Testing a 2,500 Year-Old Hypothesis
By John Stuart Reid
If music breathes new life into old blood cells, play on!
Introduction
Pythagoras of Samos held the belief that music could be used in place of medicine and that it contributed greatly to health.1 Today, Music Therapy is a clinical discipline that focuses on, for example, supporting patients with depression or relieving anxiety during the pre and post-operative phases of a patient’s hospitalization. Music Therapy is generally defined as an intervention in which “the therapist helps the client to promote health, using music experiences and the relationships developing through them.”2 Many studies have been conducted that demonstrate the efficacy of Music Therapy, but now, interest is growing in the field of Music Medicine, which, as its name implies, focuses on the demonstrable benefits of music as treatment for specific maladies; one definition is, “listening to music without the presence of a therapist.”3
A Cochrane analysis of twenty-six Music Medicine clinical trials with a total of 1369 participants, titled, Music for stress and anxiety reduction in coronary heart disease patients, concluded that “listening to music may have a beneficial effect on systolic blood pressure and heart rate in people with coronary heart disease and appears to be effective in reducing anxiety in people with myocardial infarction.” The same report mentioned, “Listening to music may reduce pain and respiratory rate and appears to improve patients’ quality of sleep following a cardiac procedure or surgery.”4 Johns Hopkins Medicine also acknowledges the role of music in addressing illness and indicates a range of illnesses they aim to treat with music, including, Huntingdon Disease, Parkinson’s Disease and Dementia.5 However, the present study, described below, may indicate the need for an expanded definition of Music Medicine in which the entire body of the client or patient, or a specific part of the body, is immersed in music at a specific sound pressure level. Such immersion in a music field or in specific sound frequencies, may provide measurable and beneficial physiological effects, as distinct from the benefits associated with listening to music via headphones or speakers.
In vitro experiments to test the effect of music on red blood cell longevity
Inspired by Pythagoras’ belief concerning music and health, in early 2015 John Stuart Reid conceived experiments to test the 2,500 year old hypothesis, designing in vitro experiments to test the effect of music on human cell longevity. Early in 2017, Emily Abbey of roadmusic.co, suggested using blood as the source of the human cells to be tested and conjectured that our appreciation for a specific genre of music might be related to our blood group (a factor for testing in future experiments). Reid reached out to Sayer Ji, founder of GreenMedInfo.com, who enthusiastically agreed to support the experiments. Then, in late 2017, the Experiment.com bid for funding support was launched and by early 2018, with the generous help of GreenMedInfo.com subscribers, roadmusic.co supporters and CymaScope.com followers, the experiment bid costs were met and exceeded, fuelling the foundations of this research.
Professor Sungchul Ji of Rutgers University and John Stuart Reid, director of research at the CymaScope laboratory, developed the experimental protocol and conducted the initial experiments in early 2018. The results were very encouraging, as mentioned in our lab report of March 19, 2018, and provided the basis for a second series of experiments in May 2019, conducted by John Stuart Reid with Professor Ji acting as consultant. Roadmusic.co provided helpful assistance with curious music suggestions. In addition to equipment provided as a result of generous donations by Experiment.com and GreenMedInfo.com supporters, whole human blood was funded by a kind donation from Sound4Health, a UK registered charity.
Method
Whole blood, type O+ from a female donor, was stored in vials in the laboratory fridge at 4 degrees C. A vial was taken from the fridge and slowly raised to ambient temperature, which averaged 23 degrees C in the laboratory. The contents of the vial were shaken for 30-seconds by means of a mechanical shaker, then decanted into two vials, using a pipettor.
One vial was placed in the laboratory music incubator (37 degrees C) in which was located a Sony speaker, model SS-TS3, driven by an SMSL amplifier, model SA-36A. In most cases the audio signal source was an iMac computer accessing audio files in a variety of formats, mainly FLAC and WAV. The music incubator vial was immersed in a music (or other) sound field averaging 85 dBA, for 20-minutes, the sound pressure level was measured with a calibrated Castle GA214 integrating sound level meter.
Each music incubator vial was immersed in only one of the music selections. For the white noise experiments the source was a Klark Teknik DN6000 audio analyser.
The other vial, the control blood, was placed in an incubator (37 degrees C) in the very quiet environment of the Faraday Cage (25dBA) for the same 20-minute period as for the music immersed vial.
Immediately following the 20-minute test period, the blood from each vial was diluted in a ratio of 200:1 with a buffer solution of pH 7.41, followed by pipettor mixing with Trypan blue stain, and a cell counting via an automatic cell counter by NanoEntek Inc.
Results
The two examples of classical music returned similar results to those obtained in the 2018 initial experiments, showing significant differences in ratios in the red blood cell counts between the music environment and the quiet environment. In addition, music selections from several other genres were tested, including piano, guitar, female vocal, male vocal, group chant, rap, dance /techno /house, harp, gong, vocal musical intervals, spiritually-oriented music and sound from a Cyma Technologies AMI1000 commercial sound therapy instrument. White noise was also tested at two sound pressure levels: 85 dBA and 105 dBA.
The results are summarised in Tables One and Two. For clarity and in the interests of confidentiality with the copyright holders of the music, the actual numbers of red blood cells per mL are not shown. Instead, the ratios between the numbers of viable red blood cells in the music environment versus those viable in the quiet environment are tabulated.
Table One exhibits the results from three sections of music genres, each of which encompasses a range of music selections in three different concert pitches: 432Hz, 440Hz and 444Hz. The music selections yielded a range of ratios of viable red blood cells versus the control samples in the quiet environment, ranging from 2.22:1 to 23.41:1. The many pieces of music tested, by various artists in various concert pitches, all showed a significant increase in the number of viable red blood cells over the number counted in the control blood vials. Also, the selections of music in all three concert pitches returned similar results to each other in terms of the range of numbers of viable red blood cells; no one concert pitch stood out as being dominant.
Table Two shows the results from six individual selections of music, in two concert pitches, 432Hz and 440Hz. The table also shows results from a gong performance and two levels of white noise. The music and gong selections show ratios between 4.13:1 and 18.1:1. Again, neither 432Hz or 440Hz concert pitch was found to dominate.
The highest number of viable red blood cells counted followed blood’s immersion in the sound field of a proprietary sound therapy device for 20- minutes, selecting a sound prescription labelled cell regeneration. It delivered a figure of 3.4 x 106 RBC per mL, versus 2.9 x 105 RBC per mL counted from the same blood sample after immersion in the quiet environment of the Faraday Cage incubator for 20-minutes.
The results from white noise tests were as follows:
White Noise (85 dBA) viable RBC: 1.8 x 106 per mL
Quiet environment (25 dBA) viable RBC: 3.9 x 105 per mL
White noise (105dBA) viable RBC 7.6 x 104 per mL
Quiet environment (25 dBA) viable RBC 3.5 x 105 per mL
Table One
Music genre | Ratio range of viable red blood cells after 20 minutes music immersion versus 20 minutes quiet immersion |
Orchestral classical, classical harp, classical piano | 2.22:1 to 7.93:1 |
Rap, Pop, Guitar | 7.33:1 to 23.4:1 |
Male vocal | 2.4:1 to 10.7:1 |
Table Two
Music genre | Ratio of viable red blood cells after 20 minutes music immersion versus 20 minutes quiet immersion |
Female vocal | 5.26:1 |
Female vocal + backing track | 18.1:1 |
Vocal musical intervals | 4.13:1 |
Dance-Techno-House | 14.42:1 |
Sound therapy device | 11.72:1 |
Gong | 5.5:1 |
Spiritually-oriented chant | 17.69:1 |
White noise: 85 dBA | 4.61:1 |
White noise: 105 dBA | -0.21:1 |
Discussion
An overall pattern can be seen in the data in which all blood samples immersed in music produced a higher number of viable red blood cells over those samples immersed in the quiet environment, in some cases significantly so. The question that arises is: why should music increase the numbers of red blood cells in vitro? Although the mechanism for this effect is unknown, we can hypothesize that the lifespan of red blood cells in vitro undergo a transitional state between living and dead. The cell counter principle involves counting cells that have not absorbed Trypan blue stain because the stain cannot penetrate the live cell membrane and enter the cytoplasm. In dead cells, Trypan blue passes through the porous cell membrane and those cells are counted as dead by the cell counter mechanism. Hypothetically, red blood cells that are in a transitional state, with membranes that are damaged and/or gradually becoming porous, leading to eryptosis (death of red blood cells), regain their membrane integrity as a result of immersion in certain frequencies within the music, thus rejecting the Trypan blue stain and being counted as living.
Indicators to the frequencies that may assist this hypothetical process of cellular rejuvenation can be gleaned from the results tables. For example, there is a significant difference in red blood cell viability between the female vocal track and the female vocal track with backing track. The backing track contains dominant low frequencies; the same holds true for the Dance-Techno-House music track and other pop music tracks. The two selections of classical music do not contain dominant low frequencies and both showed only modest results, however, it should be noted that some classical music (not selected for testing in this study) does feature dominant low frequencies. Hypothetically, the low frequencies in popular music not only produce sounds similar to a beating heart but, in a sense, act like one from the perspective of the effect on red blood cells. The low frequency sounds may contribute to a mechanism resembling that of the in vivo environment, in which low frequency pressure, provided by each heartbeat, aids haemoglobin molecules to uptake oxygen. If this proves to be the case, the increase in oxygenation of the red blood cells (that are in the hypothetical transition state), acquired from dissolved oxygen in the in vitro whole blood, could account for the cells being rejuvenated.
While all music selections, and white noise at 85dBA, improved the number of viable red blood cells, the opposite was true of white noise at 105dBA, which destroyed almost all red blood cells within 20-minutes immersion, presumably causing haemolysis, that is, rupturing of the red blood cell membranes.
Suggestions were made by several correspondents to test the current preference by some musicians for A4 = 432Hz and A4 = 444Hz tuning, versus the international standard concert pitch of A4 = 440Hz. Proponents of 432Hz concert pitch typically report that the music feels smoother and more natural, while proponents of 444Hz tuning believe that it has the ability to repair DNA, among other qualities. While testing these assertions is beyond the scope of the present research the results showed no significant difference between music selections created in the three different concert pitches; all showed increases in the viability of red blood cells.
To date the experiments have been conducted only in vitro and there is a need for testing in vivo, to test whether similar results will be found. This will necessitate immersion of the entire body of a person, or specific body parts, in a music field, to establish if music affects the red blood cell counts and changes in the concentration of oxygenated haemoglobin. The encouraging results from the present series of experiments indicate that blood-testing volunteers in vivo will be an important next step in this research.
With grateful thanks to GreenMedInfo.com, Experiment.com, Sound4Health, roadmusic.co and to all our backers for their generous support. We also extend our thanks to Professor Ji of Rutgers University for his care and attention in overseeing the first series of music-blood experiments and consulting on this second series.
References
1. Taylor T. Iamblichus’ Life of Pythagoras. Trans from the Greek, p7. Inner Traditions, ISBN 978-0-89281-152-6
2. Bruscia KE: Defining music therapy, ed 2nd. Gilsum, NH, Barcelona Publishers,1998.
3. Brad J, et al. The impact of music therapy versus music medicine on psychological outcomes and pain in cancer patients: a mixed methods study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25322972
4. Brad J, et al. Music for stress and anxiety reduction in coronary heart disease patients. https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006577.pub3
5. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/center-for-music-and-medicine/music-as-medicine.html
John Stuart Reid is an English acoustic-physics researcher and inventor of the CymaScope, an instrument that makes sound visible. He has studied the world of sound for over 40 years and is one of only two men to conduct an acoustics study of the Great Pyramid. His primary interests are developing cymatics into a new science of visible sound and developing applications for the CymaScope, including the CymaScope app, which reveals cymatic energy patterns in real time from voice or music. He authored the first chapter to approach cymatics from a scientific perspective in “The Mereon Matrix”, published by Elsevier. He is engaged in pioneering research to decipher dolphin language and co-authored a paper with SpeakDolphin.com titled, “A Phenomenon Discovered while Imaging Dolphin Echolocation Sounds” in the Journal of Marine Science. He lectures at conferences in Europe and the USA.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.
© 2019 GreenMedInfo LLC. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here http://www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter. Original article.
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