An Alberta clinical pharmacology professor is studying whether listening to music improves how our bodies metabolize medicine.
Music can affect concentrations of hormones, Tony Kiang says, and that many of those hormones are metabolized by the same pathways prescribed drugs are.
“It wasn’t difficult to make that connection and hypothesize that music should also have effects on how drugs get metabolized and cleared by the body,” he explained.
There’s also a personal connection: Kiang is surrounded by a family of musicians.
He applied for and was granted at least two years of federal funding from the New Frontiers in Research Fund-Exploration by the Tri-Council Agency. They were looking for projects that think outside the box and combine different disciplines.
Kiang will have healthy volunteers listen to already composed classical music — and original music — that has specific elements he believes will affect metabolism differently.
“We’re going to test, systematically, specific elements of music,” Kiang said.
“These elements include tempo, rhythm, harmony, auditory frequency and genres such as classical versus contemporary. We’re going to hire student composers to come up with music pieces tailored to the specific elements.”
There will also be a control group that doesn’t listen to any music.
Then, the volunteers will have minimally invasive blood tests to track any metabolic response.
“We’re going to measure endogenous markers — these are natural substances that already exist in the body that we know represent the major metabolism pathways,” Kiang explained.
If they can confirm the link between music and medicine processing, there would be wide-ranging applications, Kiang said.
“I think this will be a very good proof-of-concept study. And if we can identify a positive link, there’s unlimited potential in areas that we can expand into,” he said.
“If we know how music affects which specific metabolism pathway. We can tailor that information to that patient and also to that medication.”
Kiang believes the science will show patients will react to the music differently and that different medications might require different types of music.
“Surgical patients may respond favorably to classical music versus contemporary music overall. But certain types of surgery and the medications used in that type of surgery may respond better to Debussy as the composer versus Bach, or vice versa.
“If we can find out how music affects drug action, I think this is going to change the paradigm of how medications are prescribed.
“We’re not talking about stopping prescribing altogether, rather adding music to enhance the good affects of medications and to suppress the bad affects of drugs.”
Kiang sees this type of research improving patient care, outcomes, quality of life and reduced health-care system costs.
“What I imagine is in the future you may go to your pharmacy for a cold and flu consultation and the pharmacist may recommend Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in conjunction with your medication or your family doctor may recommend Mozart Concerto to be added to your anti-diabetic medication.”