immunity with a tuning fork? Science takes a surprising look at the restorative powers of chant, rhythm and music

Natural Health, March, 2004 by Jill Neimark

A study conducted in a newborn intensive-care unit found that playing lullabies with a heartbeat can be so beneficial to premature infants that they are discharged as much as two weeks earlier than babies who aren't serenaded. Taped sounds from within the womb combined with song also significantly increased oxygen saturation in premature infants, according to researchers at Georgia Baptist Medical Center.

Rhythmic music with a strong beat has proven surprisingly powerful in treating people with neurological disorders such as stroke, cerebral palsy or Parkinson's disease. Michael Thaut, Ph.D., director of the Center for Biomedical Research in Music at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, and his colleagues found that people with Parkinson's disease who received three weeks of conventional therapy improved walking speed by about 10 percent, but walking speed improved by 25 percent when rhythmic music accompanied therapy.

"Music has a profound facilitating effect on the gait of these patients," says Thaut, who is also professor of music and neuroscience at CSU. "We see improvements in speed, symmetry and muscle activation." The intervals and durations of rhythm communicate timing, he adds, which influences firing patterns in the brain. Simple, strong rhythms, such as a 4/4 beat, are best used to improve gait.

Music therapy is also beneficial to people undergoing medical procedures, according to O.J. Sahler, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester in New York. Twice a week, Sahler and his colleagues provided 45-minute music-assisted relaxation imagery sessions to people undergoing bone marrow transplants. The music was chosen by the therapist and depended in part on the person's preference.

"We measured days to engraftment," says Sahler. "That's the length of time it takes to begin producing white blood cells. On average, those who received music therapy engrafted two days earlier than those who didn't have the therapy. This is very significant, since that period of time is one in which people are highly susceptible to infection."

Sahler plans to follow up with a larger study of 400 patients at several hospitals that will contrast sessions of "reflective listening" with music therapy to ascertain how much of the beneficial impact is simply the presence of a caring individual in the room.

bowls that sing

"I was transfixed," recalls San Diego sound healer Elivia Melodey of the first time she heard a quartz crystal "singing" bowl. "The sound literally picked me up and took me somewhere else. It felt like every cell in my being moved."

The bowls are made of silicon sand heated to 4,200 degrees, resulting in 99.9 percent pure quartz. When a suede or rubber mallet is run around the edge of the bowl, its sides invisibly flex, creating deep, resonant tones. Bowls range in size and design. Some are as big as 2 feet in diameter; others are small and handheld, with materials such as gold, rose quartz or platinum added in. When the larger bowls are activated, you can feel the hum vibrating through your body.