Balanced Immune Health

I’m sure I’m pretty much like a lot of people when it comes to the holiday season. I don’t mind a little shopping, but spare me the Black Friday crowds or last-minute gift-buying frenzy. I’ll avoid them like the plague. What I do like is putting on a little Bing Crosby, Dean Martin or Nat King Cole crooning the Christmas classics, sitting back and relaxing (with my laptop while reading the latest Tiger Woods updates or searching for college hoops scores).

Since the holiday season is the inspiration for some of the most celebrated music ever composed, why not use it to your advantage.  That is, your immune health advantage.  A number of findings show music may trigger beneficial activity among certain classes of immune cells.

I recall when I was in college and singing in the university men’s glee club (a far cry from the Glee TV show, which is excellent, by the way),  I never really got sick during the winter holiday season, which was a big concert and rehearsal time for us.  This was during finals week, cold weather and living in a crowded residence hall. I loved singing in that group, and I wonder if my lack of winter crud during those years might have had something to do with those men’s six-part harmonies.

One piece of research seems pretty hard core but convincing. Patients who underwent out-patient surgery while also listening to music demonstrated that music “changed the neurohormonal and immune stress response to day surgery, especially when the type of music was selected by the patient.”

Another study found “…mood induction by music also resulted in significant elevations in sIgA concentration and secretion rate…”  And for those who are really into immunotherapy through music, there’s an entire enterprise built on use of aural tones to induce healing. Called Medical Resonance Therapy Music, it’s a series of CDs, that, accoring to its Web content, “is the only Medical Music Preparation approved by the Government in Germany and is available in 22,000 German Pharmacies.”

I’m not saying “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” will help you ward off sickness during the holidays. But, if you are someone who finds that tune exhilerating or peaceful, I take that back.

Filed under Balanced Immune Health, Healing, Immune Balance, Immune System, Research, Stress, Stress-Related Illness