[Harp-L] Help wanted for Harmonica Medical/Scientific Study
John Schaman
I would very much appreciate your help. I have been subscribed to the
Harp-L digest for a number of months and I have read most posts during that
time. Being a newcomer to the harmonica world (almost 3 years), I have
found it very informative and helpful. Although my initial interest was of
a medical/scientific nature, I have developed quite an attachment to this
little instrument. My day job for 33 years has been in the field of
rehabilitative medicine, primarily cardiac testing and rehabilitation, as
well as musculoskeletal rehab and sports medicine. Almost three years ago,
I became intrigued by the possibility that playing the harmonica might have
medical/health benefits, primarily pulmonary (lung).
What caught my initial attention was a combination of observations and
findings:
1. Epidemiological data showing a 50% loss in lung function between the ages
of 30 and 70.
2. The common belief and observation that individuals performing certain
activities such as: horn playing, opera singing, breath-hold diving, etc.
have a lesser decline in lung function with aging compared to the general
population (in other words, the belief that these individuals have ³better
lungs²).
3. The conclusion that certain lung activities might reduce the loss of lung
function that is assumed to be ³normal² with aging.
4. The conclusion that the observed decline in lung function, although
following a statistical norm for our population, may not be desirable or
optimal for good health and longevity.
5. The long-term observation in my clinic that a rather significant
proportion of my patients who undergo pulmonary function testing are
actually significantly below the ³statistical norm², as provided by the
pulmonary function algorithms (variables used to predict normal values
include age, sex, ethnicity, and height).
6. Reports from several North American and international pulmonary
rehabilitation programs that harmonica playing has pulmonary ³benefits²,
although without any scientific or statistical evidence.
With these things in mind and realizing that the aerobic endurance exercise
prescribed for cardiac rehabilitation patients does not significantly
benefit pulmonary functions, I was convinced that there would be value in
designing a study to research the medical effects of playing the harmonica.
The purpose of the study was to determine if pulmonary exercises could
possibly reduce the epidemiologically observed loss of lung function with
aging. I decided to use the diatonic harmonica as the respiratory ³tool² in
the program/study. As the only instrument that ³makes music² with both
blowing and drawing, there is a potentially unique benefit to lung excursion
and ultimately, to lung function. As I already had the equipment to perform
intricate pulmonary function testing, I designed the research protocol,
which initially appeared very simple and straightforward. Subjects were to
be patients with heart and lung disease, generally over 40 years of age, who
had not played the harmonica, at least in recent years. Testing was to be
undertaken at the start and the end of the period of time chosen as the
duration of the study.
We named the program H.E.L.P. - Harmonica Exercise for Lung Program, a lung
improvement/rehabilitation program and study. After months of preliminary
research and preparation the program was launched on November 29, 2007.
Although the study seemed simple and straightforward, we soon learned
otherwise. We taught the patients to play scales and melodies, in much the
same way that most books and teaching methods seem to advocate. This
immediately caused Œtechnique¹ frustrations as these Œolder patients¹ found
it hard to play ³single notes.² I have since learned from harmonica
teachers and advisors to our study that it may take some harmonica students
as long as one year to be able to play ³single notes.² Furthermore, our
ambulatory patient population didn¹t seem to have their lungs challenged in
the way that I had expected. It is possible that in a more severely diseased
population, our early methods might have been more effective. We spent many
months, with the help of harmonica experts from around the world, devising a
more effective Œharmonica method¹, which essentially involved rhythmic
chordal playing. In retrospect this made a lot more sense and was much more
effective in achieving the physiological challenges I postulated would be
required.
The present methods of H.E.L.P. differ from standard harmonica teaching
methods in that we are trying to develop the best pulmonary-enhancing
techniques and exercises, somewhat at the expense of musicality. The
traditional harmonica teaching methods did not achieve the pulmonary effects
that we thought were optimal for our patient population. Our main goal is
to:
1. strengthen the muscles of respiration, including the diaphragm
2. exercise the lungs above the ³comfort zone² in the inspiratory range
3. exercise the lungs below the ³comfort zone² in the expiratory range
As we progressed, I developed many concerns about scientific validity. We
were essentially doing a Dose-Response Study. In order to conduct a
³dose-response² study, it is necessary to quantitate harmonica playing, as
some means of quantitating the ³dose² is required. Duration of playing is
not enough, as there is no quantitation of intensity of playing. With my
long term experience in cardiac research with respect to exercise, we have
developed a reasonably accurate quantitation of exercise using intensity
(measured quite accurately with heart rate), duration (in minutes) and
frequency (number of times per day, week, etc.). Unfortunately, there
hasn¹t yet been developed a means of quantitating intensity of harmonica
playing. I developed several ideas and I tried to work with the University
of Waterloo Bio-Engineering department, so far without success. I felt the
most likely method to give this measurement is some type of strain gauge on
the chest which measures both frequency and magnitude of chest excursion.
The combination of these two variables should give a reasonably accurate
indicator of harmonica playing intensity.
I have been a member of the SPAH medical committee for the past two years
and I¹ve presented the H.E.L.P. study at both the St. Louis and the
Sacramento meetings. I had hoped I would receive input from the harmonica
community to overcome some of the obstacles, however, very few diatonic
harmonica players attended my presentations. This didn¹t surprise me, as
there were always many much more exciting sessions and topics occurring at
the same time. I¹m sure this will again be the case this year in
Minneapolis, where I¹m presenting the H.E.L.P. study between 2 and 3 pm on
Friday.
If the harmonica is to be taken seriously as an instrument of potential
health improvement, it is paramount that the harmonica gain credibility in
the medical establishment, the scientific community, and in such diverse
fields as the insurance and healthcare industries. To achieve this, certain
scientific principles must be applied, and unfortunately anecdotal and
promotional strategies may actually be counterproductive. For this reason I
believe it is important to conduct a study that will stand up to scientific
scrutiny.
I would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions. Sorry for the length of this
post.
Regards,
John
--
J. P. Schaman, M.D.
Ontario Aerobics Centre
1010 Hopewell Creek Road
R. R. #2
Breslau, Ontario
N0B 1M0
cell(519)658-3733
Web-sites:
clinic: http://www.jschaman.com/
harmonica-lung program: http://www.harp-doc.com/
cfa: http://www.cfaheart.com/
Mund...@aol.com
I contracted Sarcoidosis back in 1984, and it truly messed up my lungs!
I often think, that if I hadn't been a harmonica player, with before my
illness excellent lung capacity, I wouldn't have survived that illness...
Which sadly returns to bite me from time to time. But... I'm still alive and
playing my harmonica.
John "Whiteboy" Walden
Philippines.
todd allen
plus years I picked up harmonica shortly after my fathers passing due to lung
cancer, to try and force myself to quit. After all smoking and harp’s don’t mix
to well in the long run. Most of the damage done by my smoking habit, is not
reversible so my pulmonary Doc informed me after a bad dose of pleurisy two
month ago (very painful) couldn’t even look at a harp for six weeks.
I’m hoping that I can strengthen what is left of my lungs at least well enough
to enjoy playing harmonica without the stress of thinking I’ll never have the
lung capacity to play well.
Good luck with your findings and if there’s any thing I can do to help your
study’s please don’t hesitate to contact me, I’ve been playing for about 8
months. I've tried to quit three time in this period and I am now down to 6
smokes a day from a pack. I need all the help I can get…
Thanks for posting.
Todd
________________________________
From: John Schaman <jsch...@healthy.uwaterloo.ca>
To: har...@harp-l.org
Sent: Mon, August 16, 2010 1:55:23 AM
Subject: [Harp-L] Help wanted for Harmonica Medical/Scientific Study
Jim Rossen
John-
I applaud your project to investigate harmonica playing as a means of
maintaining or improving pulmonary function. Have your studies shown
any effect of playing on pulmonary function/physiology?
What is the rationale for using harmonica instead of an incentive
spirometer or similar device?
I wonder if harmonica playing could improve pulmonary physiology by a
mechanism other than improved bellows function. Could the repeated
acceleration of air that occurs with harmonica (perhaps more than with
a spirometer) possibly improve pulmonary clearance of particulate? In
that case, maybe significant benefit would be observed only in people
with a big particulate load (or reduced pulmonary clearance?), like
smokers.
Jim R
David Brown
happened to me on Aug 15th 2007.
I was driving home with my daughter when an oncoming car pulled in front of
us and hit us head on at about 45mph. My daughter suffered a broken
collarbone and a deeply lacerated eye. I suffered a broken patella on my
right knee. We both had surgery. She is fine now and fully recovered. I had
surgery and was recovering at home when I felt weak and short of breath. I
had to be rushed to ER where I was given a CAT scan as I was going through
the most excrutiating pain in my life. Results showed I had thrown a big 2cm
blood clot from my injured knee. It had lodged in my right lung, caused an
infarction, and I was having a pulmonary embolism (I may be messing up the
tech description but I'm no doctor, so forgive me). The doctors gave me less
than a 7% chance of making it (where the heck do they get numbers like
that?). I thought I was going to bite it.
After 3 days in intensive care I had, by some miracle, survived. I'm not
overly religious, but anyone out there who is familiar with what I described
knows that it is extremely rare that anybody makes it through this, ever.
While going through rehab I had to report to a Cardiologist for routine
inspections. I was given a test where you draw in a breath on a device that
looks like a bong and try to raise a ping pong ball up a tube. Even during
the first test I could pull that thing up about 6 inches and was able to top
it by the third visit. The doc was impressed and called my surgeon, who
explained that even though my right lung was almost completely blocked I had
somehow been able to process oxygen to a measureable degree throughout the
ordeal. That, and the fact that the clot didn't pass any further than my
lung, were major reasons I didn't die. It was also the main reason I hadn't
suffered any brain damage.
Even today, with permanent scarring from the incident, I have no issues from
the whole thingl other than a slight pain when I draw in very very deeply.
My playing has been completely unaffected and I can't tell you how great it
felt the first time I played harp after it all. Both my surgeoin and my
cardiologist have absolute belief that my playing harp for over 30 years
saved my ass, kept me from becoming brain damaged, and sped my recovery.