The (Piano) Keys to Fibromyalgia Pain Relief

A recent study published in the journal Clinical Rheumatology presents a novel therapy, and gives us a critical key, to easing  fibromyalgia pain.

Pain has two key physiological components. The first is an electrical signal generated in response to a stimulus and sent to your brain. This is no different than the signal your brain receives in response to the sensations of heat, softness, cold and countless other stimuli. The second component is how your brain reacts to the signal. Unfortunately when the signal is pain, your brain reacts by creating the physiological condition of suffering.

Your brain is bombarded with far more information every second than it can possibly process. But it maintains sanity by subconsciously tuning most of it out. The new research showed that distraction can be used to cause your brain to further tune out these signals—including the signals of pain. And numerous studies show that distraction in the form of listening to certain kinds of music can cause your brain to significantly increase the amount of pain signals it ignores.

The new research study looked at fibromyalgia pain and the effect of simply listening to the right kinds of music. For the sake of comparison, a new pain medication is hailed as a great breakthrough if it reduces pain by 30% in just a third of those who use it. The drug company that owns it's patent throws a huge party and then sets a price tag of $5,000-$7,500 for a year's supply (e.g., Savella and Lyrica). We've all seen the commercials... pretty butterflies fill the screen while a whispered voice rapidly tics off all the side effects. Sedation, weight gain, dizziness, nausea, and on and on.

Compare those results to what this study showed: Listening to music from an $11.99 CD was more effective for pain relief then medications—and about $7,500 a year cheaper. And instead of dizziness and weight gain, the only side effect is finding a big smile on your face.

The research team simply had people with fibromyalgia listen to music each day. They found that after 14 days, pain levels went down an average of 40%! If the pharmaceutical industry had a drug that could do that, they would be ecstatic. Impressively, pain levels continued to drop further each day, which means that it's likely that their pain dropped even more than 40% after the 14 day study period. Multiple studies show that this works for many kinds of pain, including pain from cancer—all by simply distracting your brain with music.

This doesn't mean that listening to jarring music is the way to go. You want something that will carry your mind off, away from the pain. My recommendation is 12-time Grammy Award nominated pianist Peter Kater's new CD "Dancing on Water."  In addition to being brilliant and beautiful, Peter Kater has an innate knack for understanding the role of sound in healing, and you'll feel this as his music vibrates through your body. Listen to his CD once a day, and let it carry you away to a comfortable place of peace, ease and bliss.

Peter Kater's newest CD, Dancing on Water, is now available for prepurchase on Amazon for $11.99.