Movement + Music = Medicine


Book Description

There is a looming threat, hovering like the Sword of Damocles. For whom the freaking bell tolls? We are all increasingly at grave risk for neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's, dementia, and Parkinson's - diseases that inflict a staggering toll on the afflicted and their loved ones. Most troubling, current pharmacological interventions are not cures and do not often provide needed relief. This book will inform and empower you to develop a plan of action to help you or your loved one fight against Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other neurological disorders. Informed by relevant research, this book shows that movement or exercise, particularly when combined with music, can have a powerful impact on brain health. The scientific research is also illuminated and amplified by the lived experiences of people whose stories reveal how movement, exercise, and dance therapy are helping them in the struggle against neurological disorders. Movement + Music = Medicine will increase your knowledge about the medicinal impact of rhythmic movement and give you greater confidence to make decisions that may improve your brain health. While movement, exercise, and dance are by no means cures for these cruel neurologic conditions, they may provide sorely needed relief and give you a fighting chance at a better quality of life.Reviews and praise for Movement + Music = Medicine"This well-researched book with intriguing and insightful anecdotes makes a substantial contribution towards understanding how movement, particularly dance, may help slow the course of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The book is especially relevant and timely, given the alarming increase in the two diseases - medical conditions often associated with aging but highly variable between patients. Movement + Music = Medicine is highly recommended for a general audience seeking to learn more about neurological disorders and how lifestyle changes, particularly movement, exercise, and dance, may make a difference." Arthur S. Levine, M.D. Executive Director, University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute, Professor of Medicine, Molecular Genetics, and Neurobiology."Dr. Spectar has created a masterpiece combining the history of dance across culture and time and the evidence to support brain health and combatting neurodegenerative disease... I am convinced, I will now be prescribing dance to my patients, for lasting limberness of the brain and the body."Mylynda B. Massart, M.D., Ph.D., Physician and co-director, Pitt Clinical and Translational Science Institute."I have never seen a compilation of science and humanities so beautifully intertwined-like a dance in and of itself! ... Through the lens of health and healing, Dr. Jem Spectar masterfully crafts the interrelationship between science and art as supported by a vast collection of empirical data, multicultural applications, and personal narratives that argue for the critical need of dance and movement to sustain a healthy society... Movement + Music = Medicine provides a substantial contribution to the growing field of Medical Humanities within medical schools, graduate studies, residency programs, public health departments, and, of course, dance... [This] book is phenomenal!"Susan Wieczorek, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communications, UPJ."As caregiver for a spouse struggling with late-stage Alzheimer's Disease, reading this enormously resourceful book makes me wonder what life for us might be like today if the book had been available earlier in our journey... Dr. Spectar's book appears to fill a void in therapeutic resources for Alzheimer's Disease patients and caregivers... I highly recommend this book for anyone who suspects a neurological disease may become an issue in their family. It's a must read for newly diagnosed patients with a neurological disease and for family members caring for patients who are advancing through various stages of the diseases." Livy - a caregiver




Music As Medicine Particularly in Parkinson's


Book Description

Daphne Bryan, PhD, takes a special look at the benefits of music for neurological conditions, Parkinson's in particular.




The New Parkinson's Disease Treatment Book


Book Description

The fundamental guide to the most effective treatments for Parkinson's Disease, from a Mayo Clinic doctor with thirty years of clinical and research experience. In this second edition follow-up to the extremely successful first edition, Dr. Ahlskog draws on thirty years of clinical experience to present the definitive guide to dealing with all aspects of Parkinson's Disease, from treatment options and side effects to the impact of the disease on caregivers and family. Dr. Ahlskog's goal is to educate patients so that they can better team up with their doctors to do battle with the disease, streamlining the decision-making process and enhancing their treatment. To do this, Dr. Ahlskog offers a gold mine of information, distilled from his years of experience treating people with Parkinson's at the Mayo Clinic. In addition to providing a comprehensive account of Parkinson's medications, this book also examines additional aspects of treatment, such as the role of nutrition, exercise, and physical therapy. Although many commendable texts have been written on the subject of Parkinson's Disease, their discussions of treatment have not been in depth. Dr. Ahlskog sifts through aspects of the disease in order to give the reader a comprehensive sense of Parkinson's and the best available treatment options. With a broader understanding of the disease and the available options, patients are able to make more informed choices, and doctors are able to provide more tailored care. This book delivers hopeful, helpful, and extensive information to all parties concerned: patients, caregivers, and doctors. The ultimate guide to symptoms and treatment, this thoroughly updated second edition is the first place patients should turn for reliable, easy-to-grasp information on Parkinson's Disease.




Parkinson's Disease


Book Description

Recent innovations, including deep brain stimulation and new medications, have significantly improved the lives of people with Parkinson’s disease. Nevertheless, medical, emotional, and physical challenges remain. The second edition of this accessible and comprehensive guide provides crucial information for managing this complex condition, including details on the use of medications, diet, exercise, complementary therapies, and surgery. The second edition includes new information about: • The genetic and hereditary pattern of the disease • Medications and uses of established medications • Other approaches to treating the symptoms of Parkinson’s • Juvenile-onset Parkinson’s disease • Normal pressure hydrocephalus • The effects of fluctuating hormones on disease symptoms • Fetal cell transplants and porcine cell transplants • The nutritional supplement Co-Enzyme Q10




Musicophilia


Book Description

What goes on in human beings when they make or listen to music? What is it about music, what gives it such peculiar power over us, power delectable and beneficent for the most part, but also capable of uncontrollable and sometimes destructive force? Music has no concepts, it lacks images; it has no power of representation, it has no relation to the world. And yet it is evident in all of us–we tap our feet, we keep time, hum, sing, conduct music, mirror the melodic contours and feelings of what we hear in our movements and expressions. In this book, Oliver Sacks explores the power music wields over us–a power that sometimes we control and at other times don’t. He explores, in his inimitable fashion, how it can provide access to otherwise unreachable emotional states, how it can revivify neurological avenues that have been frozen, evoke memories of earlier, lost events or states or bring those with neurological disorders back to a time when the world was much richer. This is a book that explores, like no other, the myriad dimensions of our experience of and with music.




Lifelong Engagement with Music


Book Description

Explores how music can promote mental health and functioning in diverse settings, from supporting cognitive development in premature babies to establishing identity and emotional well-being in adolescents, to enhancing brain function in adults and challenging cognitive decline in dementia patients.




The Power of Music


Book Description

The award-winning creator of the documentary The Music Instinct traces the efforts of visionary researchers and musicians to understand the biological foundations of music and its relationship to the brain and the physical world. 35,000 first printing.




My Degeneration


Book Description

How does one deal with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease at the age of forty-three? My Degeneration, by former Anchorage Daily News staff cartoonist Peter Dunlap-Shohl, answers the question with humor and passion, recounting the author’s attempt to come to grips with the “malicious whimsy” of this chronic, progressive, and disabling disease. This graphic novel tracks Dunlap-Shohl’s journey through depression, the worsening symptoms of the disease, the juggling of medications and their side effects, the impact on relations with family and community, and the raft of mental and physical changes wrought by the malady. My Degeneration examines the current state of Parkinson’s care, including doctor/patient relations and the repercussions of a disease that, among other things, impairs movement, can rob patients of their ability to speak or write, degrades sufferers’ ability to deal with complexity, and interferes with the sense of balance. Readers learn what it’s like to undergo a dramatic, demanding, and audacious bit of high-tech brain surgery that can mysteriously restore much of a patient’s control over symptoms. But My Degeneration is more than a Parkinson’s memoir. Dunlap-Shohl gives the person newly diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease the information necessary to cope with it on a day-to-day basis. He chronicles the changes that life with the disease can bring to the way one sees the world and the way one is seen by the wider community. Dunlap-Shohl imparts a realistic basis for hope—hope not only to carry on, but to enjoy a decent quality of life.




Navigating Life with Parkinson Disease


Book Description

Here is a marvelous guide for anyone affected by Parkinson's disease--patients, caregivers, family members, and friends. Containing the most up-to-date information on the disease, one of the most common neurological disorders, it discusses the available treatments and provides practical advice on how to manage the disease in the long term. Emphasizing life-style adjustments that will provide a better quality of life and moderate the burden for patients and their loved ones, the book answers many questions and clarifies misunderstandings regarding the disease. Written by two experts on Parkinson's disease and a freelance journalist, the book is approachable and easily understandable. Question and answer sections are provided, while "hot topics" are highlighted for easy visibility. The authors have also included true patient stories that will both inspire and instruct, and they have addressed several topics often not mentioned in physician-directed disease management, such as how to talk to family and friends about one's life with Parkinson's.




Music Therapy: Research and Evidence-Based Practice


Book Description

Get a quick, expert overview of the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions in health care. This practical resource compiled by Dr. Olivia Swedberg Yinger provides a concise, useful overview of the profession of music therapy, including a description of each of the research-support practices that occur in the settings where music therapists most commonly work. - Features a wealth of information on music therapy and its relevance in education settings, mental health treatment, medical treatment and rehabilitation, hospice and palliative care, gerontology, and wellness. - Includes a chapter on current trends and future directions in music therapy - Consolidates today's available information and guidance in this timely area into one convenient resource.




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