Medicine

Music Medicine

Music keeps us healthy, and vice versa.

by Joanna Cazden
from FOLKWORKS, March-April 2002

The health benefits of music have been praised since ancient times. In the Old Testament, David's harp playing calmed King Saul's combat fatigue. Texts from the European Renaissance routinely prescribed music as a cure for melancholy. But the health needs of musicians ourselves have been successfully addressed only recently.

As Robert Sataloff, MD, wrote in the November-December 2001 issue of the Journal of Singing, arts medicine has been recognized as a medical specialty only since the 1970s. A less-well-funded cousin of sports medicine, this field covers problems that range from visual artists' exposure to toxic chemicals to hearing loss in symphonic and rock musicians. Sataloff's other examples include dental problems in wind and brass players, dance injuries,  "pneumonia in bagpipers, shoulder and elbow disorders in conductors, and other maladies."

As Sataloff explains, some of these problems are similar to the overuse injuries found in other occupations. Others "are often precipitated by illness or slight changes in technique of which the performer may not be aware." Many singers and other musicians suffer from a combination of the factors Sataloff describes. When an underlying disease or serious life-stress is combined with inadequate training or overuse, an arts medicine team can provide the right balance of medical, musical, and personal care.

About 15 years ago, repetitive strain injury in my hands forced me to cut back on performing. This crisis eventually led me to a new career treating voice and speech disorders. In 1992, I organized a panel for the Folk Alliance national conference in Tucson, Arizona, titled "Arts Medicine and the Folk Performer." I was joined by a physical therapist and string band musician, a folksinger and Alexander Technique practitioner, and an experienced clog-and-tap dancer. Together we encouraged folkies to learn healthy technique, warm-up properly, and get prompt help for overuse injuries.

As I speculated then, folk musicians may be at special risk for injury and may hesitate to get help. Our role models are the rural inhabitants of centuries past, for whom medical care was simply unavailable. It may seem  wimpy to complain about tendonitis from too much fiddling or guitar picking when the fellow whose tunes you practice was an even-harder-working farmer or coal miner.

But now many of us support our music with white-collar jobs, or qualify for health insurance through a musicians' union. Times have changed, and although health care systems remain far from ideal, there is no shame in paying attention to the aches and pains that interrupt our pastimes or careers.

Preventing injuries of course remains the best medicine. The physical therapist in Tucson suggested that string players do the following experiment: put your instrument on backwards (switch which hands strum and fret) and notice what happens to your posture. The same shifts take place when you play normally, but you've probably gotten used to the asymmetry. Do this in front of a full-length mirror, and you may catch some unhealthy habits that increase your risk of pain and strain. Other suggestions from the panel included taking an occasional lesson with a classically-trained (and open-minded) artist who can fine-tune your technique, and routinely slapping on an ice pack when your picking session is over.

Recently I started working at a special voice clinic at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. My clients include an R&B singer with painful arthritis who continued touring as his breath support waned and nearly lost his voice completely; a cabaret performer recovering from surgery to her neck and mouth; and the leader of a 12-piece Latin band whose vocal cords were damaged less by singing than by long hours of high-stress meetings and phone calls managing the group. These brave artists and their re-emerging sounds are the voices in my head right now.
 

© Joanna Cazden 2002