Mozart for heart and Vivaldi for memory?

Music a ‘panacea’

IBy Cezary Owerkowicz

do not know the dreams of medical doctors or pharmacologists. However, I am sure that the dream of majority of humans is to find a magical medicine — ‘panacea’ — for all diseases. Nevertheless, such a dream goes against the efforts of scientists, more so the charlatans, looking totally unproductive. This is as hopeless as the efforts of alchemists to discover the secrets of gold production — probably second in the rank of human dreams. Don’t you think so?

I forgot one more, the dream of half of humankind — it means the female half (or to be more precise, part of that half) — a miraculous diet which allows them to eat any quantity of delicious sweets without changing the size of their clothes. I am not a part of that half, even the quarter; but I am interested in this matter. I have never imagined that such a medicine, maybe somehow, is in my hands! I will try to disclose that specific miracle below but let us start from the beginning.

The last few decades brought us a lot of researches about the effect of music on human life and health. These researches were conducted in many countries, universities and medical institutes, including the best in the world. At Harvard University, Samuel Mehr and Manvir Singh proved that irrespective of the social position and place of settlement, human reaction to music is very similar. NB. It proves also that music is a universal language (beyond boundaries, without translation).

They asked 750 Internet users from 60 countries to listen to 36 fourteensecond fragments of songs recorded in 84 small, haunting, pastoral or farmers’ communities in different parts of the globe. After that, they asked the listeners about their opinion on the service or function of each of the songs: Is it a dance, calming a child, curing a sickness, expressing love or sorrow after losing someone dear, or just telling some story? The researchers themselves were surprised when the participants of the experiments gave very similar description of the function of every piece!

Owerkowicz

Cultures

It was totally surprising because the volunteers listened only to very short fragments and they are not familiar with cultures in the places where those songs were created. It is a proof that music is universal.

Dr Manvir Singh proved that no matter how different our communities are we perceive melodies in almost the same way. Participants in the research easily identified lullabies and dances. “It is not by accident,” says Dr Samuel Mehr. Just a year ago, this scientist proved that music started from lullabies. “Monotonous, sincere songs calmed children perfectly. They signalized that parents are close even performing some home duties. And when children fell asleep, there was time for joyful dancing music,” adds Dr Mehr.

Classical music, especially Mozart, is perfect for our hearts. Two years ago, Hans-Joachim Trappe and Gabriele Volt from Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany revealed that the music of Mozart and Strauss help reduce blood pressure and level of the stress hormone — cortisol. The group ABBA’s hits are considered a homeopathic drug only: positive but small impact on blood pressure and cortisol.

Mozart is perfect for hospitalized patients. Listening to his Piano Sonatas immediately after surgery, lowers blood pressure, regulates the pulse, and minimizes the need for analgesics. Stress hormones in the bodies of such patients reduced by 20 percent while the growth hormones increased by 50 percent (soothing pain, strengthening muscles, improving circulation and mind abilities). It was so surprising. Up until now, scientists were sure that the growth hormone is produced only during physical training. Dr Claudius Conrad, a surgeon from Harvard Medical School, proved that growth hormone production is stimulated by music as well.

In Stockholm, Sweden, a coffee shop owner prepared a special menu: healthy salads, not so healthy cakes and chocolates and neutral coffee and tea. They served also background music — medley of melodies played once softly (55 decibels) and once loudly (70 decibels), by turns. When music was soft, the customers preferred healthy dishes and the opposite when music was loud. “The level of sound influences our dietary choices,” says Dr Dipayan Biswas from the University of South Florida, Tampa who led that research. Energetic melody encourages us to take a decision swiftly (fastfood, dishes of the day — without waiting long). When music is soft, we reflect, relax and choose something healthy.

Researchers observed a similar reaction among customers in a Florida grocery. With relaxing music, customers reflected well and bought healthy products. Loud music encouraged energetic motions and buying something necessary and simple, scientists explained.

In the final stage, researchers visited a school where 71 pupils listened to classical music at different volumes — 50 or 70 decibels — and some were sitting in silence. A few minutes later, they were asked what they would like to eat: fruit salad or chocolate cake. The ‘soft part’ preferred salad, while the ‘loud part’ and the ‘silent group’ preferred cake.

The Florida research proves that dependence of our dietary choice on music is not by chance, states scientists in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences.

Experiments

Dr Biswas hopes that results of such experiments will be beneficial to owners of shops and restaurants in terms of influencing decisions of customers, and on the other hand, contribute to the fight against obesity — a serious problem in many communities? However, he was concerned only with the volume of sound. Other researchers also put emphasis on the kind of music and underlined the good influence of smooth classics.

In 1993, three scientists from the University of California proved the special power of Mozart’s music. Listening to his Sonatas increases our concentration, facilitates learning, improves space imagination — one of the major elements of intelligence. (Listeners of Mozart have IQ scores 8-9 points higher than others.) The next experiments supported such relations — Mozart improves cognition, emotional abilities and work of the brain. Regular contacts increase the number of connections between brain cells and communication between two brain spheres responsible for their harmonic cooperation. (Influencing everything, even motion coordination!)

The brain likes not just Mozart. Scientists proved that our cortex is inspired also by Vivaldi (Four Seasons), and generally, Baroque music. Finnish researchers from Jyvaskyla University revealed that every type of music we like has a good influence on us. Using magnetic resonance, they proved that sounds which are good for our ears stimulate other parts of our brain — the limbic system which is responsible for creativity and emotions, the motor cortex which is responsible for motions, and the hippocampus which passes information from short to long term memory and helps in space orientation.

Wow! What does ‘music we like’ mean? Results of polls are different from that of EEC (activity of brain waves), GSR (galvanic-skin reactions) and EMG (micro-expression face muscles). Young people stated that they prefer pop, country or heavymetal but their reaction showed preference for classics? Is it possible? Research shows that Beethoven’s 5th Symphony or Mozart’s Piano Sonata in D stirred the most positive emotions even among the young generation. (I wouldn’t object.)

It is enough to arrange contact with Mozart’s music. Researchers analyzed lip motions showing activites of parts of the brain responsible for language and communication in 300 fetuses between 18 and 36 weeks old. For pregnant women, they prepared medley of 15 classic, pop and rock melodies. Next to Mozart were Beethoven’s Ode to Joy and Bach’s Flute Sonata, whereas Bee Gees and Adele were not favorites for fetuses. The activity of the part of the brain responsible for communication in fetuses was not frequent. Their reaction to music comes from the fact that primary languages were more melodic and put more meaning to intonation (music!) than words.

Within centuries, decades and then years of fantastic progress of modern medicine and pharmacology; we forgot that the richest pharmacy in the world — all possible medicines as well as physical and psychological therapies, prevention and rehabilitation — exists inside the human body. It is a miracle. Known miraculous recoveries are based on the existing potential of human equipment, started by Providence or Nature, however, you like to name it. Deep faith and strong will, which entail ‘motivation’, help a lot. (It seems the charger is in our body but the igniter (fuse) is in our mind and heart. (I was a witness of such miracles, more than a beneficiary). Nothing to wonder in such case as music is one of the helpful elements of cure.

Multos Annos with music for all of you!

PS. I would not have realized for a long time that somehow I am also a pharmacologist? (I’m not against it!)

Editor’s Note: Cezary Owerkowicz is the chairman of the Kuwait Chamber of Philharmonia and talented pianist. He regularly organises concerts by well-known musicians for the benefit of music lovers and to widen the knowledge of music in Kuwait. His email address is: cowerkowicz @ yahoo.com and cowerkowicz@ hotmail.com