| Barry Bitman, MD, the president and CEO of the | | | | Bittman's first study into music and wellness was in |
| Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute is currently | | | | 2001 when he identified drumming's positive effects on |
| leading some of the most extensive research to date | | | | natural killer cell activity. |
| on the health benefits of playing music. His research | | | | The goal is not to teach music but rather to enable |
| team has found that music can lead to reduced stress | | | | non-music players to play music without much prior |
| and a stronger immune system. Recreational | | | | experience. Yamaha's Clavinova is a digital piano that |
| music-making modulates natural killer cell activity in the | | | | samples sounds from actual instruments allowing users |
| body, a marker of immune response and has been | | | | to recreate full orchestras complete with flutes, |
| shown to reverse stress at the DNA level according | | | | trumpets, and saxophones. In a study observing the |
| to the Medical Science Monitor. Recreational | | | | usage of the Clavinova, researchers found a positive |
| music-making is defined, by Yamaha, by music-based | | | | impact on attentiveness, active participation, |
| activities that unite people of all ages and music | | | | socialization, positive mood, contentment, and |
| experience. According to Dr. Bittman, only 7.6% of | | | | meaningful self-expression in 550 seniors living in |
| adults in the U.S. play a musical instrument, and it is his | | | | long-term care centres. Even with stressed students, |
| wish that playing instruments be encouraged among | | | | the Clavinova demonstrated reduced burnout, |
| adults and in health care settings. Recreational | | | | improved mood states, and decreased attrition in 75 |
| music-making provides exercise, social support, | | | | first-year nursing students. In this case, each acute |
| spirituality, intellectual stimulation, and unites the body, | | | | care hospital saved a projected #322,000 for a |
| mind and spirit. This could especially be beneficial for | | | | combined $1.5 billion annually for the health-care |
| seniors, as playing an instrument has also been found | | | | industry. |
| to "improve mood, lower blood pressure, and affect | | | | Currently, the Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute is |
| the course of many diseases including cancer and | | | | evaluating the impact of recreational music on |
| heart disease." | | | | cardiovascular disease such as cancer and heart |
| Dr. Bittman began his career as a mainstream | | | | disease while analyzing the entire human genome. Dr. |
| neurologist but has taken on a more collaborative and | | | | Bittman also hopes to learn more about the role of |
| holistic approach to helping people. In the early 1990s, | | | | music as an effective stress reducer for people facing |
| he studied laughter's effects on the immune system | | | | life-threatening illnesses. He believes that everyone is |
| and since then has focused on ways people can take | | | | innately musical and that we should all realize our |
| a more active role in their health and well-being. Dr. | | | | capacity for making music at some point in our lives. |