Music as Medicine

Many CAM practitioners recognise the importance of music as an integrative therapy to relieve stress related issues. Typically, the decline in stress levels is due to a reduction in cortisol levels. Testosterone levels are also altered when listening to music. In addition steroid secretion is modified through musical activities in elderly individuals, which further influences psychological states such as tension and anxiety. Levels of steroid secretion vary between individuals with high and low levels of hormone. For instance, individuals with high steroid hormones experience a decline in steroid secretion and those individuals with low steroid hormones experience a rise in secretion. Moreover, reports have been suggestive that music aids cognitive recovery of mood following middle cerebral artery stroke. Likewise, music enhances cognitive recovery and prevents negative mood during the early post-stroke stage. The rudiments of music are sound and vibration; these have been used in many traditional healing systems such as Yoga and Ayurveda. Music therapy has been advocated as an important integrative healthcare solution in the treatment of Alzheimer’s. What makes ‘music therapy’ a unique Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapy is that there is little physical requirement. It has also been shown to be of value in the treatment of clients with ‘substance abuse’; it has to be the appropriate type of music. So, to quote Shakespeare,‘ If music be the food of love, play on”.