Healing Music for Infants, IQ or Improving Hospital
Experiences?
Many pregnant women don't realize that the growing baby's ear is beginning
to be functional in the fourth month! Yes, according to Dr. Alfred Tomatis, by
the beginning of the second trimester, the baby can hear mother's heartbeat,
her digestive sounds, and the blood pulsing through her veins. By the
beginning of the third semester, the infant can hear much of what Mom hears.
You need to be very careful of your sonic environment and be especially
careful to avoid loud, raucous sounds, screaming or violent sounds. Instead,
take a few minutes each evening (or morning or afternoon) and sing some
familiar lullabies or other soothing songs to you developing child. Research
has shown that these same songs will comfort your child for years to come!
Do you know lots of lullabies? Please share them with me and I will publish
them and give you credit in my upcoming ebook, "The Power of Lullabies."
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Can Mozart's Music
Make you Smarter?
Many of you have probably heard of "The Mozart
Effect." The original research, done in California at UC Irvine, showed that
Mozart's Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos helped highschool students score
higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test than students who listend to other
music before the exam or those listened to nothing. This was exciting news and
was widely reported in the media. Later, some marketers began suggesting that
Mozart's music actually raised your IQ and "made you smarter." Not true.
Neuromusicologists suggest that Mozart's music may help you to organize your
thoughts and may be good to listen before or during a task. It's also
beautiful, brilliant music. But it won't make you smarter! Sorry.
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Are You Dissatisfied with Your Medical
and Hospital Experiences?
If you are, join the community of thousands who feel that going to a hospital
just might make them worse!! With each passing day there are frightening
stories or patients contracting staph infections, getting the procedure
intended for someone else, having equipment left inside of them after surgeon
has sewn them up and on and on. It's enough to make you want to get lots more
involved with your own health and learn more about how to stay healthy and
create new eating and exercising habits! Recently I've written quite a bit
about the importance of you, the patient, having your own music during
surgery. I continue to get questions, thanks and requests for personal
consultations before surgery. It really doesn't matter if you're having
out-patient surgery for something like a colonoscopy, a laser treatment or
even chemotherapy, or if you're having inpatient major surgery for heart
bypass, ruptured disk or hysterectomy.
The facts are clear: patients who are listening to their own favorite,
self-selected, slow and steady instrumental music, need less anxiety
medication before the procedure, less anesthesia during the procedure, and
less pain medication after the procedure. There are hundreds of studies from
hospitals and clinics around the world documenting this fact but surprisingly,
most hospital operating rooms do not provide music for patient. Many surgeons
are now bringing their own favorite music into the OR, but the patient is
thought to be "asleep" and unaffected. Not true! Many patients have reported
to me that they heard conversations between various staff members, comments
from the surgeon and even frightening words such as "doesn't look good,"
"worse than I thought" or even "oops!" What can you do? If you have some
advance notice that you need surgery, get a good Walkman or Discman, choose
your favorite music that has a slow, steady tempo and no words or lyrics (a
favorite is always the Pachelbel Canon in D) and let your surgeon know that
you want to use music during your surgery. Remember, it's not about
entertainment, it's about stabilizing body rhythms, keeping the muscles
relaxed, and blocking out OR conversations and bleeping machines. The surgeon
and anesthesiologist needs to hear these things, but the patient definitely
does not! If you want a consultation with me before your procedure, contact me
through my web site
or call me at 502-419-1698. Hope to hear from you soon!
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Alice
Alice H. Cash, Ph.D., LCSW
www.HealingMusicEnterprises.com
www.DrCashPrefers.com
