Got a headache or labour pains? Forget painkillers and Caesareans, good music may be all you need, says Dr Ramakant Keni

Despite all the advances in medical science, computerised diagnostics and ultra-modern healthcare, researchers and scientists are turning to a traditional, basic and innate power that heals as it soothes: Music.

All over the developed world, hundreds of thousands of dollars are being poured into studies that seek to find how and why music has the subtle power to heal chronic aliments that refuse to bend to the dictates of chemotherapy, radiation and laser excision.

Research currently underway in countries like the United States, Germany, Italy and Scandinavian countries attempts to find a scientific correlation between the healing of diseased bodies while soothing a troubled mind and a tormented soul. The most significant find was that music is the key to unlocking the thalamus and thereby making healing easier to accomplish.

Easing Notes
In the last 27 years of practising alternative healing, I have found music therapy more effective than any drugs. In some cases, where I have prescribed the use of soothing music, particularly Indian classical ragas, the results have invariably been positive.

When Pinky Pawani, 32, went into labour at the Meera Agarwal Nursing Home, Baroda, she insisted on a normal delivery. Pinky was ready to bear the pain but when, after over nine hours, she hadn’t delivered, the doctors suggested a Ceasarian. I suggested playing raga Bageshwari on an instrument such as a ‘sarod’ or flute. As soon as the music started playing, Pinky felt better, and in 40 minutes gave birth to a healthy baby, the natural way.

Raga Bageshwari is one of the rare ragas that controls the mind overwhelmed by despair and defeat. It is the most stimulating raga for the mind.

Of Sound, Mind and Body
Not only does music have an emotional effect but also works like a balm for stress, depression, anxiety and pain. Music therapy can also be used to treat insomnia, epilepsy, strokes, overcome learning disabilities, Alzheimer's disease and other ageing related conditions, substance abuse problems, brain injuries, physical disabilities, and acute and chronic pain.

Evidence shows that listening to appropriate music lowers BP, stabilises heart rate, relieves depression, reduces pre-treatment anxiety, enhances concentration and creativity, lessens the need for sedatives and painkillers (during and after surgery), reduces fear and nausea during and after chemotherapy, manages pain and also improves stability of people with Parkinson’s disease.

It is a scientific fact that sound affects everything, as it is all-pervasive in our world. Harsh, loud and cacophonic sounds can disturb the mind and therefore the body; perfectly metered sounds have highly beneficial effects on all. The mantras or chants of the Vedas are in fact scientific sound formulas set in such a manner, that when chanted in accordance with the prescribed meter of sound, they have tremendously powerful effects on the surrounding atmosphere. These effects are subtle and essential in nature.

The ancient Indian sages developed the ragas, so when they are sung or played they cause great bliss and quietude in the listener, thus both mind and the body get immense peace and benefit.

Music For Premature Babies
Music is used to treat premature children. Dr Schwartz, an intensive care doctor at Piedmont Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia, has specialised in antenatal and post-natal care. Inside the womb, the noise level is around 80 to 95 decibels — a sound almost as loud as in a disco on a Saturday night.

This is caused by the blood flow in the placenta as well as the mother’s breathing and heartbeats. At birth, the sudden loss of this noise is stressful for the child, which is why Dr Schwartz developed a kind of womb music. He explained that the neonates, who had been exposed to the transition music, spent an average of three days less in intensive care than otherwise.

What Scientists Say