A Duke University Medical Center study of 700 heart patients, published recently in British medical journal The Lancet, looked at the efficacy of several alternative therapies supposed to lower stress before surgery. Music, image, and touch (MIT) therapy all had a positive effect, the study found, while prayer and homeopathic therapy had little effect.

The findings contradict results of an earlier, smaller study conducted by the same researchers. In the new study, patients undergoing angiograms and other heart operations were assigned prayer groups (Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or Buddhist), with some additionally given MIT therapy. The control group was assigned no prayer group and given no alternative therapy of any kind.

The 374 patients receiving MIT therapy did show a drop in emotional distress, although there was no significant drop in physical complications after the operation in any of the groups. Leader of the research team, Dr. Mitchell Krucoff, said the study is an example of good science being used to examine whether or not alternative therapy and prayer can be used to heal in conjunction with modern medicine. Dr. Charmaine Griffiths, head of the British Heart Foundation, said the study at least shows that having a positive outlook, relaxing, and knowing people are thinking of you can make a difference when it comes to successfully going through a heart operation.

A study conducted at Queen’s University in Charlotte, North Carolina, concludes that singing has a positive impact on patients suffering from the lung condition emphysema. Subjects in the study, all senior citizens, participated in a six-week group vocal instruction program, while doctors used a variety of measures to investigate any improvements in health and well-being.

Singing had the greatest impact on breath management and intensity of speech in these patients, who often complain of shortness of breath. Analysis of the results also showed a clear shift to more productive diaphragmatic breathing. The results indicate that including vocal instruction in a regular regimen of breathing exercises warrants further study.

Thanks to modern medicine, patients suffering acute myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, are more likely to survive today than ever before.

Drugs and other therapies help, and now there’s evidence that music can aid the healing process. The key to music heart therapy is Heart Rate Variability, which measures the fluctuations of a heart beat (less like a metronome and more like the 3/4 time of a jazz drummer) and which is an indicator of heart stress. In MI patients, HRV is decreased. Beta-blockers are one class of drug that increase HRV in these patients, but there’s evidence that the stress-busting power of music has the same effect, according to Dr. Fred Schwartz of Atlanta, Georgia’s Piedmont Hospital.

Schwartz, speaking to the annual conference of The Music for Healing & Transition Program, explains that music also reduces the respiratory rate, lowers the heart’s oxygen demand, and generally decreases the morbidity rate of patients with cardiac problems.

Music—be it an elegant Mozart symphony or the jazz rhythms of Miles Davis—can relieve pain and anxiety, according to two recent studies. The research work by psychologists at Scotland’s Glasgow Caledonian University found people listening to music feel less pain than those who are not, and that music can relieve the symptoms of anxiety for patients recovering from surgery.

In one study, 20 people who received minor foot surgery listened to music as they recovered, while a further 20 who had undergone similar surgery did not. The patients who had listened to music, regardless of its type, reportedly felt much less anxiety.

The second study used the “cold pressor test” in which volunteers immersed one hand in a bath of very cold water. This technique has the effect of inducing intense pain in the hand the longer it remains immersed.

Again, the 44 participants were separated into two groups. Those listening to the music were able to keep their hand submerged in the water far longer. Also, all those listening to music reported that they felt in control of the situation, unlike members of the other group.

Many people report that low frequency humming, from the TV or inside an airplane, makes them feel lousy, but there’s increasing evidence that the high frequency hum we can generate with our voices can have a positive effect on health.

Professional singer and founding member of vocal group Anonymous 4, Ruth Cunningham, reports in The Music Practitioner, the newsletter of The Music for Healing & Transition Program, that people who practice humming for 10 to 20 minutes a day report both physical and psychological benefits.

The reasons for these reports are coming to light. Cunningham writes that humming stimulates the inner ear, in particular the vestibular system and vagus nerve, which is connected to the lungs, heart, and stomach. She says that stimulating the vestibular system increases energy, improves clarity of mind, helps balance and coordination, promotes calmness, and strengthens the immune system. Best of all, humming can be done anywhere—in the shower, car, or while you walk—and as only a gentle hum is needed, you won’t disturb anyone!

From Bach to Beck, the harmonies of Western music rewire the brain, creating patterns of neural activity that strengthen with each new melody. By monitoring the brains of people listening to classical scales and key progressions, scientists at Dartmouth College have glimpsed the biology of popular song.

“Music is not necessary for human survival, yet something inside us craves it,” said Dartmouth music psychologist Petr Janata. “Our minds have internalized music.” Whatever the reason, the impact on the individual brain is measurable. Among expert musicians, certain areas of the cortex are up to 5% larger than in people with little or no musical training, recent research shows. In musicians who started their training early, the neural bridge that links the brain’s hemispheres, called the corpus callosum, is up to 15% larger. A professional musician’s auditory cortex—the part of the brain associated with hearing—contains 130% more gray matter than that of nonmusicians.

The Dartmouth group scanned eight people with a functional magnetic resonance imager, or fMRI, as they listened to a melody that moved through all 24 major and minor musical keys. Researchers discovered that everyone had one area in common that processed melodies: the rostromedial prefrontal cortex. This region, near the forehead, links to short-term memory, long-term memory, and emotions. Its purpose and function is different from areas involved in more basic sound processing.