Saturday 27 October 2018

The Healing Power of Music


Music Heals My Soul

Music is a form of melody that soothes into our body making us feel refreshed and relaxed of all the anxiety and stress we face in everyday life.
It is not just a part of an entertainment, it is a great way of healing our pains, making us forget about everything, and takes us into the world of melody which gives us the most mollifying feel in the entire world.
It is a unique medicine for our entertainment and our health. Music can bring back our old memories, mostly the best and finest ones we would have had.
Music Therapy accomplishes several problems or emotions we face in daily life that the normal doctors can't do, It is such a wonderful. When we attend a music therapy it gets our brain functioning quicker, and whatever we do after that, for definite will be a success.
Whatever problem we may have by listening to the prescribed music, it just flows out from our brain, and we say it out, which helps the doctor or psychologist to identify the problem we are going through.
Music is an immense and effective way of healing our stresses

Stroke victims, and other patients suffering from brain damage, will often lose the ability to speak. Language functions are processed in the left hemisphere of the brain, and music in the right hemisphere, therefore a stroke victim who has lost the ability to speak could train their right brain to take on these functions.
Therapies aimed at regaining language in stroke victims were often arduous, but Finnish researchers may have found a way to significantly expedite the process through music. 60 stroke victims were measured for speed and success of cognitive recovery, with some undergoing standard therapy, and others undergoing therapy while listening to music.
Fascinatingly, patients who could no longer speak would find themselves able to hum along to music, often with little training. From there, it would only be a few steps to regaining speech.
When Words Fail—Music Speaks~       Shakespear



The idea of music as a healing modality dates back to the beginnings of history. Mythology is full of stories suggesting that music is balm for the soul. The Bible talks of how David played the harp to help ease his despair against King Saul’s tyrannies. In Greek mythology, there is the story of Orpheus—the musician who could soothe savage beasts and move rocks with his lyre.

Music therapists in India derive a lot of their knowledge from the science of yoga. Physicians of the ancient Muslim world treated mental illness with music therapy. Special choirs and live music bands entertained patients and there were comic performers as well.
Some of the earliest notable mentions are found in the writings of ancient Greek philosophers. Robert Burton wrote in his 17th century classic, The Anatomy of Melancholy, that music and dance were critical in treating mental illness, especially melancholia.

Backed by research

Contemporary research seems to suggest that music therapy benefits patients with stress, psychological and psychiatric problems because it brings about a sense of well-being.
A recent study in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, published in the UK, concluded that people with depression who listened to music for at least one hour each day reported a reduction of symptoms by up to 25%.
Researchers at the University of Sydney found that singing in groups for at least 30 minutes a day helped people cope better with low moods caused by chronic pain.
Another study by researchers at Cleveland Clinic in the US found that music helps ease unrelenting, non-malignant pain in adults who “hurt” for at least six months.
Music has also been found effective in managing pain caused by cancerous conditions in the body and procedural pain.
Studies have also shown that music reduces pain during dental procedures. Playing soft music in the background while working at one’s desk has also been found to reduce stress. Reduced heart rates and higher body temperatures are said to indicate the onset of relaxation.

Positive experiences

T.V. Sairam, a New Delhi-based music therapist, says that music could help him cope better with life’s stresses. “Right from childhood, I was interested in music. I then discovered that listening to music or singing could help me overcome difficult situations in life,” he says. Based on these experiences, he became interested in studying the therapeutic aspects of music in a more serious way. Having benefited from music therapy, Sairam has become an active proponent.
A Mumbai-based psychiatrist, Rajan Bhonsle, claims music has helped to cure many stress-related illnesses in his patients, including one who had a bad case of psoriasis, a skin condition. The patient had consulted several specialists but nothing had worked. “I told him that he should listen to his favourite music every day. Sure enough, over a period of time, the psoriasis was cured,” he claims.
A sexual-health expert, Dr Bhonsle says: “Music relaxes the mind and the body so it works very well in conditions that are anxiety related, such as performance anxiety.” He believes that music can even help counter other marital problems that may have their genesis in work-related stress. “Just helping the body produce some of the feel-good hormones, such as serotonin, can alleviate many stress-related illnesses, and can also go a long way in improving a person’s relationship with his family,” he says.
Snehalata Deshmukh, a paediatric surgeon and former vice-chancellor of the University of Mumbai, says she has done several studies on the subject. In one study, she compared two groups of premature infants, both of which were given all the necessary care in terms of nutrition and medication. Music was played to infants in one group, but not to the other. “We saw that infants in the group that heard music every day gained weight faster than the ones that did not,” she says.
The same study was then extended to pregnant women, and the results were positive. “In ultra-sounds, we have seen that babies make a happy face when they listen to certain kinds of music, especially in the last trimester of pregnancy,” she says. According to Dr Deshmukh, babies even seem to have preferences in their choice of music. “We have observed that most of them like Beethoven’s symphonies, or Omkar, or raga Yaman, or Shivkumar’s santoor, because some of these rhythms are similar to the mother’s heartbeat,” she says.



A PRESCRIPTION THAT WORKED

When Jamuna Balamurugan’s sister recommended music therapy to help her cope with stress during her first pregnancy, she was a bit sceptical. “I wasn’t exactly sure how it would help, but I was also beginning to worry about how work pressures would affect my baby,” says this Chennai-based homemaker. Signing up for a music therapy programme conducted by T. Mythily at Chennai’s Apollo hospital, she was initially “prescribed” some instrumental music which, she says, made her relax almost immediately. The bigger benefits, however, were evident in her baby. Balamurugan claims her daughter is much ahead of her age in analytical and communication skills, and even in creative thinking.
I always buy her books and puzzles that are meant for older kids because she gets easily bored with stuff that’s meant for her age group,” she says. And in school, she is better than most kids her age. “I do believe that this is because of music therapy,” says Balamurugan, whose older daughter Harshitha is now 6 years old.

Dr Mythily, head of the music therapy department at Apollo Hospital in Chennai and Balamurugan’s therapist, says: “Music is being tried in many areas, sometimes as a supportive element to conventional therapy and at other times, as an alternative therapy in itself.”
According to Dr Mythily, music therapy is of two types. One is passive, which involves only listening, and the other one is active, which involves participation. “The passive form is beneficial in enhancing concentration and memory, reducing stress, heart problems and hypertension,” she says. “The active form is of immense help in treating neurological problems, such as neurological aphasia, receptive aphasia, expressive aphasia—speech problems—and it enhances speech fluency, especially in hyperactive children,” she adds.
For some time now, Balamurugan has been recommending music therapy to scores of expectant mothers. In fact, about two years ago, when she was expecting her second baby, she signed up for the programme again. And as she sees her baby thrive, she is once again happy to give the credit to music therapy.

Sporadic efforts
There are more than 5,000 music therapists registered with the American Music Therapy Association and more than 300 registered music therapists in the UK. In India, there appear to be a handful , who are self-trained. Much of the work in this area is driven either by doctors who have a penchant for music or by musicians.
Across India, efforts to include music therapy in mainstream medicine have been very limited and sporadic. Notable exceptions are a few health care institutions such as Apollo Hospitals, Northern Railway Central Hospital in New Delhi and Hamidia Hospital in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
In recent years, a few centres of training for music therapists have been set up. Apollo Hospital in Chennai is training psychology postgraduates and doctors in music therapy. The Indian Music Therapy Research and Development Foundation and the Swathi Thirunal Music Therapy Research Centre, both in Kerala, offer short-term courses in music therapy

CURATIVE AND REHABILITATIVE POWERS
Vivek Joshi, a sarod player who has been performing at various hospitals, vouches for the calming effect of music.
During one performance at the Thane Mental Hospital, he played Naat Bhairo (a morning raga). “While I was performing, I observed that the music would help to calm the anxious and agitated patients and it would help to enliven the depressed patients,” claims Joshi. “This is the magic of music.”
Because the concert was beneficial to so many, the hospital started playing piped music in all its wards a few months ago. This was to determine if music would help accelerate the rehabilitation process of patients with mental illnesses, says Sanjay Kumawat, member secretary, State Mental Health Authority, government of Maharashtra. “We have a variety of patients with different mental illnesses—so we were keen to assess the impact of using music as therapy. We found that patients respond well. It helps to soothe their minds,” claims Dr Kumawat.
The hospital authorities are so enthused by the success of their program that they are planning some more sessions of live classical music for patients. In addition, they are proposing similar programs at other government-run mental institutions in Pune, Ratnagiri and Nagpur.

Sunday 7 October 2018

THE FLIP SIDE OF VITAMIN TABLETS


There is a Saying from well known Tamil literature Thirukural that
“Marunthena Vendavam Yakkaiku Arunthiyathu
  Attradhu potri unin”.

மருந்தென வேண்டாவாம் யாக்கைக்கு அருந்தியது
அற்றது போற்றி உணின்

Which means human body does not require any medicine or drug if we intake any meal after digesting the previous meal that was already taken.

The vitamin tablets that are perceived to be the elixir that give strength and stamina to the body are having flip side too. Now a days if any toddler is very lean than the normal kids of equal age, their parents are taking him/her to a child specialist doctor and asking (forcing) him to prescribe vitamin tablets to increase the strength and stamina of the kid. Vitamin tablets have become a routine for the persons above 50 years in order to gain sufficient and necessary energy to do their day to day activities. Even persons who are healthy and normal are also taking vitamin tablets to increase their strength. Thus from literate to illiterate; from children to aged people all are taking the vitamin tablets like a regular meal. But only very few of them know the flip side of the vitamin tablets.

People who are taking the vitamin tablets on a daily basis did not know whether the human body is accepting them or not.  One should know the fact that tongue is not only an organ for taste but also does other important functions. There are 9000 taste buds that are present in surface of the tongue; these taste buds are connected to the brain through nerves. This nervous system will identify the tastes like bitter, sour, sweet and salt and take the impulses to brain and brain in turn will send signals to secrete saliva/enzymes that are required to digest the food. Thus half of the digestion process is taking place in mouth itself. The food items that are going inside our body without touching the tongue or without mixing with saliva properly will be considered as an alien by the human body.

HOW ARE WE TAKING VITAMIN TABLETS?

 Vitamin tablets are taken in mouth and swallowed directly by drinking water. Tablets are not even touching the tongue. This tablet is passing through important organs like stomach, spleen, liver, small intestine and finally reaches kidney. Since vitamin tablets are entering the body without mixing with saliva, the organs will start considering the tablets as an alien and will reject it or in other words a negligible amount of vitamin alone will be absorbed by the organs.

The entire human body requires only 2 to 3 mg of vitamin per day to survive. That too the body accepts the vitamins that are taken in natural organic form. Our human body is a child of Mother Nature the cells of our body has an inherited genetic memory from our ancestors who were using natural food items as vitamin source for millions of years any substances that are produced naturally will be accepted easily by the body. But the chemicals that are present in the tablets are like alien and the cells have no idea about the chemically synthesized substances so called drugs. The human body will take maximum efforts to throw away the chemical alien first. After travelling through different organs the chemicals present in the tablet finally reaches kidney. The main function of kidney is to segregate impurities in blood, according to the organ kidney, the excess Vitamin in the chemical form is an impurity. Hence the excess vitamin is excreted in the form of urine. Therefore the colour of urine is different after having the vitamin tablets.
One can question if we taste vitamin tablet like normal food chew properly and eat will the body accept it? The answer is a big no. Our body is preprogrammed to organic and natural food items alone. The vitamins that are synthesized by several inorganic forms are not accepted by the body. The main organ that works for segregating and extracting the impurities of blood is kidney. If any person is taking vitamin tablets for long period of time, the kidney will be overloaded and will lose its potential. Thus prolonged abuse of the kidney for several years will lead to renal failure.

Three day test

 Let us reinforce the above statement/s through an experimental test. Consider two healthy persons of same age. Let us lock them in two separate rooms by giving vitamin tablets alone for one person and orange fruits to the other person. If we open the room on the fourth day the person who ate orange fruits for his survival will be healthier when compared to the person who ate vitamin tablets alone. In fact the person who ate vitamin tablets will require some help to stand properly.

Healthy Diet

As mentioned already the human body will accept the vitamins that are naturally present in food items like milk, eggs, cereals, citrus fruits, guava, pepper, tomato, spinach, fish, vegetable oil, whole grains etc. The only thing that we have to do is chew the food items properly, mix the food particles with saliva and then swallow them. In this process our body will absorb all the essential items that are present in the natural food. If we are forcing the body to accept the vitamins that are present in tablets as chemical (inorganic) form, the organs of the body will function abnormally. Healthy life style and balanced diet are necessary and sufficient for leading tablet free life.

Nataraj – Doctor of Medicine (Acupuncture)

Friday 28 September 2018

Five commonsense questions that will help you keep away from risk of Heart Attack


திருக்குறள்

“நோய்நாடி நோய்முதல் நாடி அதுதணிக்கும்
வாய்நாடி வாய்ப்பச் செயல்”

பொருள்
நோயை இன்னது என்று அறிந்து அந்த நோய் வருவதற்கான மூல காரணத்தையும் அதைத் தீர்க்கும் வழியையும் அறிந்து அதைப் போக்குவதில் தவறு வந்துவிடாமல் செயல்பட வேண்டும்.
Meaning
Identify the Disease, investigate the root cause, recognize what might abate the illness and heal the illness.
Blockage of excess cholesterol in blood vessels of heart is commonly known as heart attack. Now-a-days the heart attack is treated with the help of angioplasty or a bypass surgery in which the blockages in blood vessels are removed with the help of external agents.
But one should be in a position to critically examine, think and raise the question/s about what are the root causes for heart disease.
To analyze the root cause of the problem it is essential to ask the five-Why’s as we teach our students.
   Why
Question
Possible Reason/s
 1st Why
Why is there a blockage in my heart?
Excess undigested cholesterol is being circulated in the blood stream
 2nd Why
Why the excess cholesterol is circulated in my blood stream?
Improper digestion of cholesterol
 3rd Why
Why there is improper digestion of cholesterol?
Bile - An enzyme required to digest Cholesterol not secreted properly
 4th Why
Why the Bile enzyme is not secreted properly?
Improper functioning of LIVER/ Gall Bladder
 5th Why
Why my liver/ gall bladder is not functioning properly?
Improper Life Style.



The root cause of the problem is not having a healthy life style which leads to improper digestion of fat/cholesterol. In other words, the cholesterol that is not digested properly is being circulated in the blood stream and it causes blockages in the blood vessels of the heart leading to an attack.
For digesting the fat, liver has to secrete an enzyme called Bile. The secreted bile has to be stored in the Gall Bladder and proper digestion of fat should happen in the small intestine with the help of bile. Therefore to have permanent cure for heart problems, liver, gall bladder and small intestine should function properly.
Without understanding the root causes (improper digestion of cholesterol) just by taking care of the symptoms (remove blockages in blood vessels near the heart) alone one cannot cure the heart disease permanently. During emergency situation and for a quick fixing the problem, removing the blockage may help. But if a person wants to have a permanent cure, it may not help.

Removing blockages of heart through modern technique is a reductionist phenomenon. But the heart and blood vessels functions in a holistic phenomenon (interconnected with other organs of the body). If we apply reductionist phenomenon to cure a holistic disease it can temporarily quick fix the problem but will not have a permanent cure.

To have a healthy liver/ gall bladder, one should practice healthy life style. As per the laws of acupuncture, liver and gall bladder has its peak time during the night between 11.00 PM and 3.00 AM. For proper functioning of liver and gall bladder a person has to be in deep sleep during this time. If a person has to be in deep sleep between 11.00 PM to 3.00 AM, he/she should have gone to bed at least two hours before. In other words one should have gone to bed by 9.00 PM so that he/she can reach deep sleep by 11.00 PM.  More over there is a high degree of correlation between emotions and the organs of the body. For example anger, frustration and jealousy weakens the liver and stress, impatience and hate weakens the heart. Therefore if a person knows how to balance his emotions and also practices healthy life style, he/she can stay away from risk of heart disease till his life time.

In a lighter note when you get a chance to meet any cardiologist in the future, you are now well equipped to annoy him with the five commonsense questions. .. J J
-         Nataraj M.D (Acu)