Prof. Dr. med. Rosch / Prof. Dr. med. Koeditz • Music & Brain Medical Perspective
Here only a few examples:
Cardiovascular System
Children with high blood pressure due to autonomic nervous system disturbances showed already after five weeks of regular treatment with MRT-Music® a normal blood pressure (8). Similar results were observed in other patient groups, for instance in high-risk pregnant women with high blood pressure (9).
Hormone and immune system, cardiovascular system, metabolic system
Often within two weeks of regular treatment with MRT-Music® at high risk pregnant women experienced a normalisation of different disturbed functions: too high stress hormone levels reduced to normal, the much too low pregnancy hormone progesterone doubled to normal, the weak immune system recovered strongly, the metabolic disorder of gestoses reduced substantially, the heart activity of the fetus left the danger zone and in consequence to all of this, the rate of premature births reduced by half (9).
Muscular system, rhythmical system, pain system
Women during delivery with an initial inertia in the uterus developed up to 70% more strength in uterine contractions while listening to MRT-Music®. At the same time, the rhythm of the contractions became more harmonious. They also reported significantly reduced pain, which also had consequences on the endorphin levels. Pregnant women regularly treated with MRT-Music® for several month before delivery not only shortened their labour time (on average by 1-2 hours in comparison to those who did not listen to MRT-Music); they also felt the movements of their babies in the womb more forcefully 3-4 weeks earlier (9).
An interesting indication, that such improvements are essentially designed by a harmonisation of emotion is, that the MMPI-test (Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory) in its scales 1, 2 and 7 shows an improvement of the psychological functions by 68% and that at risk pregnant women could free themselves from depressive states almost completely (9).
Nervous system
A further indication comes from a pilot project with multiple scleroses patients. On the one hand they experienced through MRT-Music® an intensive stimulation of such positive emotional qualities as trust, love, thankfulness, inner peace, security, carelessness, creativity, joy of life and happiness; but on the other hand they also had uncomfortable experiences of the past come back to their minds, which often lay as far as 30 years back, and were lived through again with an inner distance – in a kind of inner purification. After 4 weeks of treatment the physiological measurements showed an improvement in the speed of nerve conduction, in its peak value by 27 milliseconds (12). The patients were so satisfied with effects of MRT-Music®, that all of them continued the treatment at home, after leaving the hospital.
This processing of uncomfortable experiences may be of great value. As stress medicine could show, emotionally over-boarding experiences get written down in our long term memory and, via the way of association, may start the stress reaction over and over again – even in situations that look only similar, but in reality are in complete misproportion to the actual threat (13). This has adverse consequences for health.
If, by an intensive musical harmonisation of the emotional world, such an over-judgement of stress experiences in the brain is reduced to a healthy measure, then this proves to be one of the most important steps of treatment in stress medicine. It also speaks to the investigations on the effect of MRT-Music® in MS-patients and patients with neurodermatitis, who experienced a significant and lasting reduction of their disorders (14), such as the impulse to scratch, extent of sickness, etc.