Jazz promotes karma and speeds recovery - official

New research, presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists' annual meeting, has found that patients who listen to jazz, post surgery, experience lower heart rates and less anxiety.

Study author Dr. Flower Austin said in a statement, “The thought of having a surgical procedure — in addition to the fears associated with anesthesia — creates emotional stress and anxiety for many patients."

A selection of post-op patients were randomly assigned to listen to jazz with heart rate and blood pressure taken every five minutes. Levels of pain and anxiety were checked every ten minutes during the entire listening period and compared to others wearing just noise cancelling headphones.

Both groups saw significant reductions but those listening to jazz reached the same level 10 minutes quicker. Conversely, pain levels were much lower in the headphone group than the jazz group after just 10 minutes.

"The goal is to find out how we can incorporate this into our care," Dr. Austin said. "We need to determine what kind of music works best, when we should play it and when silence is best. But it's clear that music as well as silence are cost effective, non-invasive, and may increase patient satisfaction."

The story was posted on The Medical Daily.

Of course, we at Jazz FM are perpetually cool and in a euphoric physical state thanks to music, but our non clinical observations shed doubt over this research. Using our presenter Chris Philips as a test case we played him Kenny G’s smooth jazz anthem ‘Songbird’. After just a couple of minutes we noticed severe, even dangerous levels of increased anxiety. This compares to his restored state of delight 30 minutes later, having listened to John Coltrane’s chaotic, primal and near transcendental playing on his 1965 recording 'Ascension'. So, it is clearly subjective.

Kenny G - Songbird

John Coltrane - Ascension