Healing Music Enterprises Blog » Music and Cancer

Surgery Music with a Lumpectomy

Dr. Alice Cash — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:30:05 +0000

Are you having a lumpectomy? Or breast surgery of any kind? Surgery is a frightening experience and especially when the end result is so unknown! A mass in the breast might be one thing and it might be something very different. Anxiety tends to run sky-high and yet you know that you don’t want to have too much anxiety medication or too much anesthesia. I deally, you want just the amount you need and no more.

Anesthesiologists know how much people your age and weight typically need, but the exact amount is determined and maintained as the operation proceeds. More and more, surgeons and anesthesiologists are seeing patients bring in their own chosen music with an MP3 player or the Surgical Serenity Headphones, self-contained and cordless, pre-programmed with the best, scientificallychosen music for your procedure.

Listen to Susan talk about how her process went and then decide if you’d like to have some for yourself or a family member. To you good health!!

Anxiety in Cancer Patients: Here’s an easy intervention!

Dr. Alice Cash — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:14:43 +0000

(Health.com) — Singing, playing an instrument or even just listening to music may lessen anxiety in cancer patients and improve their overall quality of life, according to a new analysis of previously published research.

Music-based therapies appear to also have beneficial effects on pain levels, mood, and certain vital signs (such as blood pressure), the study found, suggesting that music may be a useful complement to medication and other standard treatments.

“I strongly believe that the beauty of music can bring renewed hope for patients and their loved ones and can energize them,” says lead researcher Joke Bradt, Ph.D., an associate professor of creative arts therapies at Drexel University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Singing or playing music can also be “empowering” for patients who feel victimized by cancer, Bradt adds.

Health.com: Seven steps to instant calm

For years, researchers have studied music-based therapies as a treatment for a wide range of chronic, painful, and emotionally distressing diseases, including cancer.

To see what broad conclusions might be drawn from this research, Bradt and her colleagues systematically reviewed 30 studies that included 1,891 adults and children with cancer. The results were published today in the Cochrane Library.

In 17 of the studies, the people listened to prerecorded music. The participants in the remaining studies took part in various guided music therapies, which in some cases included singing, playing the piano or creating rhythms alongside a therapist. (All of the studies included a control group that received standard cancer treatment.)

Overall, both the sessions with music therapists and the prerecorded music reduced patients’ anxiety levels and improved quality of life (as measured using questionnaires) better than the standard treatments. In some studies, music therapy also improved pain and mood (though not depression levels), as well as blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate.

Health.com: Boost your mood naturally

Bradt says there isn’t enough evidence to determine what type of music intervention was most effective. She believes, however, that therapies involving music are likely to be most successful when they are tailored for people according to their musical tastes and their ability to participate in music-making.

In the studies that used prerecorded music, for instance, most people were given a choice between several different genres (new age, classical, rock, country). What works for one person, Bradt says, may depend on his or her taste and background.

“It’s not like when you go to a doctor with a headache, and he prescribes a specific type of medicine that will help me with my headache and also help you with your headache,” she says.

Health.com: Laughter, music may lower blood pressure

Robert Zatorre, Ph.D., a cognitive neuroscientist at McGill University, in Montreal, who studies the effect of music on the brain, says that musical qualities like tempo and volume will also likely impact a patient’s mood and stress levels.

“It’s been known for a very long time that music can influence mood,” says Zatorre, who was not involved in the new review. “That’s why lullabies exist — to calm down babies who won’t sleep.”

Further studies will be needed to weigh the costs and benefits of implementing music therapy, both in cancer patients and in other populations, Bradt says. And because the outcomes measured in these studies are so subjective, additional research will be needed to confirm that factors besides the music aren’t influencing the results.

Health.com: Stay healthy after breast cancer

Nevertheless, the review is very promising, Zatorre says.

“The cost involved with music is very small compared to other kinds of interventions,” he says. “How well it works — say, compared to drugs — is another question, but the side effects are very minimal as well. The worst thing that can happen [when] someone doesn’t like music is that they can turn it off.”

More about Dr. Deforia Lane

Dr. Alice Cash — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:51:01 +0000

I can’t say enough good things about Dr. Deforia Lane. Actually, many people feel the same way and I wanted to share with my readers another wonderful article that was written about her. I met her early in my journey toward the filed of music medicine. I consider Deforia to be a dear friends as well as a mentor and she is currently using some of my Surgical Serenity Headphones with patients she works with. Thank you Deforia!

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Sweet and soothing sounds fill hospital rooms and hallways as Dr. Deforia Lane hits the piano keys to keep up with her tapping toes.

“Patients don’t expect music when they walk into a hospital,” said Lane, Director of Music Therapy at University Hospital’s Case Medical Center.

Her angelic voice reaches ears from the cancer wing to the rehab facility, ONN’s Harrison Hove reported.

“Music therapy is a field that is growing enormously,” Lane said.

Lane has a gift, whether it’s her welcoming smile, rich voice or the power of her profession.

“Music can draw tears. It can create laughter. People can reminisce. It goes where words cannot,” she said.

It was the music, not words, that led Lane into battle on her own personal journey.

“I was diagnosed with cancer at age 34. I ended up volunteering to bring music to others here and was hired within six months. And that was back in 1983,” said Lane.

Twenty-seven years later, Lane still pushes an aging music cart up and down the hospital halls as part of the music therapy staff.

“There’s everything on that cart from A to Z. Drums, tambourines, there are tone chimes,” Lane said.

The instruments, the songs and the love and laughter help heal.

“It makes it so much easier to move your hurting parts when you’re doing it to a rhythm rather than jerking through the pain,” said Hinda Apple.

Apple is a patient at Hanna House and is undergoing three weeks of intense rehab to help regain movements in her arms and legs after a fall.

“I used to dance to that,” Apple remembered during one song. A memory from the past brought to the present once again.

In the Ireland Cancer Center, another brave soul awaits the next round of chemotherapy.

“Pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer,” said patient Daniel Herod.

Herod and his family are fighting.

“It’d been two months almost. I’ve been going through a terrible sickness,” Herod said.

But for a few minutes, his own sounds drowned out the beeping machines. The bandages and tubes were forgotten while a family leans on one another and Lane.

“They feel themselves and I can ask for nothing more than that,” said Lane.

“Hallelujah,” exclaimed Herod. “I needed to get that out. That needed to come out.”

Many people sing Lane’s praises.

“Deforia is incredible. She really is,” Apple said.

She continues introducing people to the power of music as medicine.

“It has been the joy of my life,” Lane said.

Even though names might eventually be forgotten and faces blur over time, it’s the sounds of Lane’s songs of healing that will stay with these patients forever.

More Information:

Music Therapy At University Hospitals Case Medical Center

Deforia Lane, PHD, MT-BC

Using Music Therapy with Cancer

Dr. Alice Cash — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:02:51 +0000

Music Therapy and Cancer

Bone marrow transplant patients report less nausea and pain, and a faster recoveryMusic therapy for patients who have undergone a bone-marrow transplant reduces their reports of pain and nausea and may even play a role in quickening the pace at which their new marrow starts producing blood cells, according to a pilot study to be published later this year in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine.

The study, led by O.J. Sahler, M.D., at the University of Rochester Medical Center, was done with 42 patients on the bone marrow transplant unit at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center. Students studying at nearby Nazareth College provided music therapy to 23 patients after their transplants, while 19 ‘control’ patients received standard follow-up treatment.

Patients ranged in age from 5 to 65 years of age; most were being treated for various types of cancer, including leukemias, lymphomas, and solid tumors.

The patients who met twice each week for music-assisted relaxation and imagery reported significantly less pain and nausea – on average, they rated both their pain and nausea ‘severe’ before sessions, but ‘moderate’ after sessions. Their new bone marrow took hold faster, too: The average time until patients began producing their own white blood cells was 13.5 days in the group receiving music therapy, compared to 15.5 days in the control group.

The length of this span of time, when patients are most vulnerable to infection, is crucial. In some medical settings, such as mental health services, music therapy has been used widely to decrease patients’ perception of pain, anxiety and depression, and boost their feelings of relaxation. It’s also used in hospice to comfort terminally ill patients.

But it’s not commonly used with bone marrow transplant patients, who are often hospitalized for a month or more. Because their immune systems have been wiped out, visits are kept to a minimum to avoid infections, and feelings of isolation often set in. Patients can have a variety of side effects, including pain, nausea, fatigue, anemia and dehydration.

‘One reason we began this study was because patients were requesting new ways of treatment,’ says Sahler, a behavioral pediatrician who works with children who have chronic and terminal illnesses. ‘The patients told the staff, ‘I know I’m about to go through a major challenge that will be very painful and isolating.

What do you have to offer me to help me get through this?’ Music therapy was one answer. We originally began the study with children but quickly decided to enroll adults as well.’ Sahler teamed up with Bryan Hunter, Ph.D., an associate professor of music and the coordinator of music therapy at Nazareth College and adjunct associate professor of pediatrics at the Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong, who has established music therapy programs in several hospitals.

Music Can Heal Your Life!

Dr. Alice Cash — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:38:58 +0000

Could music make your life better?

I know that all of you know that I am also a musicologist and music healer. Tonight as I listened to “America’s Got Talent” I was so touched by a woman who sang her heart out and the judges loved her. When asked how she felt after this outstanding performance, she said she felt as though it were the second miracle in her life. “What was the first?” Sharon asked her. The dear lady then revealed that she was a cancer survivor for the last five years! Then Piers Morgan asked her if she believes that singing contributed to her healing. She replied that there was no doubt about that. Piers said” your singing has healed not only YOU but also everyone that hears you!”

What music is healing to you? What music lifts you up and gives you strength and hope? Find that music and listen to it often! It’s free!!

Music Therapy with Breast Cancer Patients

Dr. Alice Cash — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:41:58 +0000

Research on music therapy in people with cancer

There have been studies showing that music therapy can help people who’ve had cancer to feel less anxious, more relaxed, and to feel less pain.

In a very preliminary 2001 British study of music therapy in 29 cancer patients, participants felt a higher sense of well-being and less tension during one session. Researchers measured improvements in immune function and decreases in the amount of the stress hormone cortisol.

A 2001 study of 20 patients awaiting breast biopsy showed that, when some of the patients had a 20-minute music therapy session while in the pre-operative waiting room, their anxiety and respiratory rates were much lower than those of the patients who did not have a music therapy session.

In a small 1991 study in Utah, 15 cancer patients taking pain-relieving medicines were assigned to receive different kinds of music therapy for 6 days to find out if music could help to further reduce their pain. Results showed pain decreases in 47% of the patients.

Earbuds support music therapy and breast cancer research

Dr. Alice Cash — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:10:45 +0000

Earphones Support Music Therapy, Breast Cancer Research

The fourth Limited Edition design of chicBuds Swarovski Crystal Retractable Earphones was released on July 1, supporting Breast Cancer Research, adding to the three formerly released limited edition designs, including AIDS Awareness supporting Compassion International’s AIDS program, Lover’s Heart Series for Valentine’s Day and 2 More Hours Star Series supporting stats by the American Heart Association and in conjunction with ChicBlvd.com’s fitness campaign.The Breast Cancer Awareness limited edition design of chicBuds features a Swarovski Crystal-encrusted pink ribbon adorned on the retractable piece (in either black or white casing), complemented with crystals on the ear pieces for a total of 80 Swarovski crystals on the earbuds.Through the end of the year, chicBuds.com will be donating 10 percent of all sales from this design to the Susan G. Komen Foundation to help fund research for breast cancer.In addition, chicBuds.com whose earphones are compatible with any listening device, will also be donating product to those currently suffering from breast cancer … since listening to music helps reduce pain and relieve chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.This is based on the research by the American Cancer Society that states, “There is some evidence that when used along with conventional treatment, music therapy can help to reduce pain, anxiety and relieve chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. It may also relieve stress and provide an overall sense of well being. Some studies have found that music therapy can lower heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, depression, and sleeplessness.”While the founders of chicBuds.com are providing funding to help end breast cancer and are donating a product that will improve the quality of life for those impacted by the disease, they acknowledge that their contribution is just a small piece of the big picture in fighting this battle.

Music Therapy and Cancer

Dr. Alice Cash — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:15:06 +0000

Music Therapy helps relieve anxiety of cancer

Music “has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,” wrote playwright William Congreve, “To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.” But can it soothe those mired in the grief, confusion and pain of cancer diagnosis and treatment?
Music therapist Megan Gunnell at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center thinks so. She uses music to help heal cancer patients’ spirits as well as their bodies.

UM Music therapist Megan Gunnell
You can listen to one of her music therapy sessions. You’ll need QuickTime music player . As an example of the importance music can have in a cancer’s patient’s life, University of Michigan Cancer Center invites us to consider Gisele Bigras. One day she was a college student finishing up another year of school. The next day, she was a cancer patient faced with having one of her fingers removed. Gisele, at 19, had epithelioid sarcoma in her finger. Finding out she had cancer put her in a state of shock and panic. But music brought her back.
“Music has always played a huge part in my life. Music therapy helped me focus on something else other than the traumatic events of the cancer diagnosis, and just forget for an hour or so, to just go into a different world for a little bit,” Bigras says.
Bigras is one of many patients at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center who participates in music therapy. The idea is to use music to help patients cope with physical symptoms, such as pain, reduce their anxiety and find an outlet for their emotions.
“We find that patients are trying to cope with many things. They’re trying to keep it all together, and sometimes if you give them a safe environment and permission to let go, a lot can come out through that,” says music therapist Megan Gunnell. Music therapy can be as straightforward as listening to recorded or live music. It could mean playing a guitar, piano or even just shaking a tambourine. It could mean writing songs or discussing the meaning behind lyrics.
For Gisele Bigras, music therapy turned into an opportunity to write and record her own song. The song, “Back on the Ground,” covers three stages: the happiness before cancer, the chaos of diagnosis and the realization afterward that she could move on.
“Listening to it helps me realize I’m coming out of this. Everything’s fine and I can move on from here,” Bigras says. Research in music therapy shows that in addition to helping with emotional expression, music helps reduce anxiety and perceptions of pain. Controlled studies also found that patients having music therapy show improved immune system functioning.
“You don’t have to have any musical background to experience music therapy,” Gunnell says. “You’re able to participate because you are naturally rhythmical. You have a lot of rhythms and melody already going on in your own system.”
Getting started
There are simple ways to enjoy the calming benefits of music. Start with these suggestions:
• Listen to soothing music. Your heart rate can change based on the tempo of what you’re listening to.
• Bring an iPod or mp3 player to doctors’ appointments to help pass the wait time and reduce anxiety. • Listen to live music. Seek out local performances.
• Analyze the lyrics to a favorite song and consider what is meaningful to you at this time in your life.
• Find music that matches your mood. Music can support you through a multitude of emotions.