To Beat Pain, Find the Right Beat

If you are stressed, depressed, in pain, anxious or want to boost your brain power and resolve, invest in an iPod. Music therapy is now being used to treat everything from autism to cancer. But the wider effect of music on our psyches is less well-publicized. Listening to music can help you to cope better with pain, exercise more effectively, perform stressful tasks, be less aggressive, eat less and shop differently. Indeed, if music were available in pill form, we’d all be popping it.

In some medical settings, “audio analgesic” is now derigueur. A study found listening to soothing classical music can reduce chronic pain by up to 21% and depression by up to 25%. Other studies show that patients exposed to music experience less intense pain and use lower dose of painkillers than those who suffer in silence. Indeed, the director of an US hospital’s coronary care unit once said half an hour of classical music produces the same effect as 10 milligrammes of Valium.

Any music –from Vivaldi to The Verve will do, as long as it is something you like. According to one Arts Council report, rheumatoid arthritis sufferers who listened to just 20 minutes of their favourite music daily reported a significant reduction in pain. The mere act of singing, meanwhile, was shown to increase the quality of life of people with progressive dementia.

SOUND ADVICE

• Baby won’t sleep? Try Mozart piano concerto-babies, even in utero, have been shown to respond to claming classical music.
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  Dieters can try Mozart or Enya (slow and soothing) at meal times.
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  Those with high BP, try Fur Elise by Beethoven- studies show soothing music can lower BP and stabiles the heart rate.
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  One study found that short bursts of Mozart’s Sonata K448 decreases epileptic attacks.