Behind Classical Music
Save your butt: Houston study shows that a colonoscopy is more effective withMozart playing
A colonoscopy goes better with a certain type of music.
Make sure your doctor is listening to Mozart.Illustration by Andrea Maria Dusl
It's not earth-shattering news. Listening to the music of Mozart is good for developing math skills. Mozart helps with cognitive abilities. Mozart soothes anxiety. Mozart speeds up language acquisition.
Yes, we all know that Mozart makes you smarter. That phenomenon has been dubbed the Mozart effect.
But there's a twist. A study by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston concluded that Mozart also makes you healthier.
So what's behind this study?
Yet such an emphasis is fitting here, as the young immature composer was infamous for scatological quips.
In a random controlled trial, doctors David Wolf and Catherine Noelle O'Shea discovered that doctors who perform colonoscopies while grooving to Mozart have higher adenoma detection rates than those who choose an unmelodious operating environment.
These dangerous precancerous polyps lead to colorectal cancer, a disease that occurs in people with small or no genetic disposition. It's the second leading cancer killer in the United States and comes largely due to lifestyle-related factors including physical inactivity, obesity, smoking, alcohol use and diabetes.
It's not the first time that classical music has been used as therapy as it's helped hypertension, high blood pressure, epilepsy seizures, stroke recovery and for at-risk premature babies.
Why Mozart and not Bach, Beethoven or Brahms? Classical music's holy trinity has been largely neglected in general music research. It's always Mozart, Mozart, Mozart.
Yet such an emphasis is fitting here, as the young immature composer was infamous for scatological quips — think "Batti, batti o bel Masetto" from Marriage of Figaro, loosely translated as "Spank me, Spank me" — and flatulence jokes, something that typically happens as colonoscopy patients are awakened from general anesthesia.
I am certain he'd be tickled from beyond the grave.
Next time you have a regularly scheduled colonoscopy, will you be requesting Mozart's greatest hits? Have you thought what else Mozart can do for you?
