70 WDDTY | ISSUE 01 | AUG/SEP 2019 FACEBOOK.COM/WDDTYAUNZ
ALTERNATIVESVibroacoustic therapy, as the name suggests, is
primarily vibratory in nature, with sound delivered to
the body in any needed location via speakers embedded
in special massage tables, mattresses and reclining
chairs, believed to affect the patient at a cellular and even
a molecular level.
Chanting, humming and toning register in the ears
and also directly vibrate the body of the person doing
the chanting or toning. Goldman, who has authored a
book called The Humming Effect (Healing Arts Press,
2017), says that simple humming increases oxygen in
our cells, lymphatic circulation and melatonin, and
lowers blood pressure and heart rate.
“If you are tense and stressed out, take a nice deep
breath and hum for a couple of minutes,” he says. “It’s
more effective than straight slow breathing. In fact
they’ve done research that says humming and other
self-created sounds improve heart rate variability better
than deep breathing and singing. You also get boosted
promotion of interleukin, a protein associated with
platelet creation, you get increased levels of nitric oxide,
which is a vasodilator that helps the body by loosening
up the circulatory system, and you get the release of
oxytocin, which is the trust hormone.”What medicine knows so far
Modern medicine has been tiptoeing into the arena
of sound healing ever since the introduction of
ultrasound—which uses sound frequencies higher than
the range of human detection—to successfully break
up kidney stones back in the 1980s, a process called
extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL).^1
Beyond its widespread use in medical imaging, such
as to observe a fetus in the womb or diagnose various
soft-tissue conditions, ultrasound is also currently used
in mainstream medicine as a therapy for sports-related
musculoskeletal conditions such as tendon injuries.^2
As far as sound healing is concerned, there are studies
showing effectiveness for a number of conditions. But a
good deal more detailed scientific investigation needs tobe done to fully understand its potential.
Music therapy has been shown to help reduce
agitated behavior in elderly people with dementia while
mitigating caregiver stress,^3 and it can improve social
communication and functional brain connectivity in
children with autism.^4 Music therapy has also proven
useful in managing pre-operative stress before cancer
surgery,^5 and patients who listened to music while
under general anesthesia had lower postoperative blood
pressure and a calmer recovery.^6
Studies show that vibroacoustics can be effective for
managing pain, reducing stress and anxiety, reducing
the symptoms of patients undergoing chemotherapy,
improving muscle tone and increasing range of motion.
It helps soothe patients prior to and after surgery as well
as providing stimulation for the hearing impaired and
developmentally disabled.^7
Vibroacoustics has also been successfully applied to
reducing swelling and pain in patients suffering from
knee osteoarthritis,^8 and there is some preliminary
work suggesting that it might be able to treat symptoms
of depression in the elderly.^9
Tibetan singing bowls have proven to reduce stress,
anxiety and depression as well as provide upliftment
to the spirit.^10 Group drumming is also effective for
reducing anxiety and depression while increasing social
resilience and shifting the immune system toward
greater anti-inflammatory signaling.^11 And by exposing
mice to a unique combination of light and sound, MIT
neuroscientists have shown that they can improve
cognitive and memory impairments similar to those
seen in Alzheimer’s patients – although these results in
animals do not necessarily apply to humans.^12
Dr David Perez-Martinez, an integrative psychiatrist
in New York City, has been a therapeutic sound
practitioner for 40 years and says that he sees its healing
effects in his practice every day. “Sound affects human
beings and living organisms at every level of existence,”
he says. “It affects us physically and physiologically,
emotionally, psychologically, socially and spiritually at
every level. I can’t claim that it cures depression or panic
attacks. It’s just a tool. But if you use it properly, you can
get these desired effects, and my patients walk out of
here differently.”
Perez-Martinez says that sound affects the central
nervous system, putting us into either a rest-and-relax
state (activating the parasympathetic nervous system)USING A UNIQUE COMBINATION OF
LIGHT AND SOUND, NEUROSCIENTISTS
HAVE SHOWN THAT THEY CAN
IMPROVE COGNITIVE AND MEMORY
IMPAIRMENTS
Used for centuries in
Buddhist practices, the
Tibetan singing bowl
emits tones when
struck—like ringing an
upside-down bell—or
when the rim of the
bowl is gently circled
bya wooden rod, which
causes the metal to
vibrate like a tuning
fork. The tone can be
changed by adding
water to the bowl.