Thursday, 23 May 2019

Week 6 [20-26.05.2019] Something about music & medicine & technology

Dear All,

I'd like to share with my new interests:

https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/music-therapy-clinical/#dementia

The article indicates, how the music can influence on us, our health & diseases.

All of us know the music can help to get out of bad mood and feel better, sometimes even very fast. But this is not such issue.
I think the sounds (not only melodies) composed together in a specific way, can treat us from serious diseases. Some scientists also believe in hypotheses like that and lead specific researches on various detailed fields, like cancer, Alzheimer, Autism
And also, of course, many psychiatric cases use music therapy, like depression, schizophrenia etc.
But the most surprising for me were the effects achieved by scientists working with cancer cells, because there were many experiments proving decreasing or even liquidating them thanks to the sounds with specific frequency. Many other interesting issues I've met till now, I've read for example, that the sound of steps can help people after stroke with their legs' rehabilitation.

But coming to my questions:

1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?
2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?
3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?
4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?
5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?


Have a nice day,
Marta

30 comments:

  1. 1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?
    No, I haven’t heard about it but it is well known that well-chosen music shapes our personality - even in the womb of the mother.

    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?
    I can only imagine that such tool would have to measure various parameters of our body during the selection of the appropriate frequency or volume level and on this basis make a choice of sound or music.

    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?
    I do not see it without a computer. I suppose that there will be a lot of calculations to be done (mainly with the analysis of collected data). Of course, I suggest that the final sound or music should be generated in a natural way (I mean by real musical instruments) and not played from the speakers.

    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?
    Honestly, I expected some breakthrough results. Unfortunately, I have found anything surprising - only issues such as motivation, self-expression, well-being or self-awareness. The psychological context seems obvious to me in this case. Perhaps it is worth looking for issues closer to medicine than to psychology...?

    5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?
    They seem to be real but they would have to be confirmed by larger-scale research. Criticism must always be constructive and since music has charms to soothe the savage breast, there must evidently be something to it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Damian,
      as for 4 - I agree it is worth of further research, that's why I started analyzing the status of scientific knowledge in this respect. It seems this is something to do in this field.
      Br, thx

      Delete
  2. 1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?
    A pediatrician doctor treating my cousin's nephew. He recommends playing calmly to newborn babies, e.g. lairtsudni. Music for babies has a soothing effect on them, calms them down as long as it is mild and sounds appear in a repetitive order and in a rhythm that is easy to remember, even when they are unaware that they remember a baby. The tempo of such a work should be slow. It is best to choose joyful tones.
    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?
    The relaxing effect of music is also used as a prelude to proper therapy. This often results in better and faster results. In other areas too, music plays an important role in achieving mental relaxation: e.g. professional athletes use music to reduce and eliminate stress before competitions. I think that the instruments used in therapy should make sounds that calm us down, but defining such relaxing music is very difficult, because as I have said many times before, people have different tastes and changing preferences over the course of their lives.
    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments?
    Digital signal processing and the use of filters allow us to create music that calms us down. Or transform the sound signal in such a way that no annoying thanks can be heard.
    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?
    In the article, there is no statistical research that would indicate that such a method works. Secondly, I do not believe in positive psychology. In my opinion, this is brainwashing. It does not look like a scientific article or a method that affects health.
    5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?
    People try to find their problems where they don't have them. Besides, it's a good business opportunity to sell something we can't show if it's working.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Andrzej,
      many thanks for specific example, I haven't heard about it.
      As far as I understood, you don't reject such methods, although you're not very enthusiastic about it. It is normal that we need some proofs, especially with the issues not particularly examined.
      Thank you for reasonable point of view,
      br

      Delete
  3. 1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?

    I had no experience of using this type of therapy. I did not even know that research was being carried out in this area.

    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?

    I imagine this device as headphones which additionally have a sensor that reads the parameters of our body. Appropriate music would be selected for the disease but also for the direct reaction of the body.

    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?

    Of course, as I mentioned above, I think it would be necessary to design algorithms that would select music, e.g. depending on our brain waves. But also the analysis of data from the sensors placed on the body and the recording of the body's reaction will also be very interesting and will allow us to improve this method.

    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?

    I am surprised that in so many areas music therapy can be used. Previously, I only heard about the use of music therapy for human psyche-related diseases. However, the article contains examples of using it to treat physical brain damage or even cancer.

    5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people?

    There are many examples, but this is not yet proof of effectiveness. If scientists are really working on this subject, I believe that there will be scientific evidence and research on a larger scale that will confirm the beneficial effects of music.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Przemek,
      many thanks for your opinion, I wonder, how many patients would be open to take part in experiments of this kind.

      Delete
  4. 1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?

    Unfortunately not. I took part in the classes that the psychologist ran - but these were relaxation classes. Of course, conducted using music. None of my friends, whether patients or doctors, have ever talked about the use of such therapy.

    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?

    I have not heard. However, it will definitely be music played from the speakers in an anechoic room. This will be the most important feature, because in classic rooms there may be defective, malicious interferences that can have the opposite effect.

    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?

    Only a computer. I guess that in order for this to have a proper effect the rhythm must be totally in point. That's how the drums really work and people (shamans) fell into a trance. Yes it will work!

    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?

    The idea itself. But if it's true with cancer, I support such research 100%.

    5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?

    Hmm ... you present a scientific article and in the end you ask whether to put all this into a fairy tale. People believe what they want. It is important that it has the right effect! If music is to heal them, let it heal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michał,
      even with traditional methods, they work when patients want to be healed, I believe in that :-)
      So you're right - if it works, let's just use it :-)

      Delete
  5. 1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?
    One of my friends had an aunt who suffered from cancer and she was attending tuning fork therapy. The effects were really good and promising. Her tumour started to decrease. So, yes, I believe that music can have soothing and healing effect on human beings and not only.

    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?

    No, not really. Manual instruments, CD players, MP 3 players, but I wouldn't call that genuine and impressive technical tools.

    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?

    Of course, I can. It's a matter of time when majority of all kinds of treatments will be computer supported. Technology develops and evolves very quickly.

    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?

    I was surprised by scale of music therapy, that it can be used in so many different instances.

    5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?

    I find such therapies serious. Why? I already provided the answer in my previous statement, because I had opportunity to meet the person who benefited from such a therapy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many thanks. It's nice to feel normal, not as a some kind of witch ;-) But seriously, I believe it can be proven that such therapies work.
      all the best for you and your aunt!

      Delete
  6. 1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?

    No, I've never met such a person.

    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?

    The only such instrument I ever had contact with was a Tibetan bowl constructed of crystal. And other instruments like gong. I think the best instrument is the voice. It has many possibilities regarding volume, vibration, frequency and comes directly from the human.

    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?

    By measuring appropriate frequencies and indicating, for example, the direction. This can be achieved by an eeg test, where the patient's brain waves and reactions to a given sound are measured. You can also use artificial intelligence for this purpose, which you could learn to recognize the correct reactions and conditions that help you heal. In this way, an individualized soundtrack for the patient would be created in a faster way than manually.

    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?

    The most surprising for me in the article was that this method of treatment is effective and used for brain damage.

    5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?

    I think that such methods are as serious as those used by traditional western medicine. If we take into account what is in the field of innate medicine, we will probably be better able to understand the whole of man. Current western medicine has a problem, however, that it mainly focuses on symptoms instead of finding the cause and the overall picture.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cezary,
      ad. 3 - I find extremely interesting brain waves usage for influencing human's health, for example destroying cancer cells. I've read about it, it depends on the waves frequency, how it works, maybe stimulating this way would make possible to heal all the diseases? Maybe we should check all the frequencies and find the diseases corresponding to them?
      many thanks for inspiration.

      Delete
  7. 1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?
    No I havent met. I only know that many people listen to some kind of their favourite music to improve their mood but on a daily basis.
    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?
    I don't know any but I can imagine such tool. It could be some music recomendattion system that plays a music according to the user preferences and current haleth state.
    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?
    Yes, as I wrote above it can be recomendation system that uses some computer vision and nlp technics to recognize the mood and preferences.
    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?
    I am suprised that it really works.
    5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?
    I don't think it is a magic. Our phisical health is connected to our mod and sanity, so if we can improve sanity by music we can help to heal our bodies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Katarzyna,
      many thanks for open attitude. I had no idea that many people may agree on potential extraordinary ways of treatments, it seems to be optimistic.
      Have a nice Sunday!

      Delete
  8. Hi Marta
    Thank you for an interesting topic. Below my answers for yours questions

    1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?
    No, I haven't.

    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?
    No, I have never heard about tools that were designed for this purpose. Maybe it could be a specific program that use some kind of sound that is good to resolve some medical problems. I know tool to create experiments in which exists a module that can generate sounds or we can load files with music. This software is opensesame. I use it to build EEG experiments. A sound theraphy. It's very interesting.

    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?
    Yes, I can. Today computers are powerful and we can buy a lot specific hardware and software that can help us with different tasks.

    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?
    I was surprised that music can be used for so many health problems. It's amazing.

    5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?
    For me this methods are serious. The music therapy can do miracles. I know that some kind of music helps people to back to health. I heard about some people that have listened some kind of music and completly recover.

    I have found some articles about music therapy
    https://oczymlekarze.pl/profilaktyka-i-leczenie/1481-muzykoterapia-metoda-tomatisa-efekt-mozarta-muzyka-leczy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Piotr,
      thanks for the article and open-mindness,
      I hope such news will make us more and more familiar with this issue.
      I wonder, from what kind of diseases people recovered (as you mentioned in point 5).

      Delete
  9. 1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?

    No, I haven't. I read about this way of treatment (only a little) but I wasn't convinced of its effectiveness.

    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?

    No, I haven't, but I could guess that it could be common armband which checking our body parameter (like heartbeat) and start playing specified kind of the music when it is necessary.

    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?

    Maybe computer could analyse the parameter of our body and check how the specified kind of music affects us? If treatment doesn't get any result computer trying to find other kind of music.

    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?

    This is the most suprising information from article for me:
    "Impairments to motor skill functions are common in cases of stroke and traumatic brain injury. Thaut (2005) suggested that rhythmic entrainment (where rhythm is used as an external timekeeper to organize, coordinate, and improve movement) of motor function can facilitate the recovery of movement in patients with Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy and traumatic brain injury."

    Honestly, I am confused and don't trust that theory and when I will have more free time I will try to find more information about it.

    5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?

    I have never been consider about effectiveness of that way of treatment. I think that people need other methods,but from other hands it good that we looking for the new method.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi,
    thanks for honest opinion. I expected many people would think this way. But I need to know such arguments, in order to find mine :-)
    BR!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Marta,
    good day to you, too! :)
    1. Yes, one of my close family had a stroke and now his rehabilitation is being supported by music. Furthermore, take a look:
    https://www.njtvonline.org/news/video/art-therapy-helps-dementia-patients-communicate-and-connect/

    2. For music therapy, the task is pretty easy. However, I could imagine the usage of VR headset could have a positive impact by multisensory stimulation effect.

    3. Sure, it is all about feedback that could be measured with objective tools and adjusted if the therapy does not brings proper effects.

    4. To be honest, I was familiar with that :)

    5. Only strong evidence based on large rigorously conducted meta-analyses could give us an answer about that question :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Artur,
    many thanks for the example from your family,
    I wish all the best for your cousin,
    I hope we'll have strong evidences very soon :-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. 1. No, I have never seen this kind of treatment. The only thing I've heard about the use of music is plant growth.

    2. I have never heard of such devices. I think it would be headphones or whole helmets, which, when put on the head, could receive the appropriate brain impulses and adjust the music to our mood or needs. When it comes to the treatment of, for example, certain diseases, I imagine some amplifiers that could accumulate appropriate frequencies in the afflicted place to improve the efficiency of this method.

    3. Yes. The above-mentioned headphones could be connected to a computer that controls the operation of the device and analyzes the parameters of our brain and, if necessary, changes the songs or frequencies. By the way, he could keep a record of our treatment so that the doctor can control the patient's condition and check the progress of treatment.

    4. I think that music is used in many fields of medicine. Especially for combating cancer cells. The use of sounds in medicine has so far been associated only with psychiatry and ultrasonography.

    5. People believe what they want. If they can believe that vaccines cause autism then if they do not like it, they will also boycott it. In my opinion, these methods do not differ from other methods of treating certain diseases. If this helps someone and there is scientific evidence for it, then it should be used as much as possible. It's like saying that therapies that use animals do not help children with autism, because after all, how can an animal cure someone. It has been confirmed more than once that the enormous regenerative capabilities of humans result from the capabilities of our brain. Sometimes the right attitude is enough and our condition improves. Music can only help to achieve this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Monica,
      many thanks for your reflections, your right, proper attitude helps with everything and sometimes this is the most difficult to achieve it.
      Br

      Delete
  14. 1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?
    No, I didn't know anyone who used such therapy. For me this may be a way to stimulate some parts of our brains which can help in different diseases, but music killing cancer... this sound like homeopathy or other magic therapies.
    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?
    Radio? :) I can imagine some computer connected to MRI or some other brain scanner to look which parts of brains are stimulated by different sounds.
    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?
    Some AI technique can learn how different sound react with patient body to create 'music' for full therapy.
    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?
    At first glance this part with healing cancer was the most surprising, but when I read it more carefully I found it doesn't heal cancer but rather help sick people to relax and that make more sens for me.
    5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?
    As I mentioned in 1. I can believe this can help with mental illness and help sick people to relax to lower their pain, but suggestions from your description of this topic, that music can kill cancer sounds like pure magic, unless you consider radiotherapy as a music.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomasz,
      as I can see, you represent more sceptical attitude, like with all new ideas, they have to proven. I mean, I believe the sound can heal also serious cases, but I've already read more about it. It is worth to find out more facts and lead more researches.
      Thanks for your opinion, see you

      Delete
  15. 1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?
    My mother is using music therapy as she believs that music can reduce anxiety and physical effects of stress
    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?
    I only heard about ultrasound usage to reduce fat :)
    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?
    In various ways. First thing which comes to my mind is hat computers can learn from our data like how we are sleeping, overall easy to get statistics and propose music which is best for us in particular situation and check if this is working.
    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?
    Frankly speaking as I know topic nothing suprised me.
    5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?
    I believe in method as music, sound is a big part in our live and with some methods it can be usuful to help people reduce stress and even help with diseases

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ewelina,
    many thanks,
    it's good to know people intentionally use music to reduce stress. We shouldn't forget stress is the reason of most serious diseases. So listening to it, improving our mood, we prevent us from bigger problems :-)

    ReplyDelete
  17. 1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?
    I've stumbled upon some extreme break-core mixes advertised - half-jokingly - by creators as cure for ADHD. I think if I'd have ADHD, those might help a bit.

    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?
    I'm not sure if we need anything more than pair of headphones. Using any form of feed-back might be counter-effective, as each patient probably reacts differently to the same musical stimulus.

    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?
    I think this whole social network thing can help by allowing to exchange experiences among groups of people having similar issues.

    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?
    I must admit there was no surprises... One that is related was some University of Queensland research showing that heavy/black metal soothed test subjects, rather than induce anger.

    5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?
    I think the influence on psyche is real thing, as for actual physical influence I'm skeptical. On the other hand, psyche is manifestation of physical processes, so maybe there is something.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hi Marta,
    Thanks for interesting article.

    1.Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?

    No, I haven't met anyone who used that kind of therapy, or doctor neither.

    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?

    I’m not familiar with any kind of such a tool, but I know a company called Nura that is creating headphones that sound differently for everyone. This is possible because sound is created based on how it is reconstructed through our jaw and bone structure. I think that might be helpful in personalized therapy.

    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?

    I could imagine algorithm that might be helpful, with creating personalized playlist depend on what kind of therapy is needed in a moment. Or one that compare physical parameters like hearth relate with particular sound.

    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?

    The fact related to Alzheimer disease, that patients preserved musical functions, despite the loss of a related non-musical function.

    4.Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?

    I treat it seriously because I know for a fact how much impact-full music can be, and how strongly it’s influence my mood, my energy and my attitude.

    ReplyDelete
  19. 1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?
    Unfortunately this is the first time when I hear about such thing and I have never met anyone using this type of treatment, doctor or patient. But for sure when the occassion come, I will be glad to know more about it, preferably by meeting with someone implementing music in their work of treatment.
    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?
    I’ve only heard about the impact of learning to play the instrument on language skills.

    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?
    Of course I think that computers can support such treatment. First of all, in recent times, computers may be useul in almost every aspects of life, as well as in the therapy using music. Speaking more directly, we can use cmputers to write some sort of application, which may for example strategicaly choose the proper music for specific disease or injury and then play it in tne most effective way. What is more, we can also use computers to gather data from one man’s body to match perfect sounds basing on their barin works.
    Also, bomputers may help with learing to play on the instruments by published tutorials or videocneferencies with tutors.

    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?
    I must say that almost everything in this article was surising for me, because until today I haven’t heard that the music can have actual terapeutical implementation. But I think that the most interesting thing, if I need to choose one, is that when pople who have problems with for example capability to walk after some injuried they suffered from, hear the sounf of steps, it may help with their rehabilitation and make it more efficient. I have never seen how it works, but if it is true, then I think that this is really amazing and at the same time simple to use.

    5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?
    I read once about music lessons and linguistic skills. And this one seems towork.
    For example You can read about this in this article:
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-27126-5
    Many types of music lessons have been found to affect children’s linguistic skills. The more intensive the intervention is, the faster the linguistic transfer effects are perceived.

    ReplyDelete
  20. 1. Have you ever met with someone, who used such kind of healing (it may be either patient, or a doctor)?

    I have never met a person who used the music therapy but I can say that music helps me to chill out and relax so I am able to believe that music may help people with diseases

    2. Have you ever heard about technical tools enabling such therapies? If not, can you imagine such tool? What kind of?

    I have never heard about any technical tools enabling music therapy. I think that maybe tool based on headphones and EEG technique. This tool could include the headphones with mini amplifier (for EEG) and micro-controller. The signal would be gather from the head of patient and then the signal could be analyzed and the patient would be able to listen the music dedicated to him/her.

    3. Can you imagine that computer can support such treatments? How?

    As I wrote above we can use the computer in process of supporting treatments which can be cure using music. We would apply the headphones, amplifier EEG and computer to do more advanced analysis than micro-controller.

    4. What was the most surprising for you in this article?

    I was surprised most when I read about influence of music on patients who suffer from cancer. The author mentioned that music therapy allows patients to reduce the sensation of pain. The author said that the music therapy improves heart and respiratory rates, and lower anxiety in children with cancer undergoing lumbar puncture procedures as well.

    5. Do you consider this kind of methods as serious ones or just "magic" for naive people? Why?

    I definitely think that music allows people to be relax and chill out but I am not convinced that music therapy “can treat”. I suppose that in some cases the music therapy may act like placebo. It does nothing but, for example, you think that it is a painkiller and you feel better when you take it. I do not want to say that music is useless in treatment diseases, but I think that it sometimes can be treated as a “magic method for everybody and for everything” in marketing.

    ReplyDelete