For almost 20 years I have been reading about, thinking about and finally creating headphones for patients to wear during surgery. The research is there: through the process of rhythmic entrainment, patients who are listening to steady, rhythmic music through headphones, stay relaxed and as a result, require less anesthesia, less anxiety meds before and less pain medication afterwards! This is BIG because one of the things you must recover from after surgery is the ANESTHESIA! The anesthesiologist monitors all of your vital signs during surgery and by watching things such as your blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature, determines how much anesthesia you need. (This is of course, a great over-simplification of what he does.) When slow, steady, heart-beat tempo music is entering your brain directly through the 8th cranial nerve (thanks to the headphones) your bio-rhythms will entrain or synchronize to the pulse of the music, and you will stay relaxed as a result.
Most people are pretty tense and anxious when they go into surgery and need a little more anesthesia (or an anti-anxiety drug such as valium or other benzodiazepines) just to begin to relax their muscles. If the headphones are put on at least 30 minutes prior to surgery, less anesthesia will be needed in order for the patient to "go to sleep." When headphones are used throughout the surgery and into the recovery area, less anesthesia and less pain medication will be needed for the entire procedure!
These facts have been known in the field of music therapy for years, but until now no one had created wireless, totally self-contained, preprogrammed headphones just for surgery! Now that they exist, I hope that you will help me create safer surgical experiences for your family and friends but spreading the word! click HERE to purchase your headphones, or, if you wish, you can purchase a download of my specially chosen surgical music to put on your own iPod or MP3 player. Of course, the MP3 players are not cordless but still you can have the music.
Please feel free to leave your comments! To your good health!
