By Christine Stevens, MSW, MT-BC

Music and sound are present in the very language of medicine. Health refers to being of “sound mind and body.” The Chinese word for medicine, yao, is derived from the word for music, yue.¹

But the connection between music and medicine is deeper than language—music is one of the oldest forms of preventive care. 

Medicine men and women used drumming and chanting to treat illnesses. Shamans in indigenous tribes used the beat of the drum to summon spiritual health. This deep-rooted connection between music and medicine continues today. You can see it in the growing body of evidence-based research validating the intuitive wisdom of the ancients.

Music Medicine Research

Mounting evidence is demonstrating just how deeply music is woven into the fabric of our DNA. Thanks to cutting-edge research in the field of genomics, studies show the benefits of music for stress reduction, regardless of prior musical training. 

Barry Bittman, MD, a former concert pianist turned neurologist, is leading the research in mind-body medicine and music. Determined to study the deepest level of biological evidence of stress reduction through music making, Bittman designed a creative research project. 

As part of the experiment, he eliminated all subjects with prior music-making experience, ensuring that everyone was a novice. Blood samples were taken to create a baseline level of genomic activity for each subject. The blood was tested for forty-five known genomic markers of stress—switches that “turn on” biological responses associated with various chronic health challenges (eg, cancer or heart disease). 

Next, all the subjects went through a one-hour stress-induction phase. Participants spent one hour putting puzzles together. Much as in life, where stress is created when things don’t fit together right, the puzzle pieces were designed to create stress. The pieces didn’t match, and they even had pictures on both sides. In addition, subjects were frequently told, “You are doing okay, but everyone else is doing better.”

Next, researchers randomly assigned the subjects into three subgroups. The first group had to continue the stress induction with the puzzles for an additional hour. Following this period, the results of their blood samples showed no change. Their stress DNA switches remained on.

The second group got to chill out; they sat around and relaxed, reading magazines and newspapers in a quiet room in comfortable chairs for an additional hour. This group showed a slight reversal in genomic responses, with an average of six out of forty-five genes reversed.

The third group went into a piano keyboard lab and played music together for an hour. The group followed a recreational music-making keyboard program, the Yamaha Clavinova Connection, which was designed for fun, creativity, group support, self-expression, and relaxation. Unlike in the usual structured music lesson, subjects were free to make their own music using drums and percussion sounds, emulating a drum circle, and improvising on the keyboard. 

When the blood samples for this group were retested, they had reversed nineteen of forty-five gene markers of stress. In other words, playing music was found to be three times more effective for reducing stress-related gene expression than simply chilling out.²

According to Bittman’s results, as we engage in making music, we can disengage genomic triggers associated with stress. Thus, it’s not only what music does but also what it undoes. There is a principle to music’s medicine—an activation and deactivation pattern. It’s not only what we turn on, but also what is turned off; not only what we get from music, but also what we get to let go of that is healing.

You may have noticed a similar effect in your own mood states. Notice that it’s hard to be angry when you’re laughing; hard to be sad when you’re happy; hard to worry about the past when you’re in the now. The simultaneous-state theory in psychology points to the unfeasibility of being in two opposing states at the same time. This activation/deactivation principle applies to music medicine. In rhythm, we find that drumming-based music turns off the thinking mind and allows us to enter a more meditative state.

Beating Stress

Ongoing research in psychoneuroimmunology and mind-body medicine shows that rhythm can enhance the immune system on a cellular level. For the first time, scientific research has validated why rhythm is one of the oldest tools of music medicine, one that has withstood the test of time.

Psychoneuroimmunology

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is a discipline that examines the effect of the mind on health and resistance to disease. PNI has evolved in the last forty years and aims to understand the relationship between the immune, endocrine, and central nervous systems. 

In 2000, Bittman performed the first biological research study on the impact of group drumming on the immune system. All the subjects in the experiment were healthy individuals who had no prior musical or drumming experience. 

The experiment compared three groups: a resting control group that sat and read magazines, a listening group that just listened to drumming music, and a drum-circle experience in which subjects played rhythms together led by a drum-circle facilitator. 

Blood samples were taken before and after the one-hour experiment to test key indicators of the immune system—the body’s natural defense system against disease and virally-infected cells. These blood tests included tests for dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), cortisol, natural killer (NK) cell activity, and other cytokines that are considered orchestrators of the immune system.

Not all experiments go as planned. After the first drum-circle test, Bittman found no significant changes in the experimental group compared with the control. His research team then tried different approaches to drumming—using less talking or leading the drumming by a local shaman. Still, no significant results occurred. It’s important to note that some subjects reported feeling better or having fun, but it did not change their biology. 

Finally, it became apparent that the subjects were actually intimidated by drumming. Performance anxiety and a fear of making a mistake or losing the beat were causing their stress to rise. This anxiety was driving biology in the wrong direction.

Working with an interdisciplinary team, Bittman developed a friendlier approach to the act of drumming—a protocol later called HealthRHYTHMS. He began with the rhythm of breathing to put people at ease by having them tune into the body. He then led the group in rhythm icebreakers, drumming the rhythms of their names, call and response, a drum circle of free expression, and guided imagery while drumming. 

It worked: results of blood samples showed that the new group-drumming protocol enhanced immune function significantly on a cellular level. In just one hour, the subjects transformed their biology, boosting elements of the body’s natural immune system and simultaneously reducing the biochemicals that can lead to illness and disease.³

Replicating the experiment in another part of the world, Japanese researchers tested a group of stressed-out employees, taking blood samples before and after the group-drumming protocol. Results successfully replicated Bittman’s study, showing a cross-cultural truth to the health-enhancing impact of rhythm on the body.⁴

Taken together, these studies indicate a common theme. It was the active participation in drumming that boosted biology. Changing health or enhancing wellness requires an active role. Active drumming brings with it the health benefits of exercise, self-expression, and a sense of camaraderie and support with other drummers in the group. The study also demonstrated the accessibility of rhythm, since none of the subjects had ever played music before.

Since Bittman’s initial experiment, there have been four additional studies on group drumming, all of which were published in peer-reviewed journals. The HealthRHYTHMS group-drumming protocol developed for Bittman’s experiment has been shown to reduce employee burnout, decrease anger in adolescents in corrective institutions, improve mood states and participation in seniors, and reduce the impact of stress in nursing students.^{5 6 7}   These studies continue to point to the functional use of rhythm across a variety of populations.

The next time flu or allergy season approaches, it may be time to join a drum circle. Whenever you need to boost your immune system and reduce stress, you might want to consider a drum over a drug. The effectiveness is well documented. For more information, visit the USA Drum Circle Finder at drumcircles.net/circlelist.html.

Rhythm in Exercise

The field of exercise psychology has also been examining how rhythm influences physical performance. Music helps enhance motivation when exercising, but does it actually improve performance when working out at the gym or going for a jog? 

Costas Karageorghis, PhD, author of Inside Sport Psychology and head of the Music in Sport and Exercise Research Group at Brunel University, is a researcher as well as a musician who plays piano and performs in a jazz trio around London. He brought live music to mass-participation running events, such as London’s half-marathon “Run to the Beat.” 

With the success of his marathon project, Karageorghis created audio recordings for running that are based on scientific findings of how music can best improve your body’s performance. Karageorghis found that there is a real measurable benefit when movement is synchronized with musical tempo. 

He showed that when music is synchronized in rhythm to the movement rate of exercise, a fifteen percent increase in treadmill endurance occurs, when compared with a control group.⁸ Karageorghis also found that participant-preferred music resulted in the most significant benefits. 

Just imagine what you could do with fifteen percent more energy in your workout! 

In another study, Karageorghis compared different tempos of music at different levels of exercise intensity with regular exercisers. Results showed that a medium-to-fast tempo range of 125 to 140 beats per minute was ideal for exercise when working out in the exercise range of forty to ninety percent maximum heart rate.⁹

Final Thoughts

To say “music medicine” is to move music to a place in your life beyond entertainment or distraction. Instead of tuning out, this approach allows you to use music to tune in and tune up.

For people who have experienced a separation from music, allowing music back into their lives can be very freeing.

At a health conference where I was leading a drum circle, a woman in her seventies sat in the back row with her hands crossed over her body. She was not very engaged, and in fact seemed resistant to joining us. 

Fifteen minutes into the circle, I noticed that she had picked up a small shaker and was playing along. As we continued to play, she moved toward the center of the circle and switched to playing a drum. Soon, she was smiling brightly and rocking out to the groove. The vibrancy was visible on her face, and she literally looked ten years younger. 

After the circle, she walked up to me with tears in her eyes. She shared with me that she had a lot of stress in her life and felt constricted by the pressures of work and family obligations. The drum circle brought her relief—a way to let go for the first time. She confessed that she never thought of herself as musical, but “something” helped her open up and discover that the less she tried to play, the better she sounded.

As we orchestrate our lives as vibrant, well-tuned, and resonant human instruments, we contribute to a worldwide symphony of health and wellbeing. When building our repertoire of tools for healthy living, music becomes an essential practice for living a truly harmonious life. The key is in identifying your individual needs and creating your own music prescription that allows your heart to sing.

Release any limiting beliefs you have about your own inner musical spirit and recognize that in all the elements of music, you will find a gateway into the healing benefits of sound.

—

Christine Stevens, MSW, MT-BC, is an internationally acclaimed author, music therapist, and speaker. The founder of UpBeat Drum Circles, she has drummed with Fortune 500 companies, survivors of Katrina in New Orleans, and in northern Iraq. She leads online courses for The Shift Network and is the author of Music Medicine and The Healing Drum Learning Program (Sounds True). For more, visit ubdrumcircles.com

Well Being Journal adapted the above excerpt from Music Medicine: The Science and Spirit of Healing Yourself with Music by Christine Stevens, LMT, and used with permission by Sounds True. Copyright 2012 by Christine Stevens, LMT. 

References:

1. Pamela Tsai, “Interview with Yo-Yo Ma: A Personal Journey on a Cultural Silk Road,” The Epoch Times, August 16, 2010.
2. Barry Bittman et al., “Recreational Music-Making Modulates the Human Stress Response: A Preliminary Individualized Gene Expression Strategy,” Medical Science Monitor 11 (2005): 31–40.
3. Bittman et al., “Drumming Strengthens Immune System: Composite Effects of Group Drumming Music Therapy on Modulation of Neuroendocrine-Immune Parameters in Normal Subjects,” Journal of Alternative Therapy 7 (2001): 38–47.
4. Masatada Wachi et al., “Recreational Music-Making Modulates Natural Killer Cell Activity, Cytokines, and Mood States in Corporate Employees,” Medical Science Monitor 13 (2007): 57–70
5. Bittman et al., “Recreational Music-Making: A Cost-Effective Group Interdisciplinary Strategy for Reducing Burnout and Improving Mood States in Long-Term Care Workers,” Advances in Mind-Body Medicine 19, no. 3/4 (2003): 4–15
6. Bittman, Larry Dickson, and Kim Coddington, “Creative Musical Expression as a Catalyst for Quality of Life Improvement in Inner-City Adolescents Placed in a Court-Referred Residential Treatment Program,” Advances in Mind-Body Medicine 24, no. 1 (2009): 8–19
7. Bittman et al., “Recreational Music-Making (RMM) Inspires Creativity and Bonding in Long-Term Care Residents,” Provider (2003/2004): 39–41
8. Bittman et al., “Recreational Music-Making: An Integrative Group Intervention for Reducing Burnout and Improving Mood States in First Year Associate Degree Nursing Students: Insights and Economic Impact,” International Journal of Nursing Education and Scholarship 1 (2004).
9. Costas Karageorghis et al., “Psychophysical and Ergogenic Effects of Synchronous Music During Treadmill Walking,” Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 31 (2009): 18–36.