Question: what does the U. S. Secretary of Health and Human Services had to say about music for health services? My search for an answer follows.
by Daniel Kobialka
I was curious so I consulted someone I thought of as an authority. I wanted to see what the U. S. Secretary of Health and Human Services had to say about music for health services, so I visited the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) website(1).
Just in case you'd like to trace my journey (and I may need the breadcrumbs to find my way back):
From the DHHS site I was directed to the website of The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)(2). NCCAM is the Federal Government's lead agency for scientific research on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Great, now I see how they all fit together. It seems the field I'm investigating is what NCCAM calls sound energy therapy.
Sound energy therapy is the category in which NCCAM places such diverse fields as vibrational or frequency therapy, music therapy, wind chime, and tuning fork therapy. NCCAM bases its studies and research on the thesis that specific sound frequencies resonate with specific organs of the body and are then able to facilitate healing and wellness.
Of all of these modalities, music therapy has been the most studied, with studies dating back to reports of music changing blood pressure in the 1920s.(3) Music has also been linked to pain and anxiety reduction, mood entrainment, and biochemical alterations.(4)
My initial curiosity was rooted in my desire to tie together some of the threads of this website by consulting with the person that does this sort of connecting in the U.S., the Secretary of Health and Human Services. What I found was that music for health services is grounded in the work done by researchers in the various fields represented on this website - sound healing and music therapy.
As I found in my readings, yes, music therapy has been the most studied, but even there, the surface has barely been scratched. I'm so curious about more primal sounds also, such as chants, songs, drumming, chimes, bells, and natural sounds. Why is it that listening to the sounds of whales, ocean waves, rain, and crickets is found to be so soothing?
I am eternally grateful to specialists who work hard to understand and make the connections necessary to facilitate bringing complementary music and sound healing to a world that is so in need.
1. U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, http://www.hhs.gov/
2. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), http://nccam.nih.gov
3. Vincent S, Thompson JH. The effects of music upon the human blood pressure. Lancet. 1929;213(5506):534-538.
4. Chlan L. Music intervention. In: Snyder M, Lindquist R, eds. Complementary/Alternative Therapies in Nursing. 4th ed. New York: Springer Publishing Company; 2001:58-66.
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