Uncategorized

Medical Applications of Sound Therapy: A Narrative Review of Its Efficacy in Treatment and Healing Modalities Yash Mukand  MA Psychology, Primary Contact: [email protected] Abstract Sound therapy is gaining attention in the medical world. The technique of mindfully employing sound and listening to alter and broaden consciousness in order to strengthen the body’s innate ability to repair and rejuvenate itself is known as sound healing. Sound is a vibroacoustic waveform that can be used for both medical and therapeutic purposes. However, this has yet to be sufficiently utilized, and sound treatment in medicine is still mainly unexplored. This present narrative review attempts to shed light on the benefits of sound therapy in the alleviation of symptoms of various medical diseases. Sound therapy is a ground-breaking method of medical care and prevention that is revolutionising the field of medicine today. Sound therapy offers a non-invasive, easily accessible, and possibly inexpensive technique that might be incorporated into more comprehensive treatment regimens. Introduction Sound healing is a particular integrative medicine therapeutic approach that uses vibration. It is also known as sound therapy, sound bath, or sound meditation. Handmade bowls, which resemble bells, along with gongs and other vibrational musical instruments, are commonly used in sound therapy.  Because of the unusual experience that participants have described as the sound and vibration “washing” over their bodies, it has really been dubbed a “sound bath”. Sound healing is a less well-known vibrational healing method that has gained more attention recently. It can be thought of as a fusion of some elements of music therapy and meditation (Goldsby et al., 2022).  The majority of individuals would assume that music is only utilised for communication, celebration, ceremony, artistic expression, or amusement. Sound healing, a therapeutic approach that uses various signals and vibrations to enhance the mental and physical well-being of people, communities, and cultures, is another way that music is used. This can involve playing an instrument, chanting, dancing to the rhythms of alternative music, meditating, or listening to different musical experiences. One-on-one or in-group instruction may be a part of specific treatment from a specialised practitioner. Sessions typically entail sitting or lying down and listening to pre-made music or sounds that are played over a monitor. These sounds can be produced by specific instruments that have been used for millennia or by applying frequency and sound vibrations with the use of specialised instruments like a tuning fork (Pulido, 2001).A vibration that travels through a solid, liquid, or gaseous media as an acoustic wave is called sound, and it is the feeling that is perceived by the unique sense and organ of hearing. The human ear can detect acoustic waves at frequencies between 20 Hz and 20 KHz. Ultrasound and infrasound waves fall above and below this frequency range, respectively (Uğraş, 2018). As a result, sound is an oscillation that travels through elastic medium like air as waves. It causes the media to vibrate, which causes changes in pressure, particle displacement, as well as velocity (Berg, 2012). However, the medium itself does not follow the sound wave. Compared to liquids or air, sound waves move more quickly through solids. The human ear interprets their stimulation of the hearing mechanism (organ of Corti) as sound. To put it simply, sound represents a sinusoidal plane wave that has amplitude, speed, direction, wavelength (the inverse of frequency), and frequency (waves per unit of time). The material used for transmission can reflect, refractively alter, or even attenuate sound waves. This depends on the medium’s density, pressure, velocity, and viscosity (Abagnali, 2011).  Sound has amplitude and frequency, and it moves through a medium at a specific speed and in a specific direction. It creates vibrations in a substance by transmitting its waves into it. Each particle of the material has a unique frequency. They start to vibrate in time with the sound waves as soon as they come into contact with them.  Sound therapists have believed since ancient times that the body’s energy frequencies become out of sync when an illness strikes. These distorted frequencies can be aligned and returned to normal by pure sound generated by a variety of devices. It is believed that this will alleviate the illness and help to mitigate the issue. Numerous neuroimaging methods have demonstrated how music and sound can either stimulate or calm the brain, resulting in certain EEG brain wave alterations. On a deeper level, sound treatment can cause a sleepy phase in which the brain’s theta waves are more prevalent. This improves memory, consciousness, and intuition while also promoting healing and clear, creative thinking. Neural regeneration processes are thought to be improved. It eases pain and stress and promotes relaxation. The effect lasts longer and is more profound (Shahid, 2021). Through several vibrations, humans are continuously impacted and altering our rhythms. The alpha and theta brain waves linked to deep meditation, intense creativity, and healing-promoting sleep states can be triggered by these vibrations. Additionally, they lower our heart and breathing rates, which has a healing effect on both the body and the psyche. Brain waves that are synchronised enable the body to regain homeostasis and lessen any discord. The human body is a great vibration transmitter because it is a bioelectrical system, meaning that every cell is a sound resonator that can produce sound outside of itself.          It is our voices that possess a special healing potential. Each cell in the human body resonates when we sing. We all have the opportunity to tune into the Divine and relieve pain and illness without the use of drugs through sound healing. Sound healing is the therapeutic use of sound frequencies that stimulate the body/mind of individuals to put them into an optimal state of harmony and wellness. Every organism vibrates at a different rate. There is a resonance frequency that is specific to each item in the cosmos.  The vibration of sound is enjoyable to our body’s cells. When two ‘C’ tuning forks are struck and put close to each other, resonance is easily