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Monday, December 26, 2005

Soothing the Savage Breast: Does harp music cure ailing hearts?

Zook suffers from atrial fibrillation, a fast, irregular heartbeat caused by mixed-up electrical signals generated by the heart's upper chambers. Zook's symptoms include unnerving palpitations and troubling fatigue that make her suddenly collapse without warning.
Her doctor, Abraham Kocheril, chief of cardiac electrophysiology at the Carle Heart Center in Urbana, says he has found signs that harp music might help sick hearts like Zook's beat more normally.

The theory is based partly on work by Dr. Ary Goldberger of Harvard Medical School showing that varied rhythms created by healthy hearts are similar to note patterns in classical music."

.....Some enthusiasts believe the harp has special healing qualities and Kocheril said resonant vibrations from live harp music may be particularly effective at regulating quivering heart rhythms.

If anyone does a study on harp music and heart rhythms they should make sure to have two control groups - one without any music, and one made up of people who hate harp music.

posted by Sydney on 12/26/2005 07:22:00 AM 1 comments

1 Comments:

Why just harps? Some sort of association with angels?

Back when I was in school in the Fifties and Sixties, it was well-known that "classical" and previous music - back to beating stones together at the river edge, often had a "beat" close to that of a normal heart rythm. And that music could stimulate the heart into attempting to match its rythm, either faster or slower.

Nice to know someone is trying to use this ancient knowledge - but give me The Dorsey Brothers over Harpo Marx.

By John A, at 4:01 AM