Just say it with music to give patients a lift

By Alice Keesing
Advertiser Health Writer

There aren't many things that will get Carol Choy out of bed since she had a stroke 16 years ago, but she's always up and ready when Arthur Harvey comes to serenade the patients at Le'ahi Hospital.

Arthur Harvey performs music for Le'ahi Hospital's long-term care patients. "Danny Boy" is a favorite. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

The patients in his audience this week beat time with percussion sticks and bells; they tapped their toes in their wheelchairs; one lady took a twirl across the linoleum with a staff member; some napped quietly. Choy tapped a yellow tambourine.

"I've seen a lot of people who just don't do anything, then they come here and hear the music and they open up," said Choy, who is in a wheelchair after suffering a stroke at age 35. "I think music is the best therapy."

Harvey agrees. Exploring the effect of music on the brain has been his passion for more than 20 years.

"There is almost no system in the body that would not be affected by music," he said.

Research has shown that music can stimulate different areas of the brain, in turn affecting everything from mood and emotions to basic functions like heart rate and blood pressure. Music has been used in childbirth to ease pain and aid relaxation. It is used in psychiatry to help expression and catharsis. It has been shown to improve muscle function in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Harvey is one of a handful of people using music therapy in Hawai'i, but the practice is becoming more common in health and education settings across the nation as researchers discover the links between music and healing, and music and learning.

When he was on the faculty at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky in the late 1980s, Harvey tested hundreds of recordings and music styles, observing what areas of a subject's brain lighted up in response to the different pieces.

"Basically, music which is baroque generally seemed to make the two hemispheres of the brain work more efficiently together," he said. One of his recommendations is to start the day with Bach, which begins slowly and builds in tempo. Handel is good for winding down in the evenings.

The healing effects of music are not limited to classical music. Religious music, New Age, chant, jazz and pop and other genre can all have beneficial effects, Harvey said, and to some extent the power of the music depends on the listener's taste.

Making music also can have as much of an effect as listening to it.

At Le'ahi, Harvey's repertoire includes songs from the patients' generation: "Danny Boy" and Le'ahi's adopted alma mater, "You Are My Sunshine." While the cognitive functions of the brain are sometimes affected by oncoming dementia or age, music can still boost emotions at other levels in the brain, Harvey said.

"Music is one of the few stimuli that can immediately touch them and stimulate them," Harvey said. "I've seen people going from grumpy to smiling, from droopy to sitting upright."

Reach Alice Keesing at akeesing@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.