SAN FRANCISCO CA – Looking for a creative way to speed up recovery from a surgery? The answer may be found on your favorite music stream, radio station, or compact disc, according to research submitted this week at the Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons.
Listening to music after a surgery “had noticeable effects on patients during their recovery period,” a research team at California Northstate University College of Medicine reports.
Rap, jazz, pop, rock, classical? Any music genre seemed to work, whether played on headphones or through a speaker, the team says.
“If you feel up for it after surgery, listen to whatever music you enjoy,” study senior author Dr. Eldo Frezza suggests. “We think music can help people in different ways after surgery, because music can be comforting and make you feel like you’re in a familiar place,” he adds.
Four Distinct Benefits
The reason: hearing music may play a role in reducing cortisol levels. Cortisol is one of the main hormones released by the body to manage stress, Prevention.com explains. They can raise blood pressure and blood sugar in humans.
In analyzing more than 30 different studies on the topic, research members determined:
- Patients who listened to music had a statistically significant reduction in perceived pain the day after surgery;
- Patient self-reported anxiety levels were reduced by about 3%;
- Patients who listened to music used less than half of the amount of morphine, compared to those who did not listen to music, on the first day after surgery; and
- Patients who listened to music experienced a lowered heart rate – around 4.5 fewer beats per minute – compared with patients who did not listen to music.
The heart rate is particularly significant, researchers note, “because keeping a patient’s heart rate within a healthy range helps improve recovery.” It allows “effective circulation of oxygen and nutrients throughout the body, especially to areas that were operated on.”
A Passive, Low Effort Experience
Frezza and and the study’s co-authors believe that more active therapies, such as meditation or Pilates, require considerable concentration or movement. On the other hand, listening to music is a more passive experience. They say it can be completed by patients, without much cost or effort, almost immediately after surgery.
“When listening to music, you can disassociate and relax,” Shehzaib Raees, a study co-author, observes. “In that way, there’s not much you have to do or focus on, and you can calm yourself down.”
The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons. It was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. Its Clinical Congress is being held Saturday through Tuesday (Oct. 19-22) at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.
Surgeons and exhibitors from across Pennsylvania are scheduled to attend.
Photo by Ivana Cajina on Unsplash+, used by Travels With The Post under license
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