Unlock Music’s Power In Alzheimer’s Care

Kate Kunkel

Thank you so much. I’m happy to be here with you again, Heather. It’s wonderful.

Heather Sandison, ND

We were in an intriguing conversation before we hit record here, and I was like, Wait, you need to record all of this so that our audience knows. What is the difference between a sound therapist, a music therapist, and a sound healer? For a lot of people, they don’t even realize there’s a difference.

Kate Kunkel

There’s quite a difference: a music therapist is a licensed professional, whereas a therapist is also a psychologist. Rather than using just talk therapy, they’re using music to encourage the patients to get out of their funk, if that’s what it is, or to help them expand their minds, their thinking, and their cognition. Music therapy is a very regimented, licensed, and regulated profession. I am not a music therapist. I’m a sound therapist. A sound therapist is someone who uses music and just pure frequencies. A music therapist is going to use musical instruments. Often, you’ll see a guitar or drums or that thing, but a sound therapist, while we can also use instruments, and I certainly use my harp. We can also use pure frequencies. That’s where the magic seems to happen when it comes to Alzheimer’s. We can get into that later. But we can use not just music but also pure frequencies. That translates into a whole bunch of things that go on in the brain with neurotransmitters and hormones. We can also compare that then to music medicine, and we hear a lot now about music medicine. That’s something you can do yourself at home. There’s no therapist involved, and it involves listening to music that you love because when you listen to music that you love, another bunch of wonderful things happens to you. You get tuned into your memories. You get tuned into those feel-good hormones. That all happens with music medicine. It’s important to understand, because if you do end up looking for someone who can help you or a family member, then it’s important to understand that distinction. There are not as many music therapists who are available to do this work. You need one-on-one in most cases. With sound therapy, we’ve got that whole thing breaking out. But it is not like a psychologist. That doesn’t happen with sound therapy.

Heather Sandison, ND

There’s so much that’s so relatable. Every time we chat, I share just the experiences that I have had listening to different types of music. We all have this: I’ll hear a song from my senior year in high school and feel invincible and like the whole world’s ahead of me. Then I’ll hear some Rihanna songs and, like, be ready to get on a plane to Vegas. then I’ll hear some, like Elliott Smith, or some music to kill yourself to and feel like winding the day down. Most of us can relate to this experience of hearing some music and it changing our state, like our state of mind, our sense of our well-being, or whether we are feeling sad or down. there is almost a sense of peace in this; it’s just about awareness, and mindfulness is a big part of your practice, but being aware of the sounds we are exposing ourselves to. I want you to discuss that and I also want to jump right into: What do we do for someone with dementia? How can we help, and how can we support the brain?

Kate Kunkel

This is also a good and important part for people with dementia, because the sounds that we are surrounded by have a huge impact on us, even if we’re not aware of them. You were talking about mindfulness. When you stop and listen to your environment, you may say, It makes me feel good. Or it may be that you’re already feeling agitated and you go. That’s what was making me feel angry or upset because there’s something in your environment that is causing a frequency, and it is about frequencies that are disruptive to you. I always encourage my clients and everybody else to be mindful and pay attention to their sonic environment. We have a little program that we do to check off the things that are going on. It could be traffic noise. It could be the neighbor’s dog barking incessantly. It could be the TV in the next room. Those things can change how your body physiologically functions because the cells get agitated. All of those things do affect us on a physical and emotional level. By just being conscious of that, if you can then eliminate the things that are bothering you or at least reduce their impact on you, that’s one step. then add things that make you feel better, whether that’s music or listening to birds, opening your windows, and listening to the birds. Those things have a huge impact on your mood and your brain.

Heather Sandison, ND

I can say again that this is just so relatable, like the sound of the dryer buzzing. I’ll feel it in my body when I get tense and a little irritable. But now that I’ve talked to you enough times, I can go; it’s just my body responding to the dryer buzzing. You mentioned particular frequencies are good for cognition and Alzheimer’s. Where can we go specifically? Can you tell us more about that? How do people get access to something like that?

Kate Kunkel

This is coming from my work as a vibro-acoustic therapist. Vibroacoustic therapy is where we have sound going through our body by touching something like a lounge, a cushion, or something where you’re physically connected to the source of the sound. There are usually computer-generated frequencies that are fed through an amplifier into the system, and you feel that. That’s where this information comes from. It has been being worked on since 1960. This work has been around since 1960, and it was originally designed by a gentleman by the name of Olav Skille who worked with children with learning disabilities and cerebral palsy. We know, by monitoring the frequencies and putting specific frequencies into these devices, how the body responds. 40 hertz has been studied ad infinitum in many studies with Alzheimer’s, other forms of dementia, and Parkinson’s, with many different conditions. We know that 40 hertz changes how the cells vibrate. When we are exposed to sound, it sends an electrical impulse. When the cells in our body are exposed to sound, which can also be audible, they bounce into each other. It’s a cascade effect. When that happens, electromagnetic energy is created. That electromagnetic energy turns into light. In our bodies, that light is 40 hertz. You’re doing red light therapy at Marama, and that is where that 40-hertz power comes from. We know that 40 hertz, whether it’s listening to it, whether it’s being exposed to it on a system of some kind, or if it’s the electromagnetic bandwidth, then it’s 40 hertz of infrared light. All of these things can enhance the body so that the brain cells can grow. They’ve done tests. They’ve done research. They know that now certain circumstances have to happen. Many of the things are like what we teach as brain health coaches. you have in your work, it’s got to have the right nutrition. You’ve got to have all these other things set up. But we can make neurorights grow. Inspired by sound. We know that scientific there’s all kinds of research on it. The other thing is, when we are exposed to different frequencies, our bodies are also exposed to sounds of any kind. Our bodies respond with either cortisol or If it’s something that we don’t like or other good things, like, let me say, dopamine, We have dopamine produced when we’re happy. so it changes the hormones that are being produced in our bodies. How amazing is that? that, of course, affects the neurotransmitters.

Heather Sandison, ND

We have so much control. A lot of times, the refrain in the dementia spaces is, There’s nothing you can do; just go home and put your affairs in order. Yet with these simple three things, like changing the auditory stimuli and what’s coming in through the ears, we can shift. Now we also know that hearing loss is one of the modifiable risk factors when it comes to dementia. Can you tell me, how do you work with someone who’s hearing impaired or worried about their loss of hearing?

Kate Kunkel

They need to get it checked, and they need to get hearing aids. A lot of people have this whole stigma attached to doing that, but it’s not something to put off because it’s important. But I can tell you that sound therapy works even if you can’t hear it. We used to have when I was a young woman, we had something called bone phones.  They were a way of feeling music. There was something like this. It was like headphones, but they were things that were attached. You felt them on your collarbone, and you felt the music. But we know that sound is conducted anyway, and that can be singing bowls, vibro acoustics, or whatever. When we have those frequencies going through our body, the effects on our cells work, whether or not we can hear them. That’s an important point when it comes to cellular levels and hormones. Because of that, we know that our body responds just like Beethoven could not hear, but he could feel his compositions because he had the piano with no legs on the floor. That’s how he composed because he felt the vibration.

Heather Sandison, ND

That’s pretty wild that this is coming in through multiple senses. You can feel it on your skin, but it’s also conductive through your system and then also through your ears, so there are multiple ways to do this. Now, for someone with cognitive decline already, are there things that we would do differently if, say, you’re just concerned about developing cognitive decline later and you’re in prevention mode versus trying to get that memory recovery?

Kate Kunkel

For memory recovery, the best thing to do, I believe, is to be immersed in music that you love. I’m sure you do that at Marama. We recommend that all the time in my coaching is to listen to music that inspires memories. But beyond listening to the music, we have the five senses practice. Whereas we not only have the music, we also have the other senses involved. When we’re listening to the music, perhaps it was a big band, or in my case, something from the Sixties, the Byrds, or something. Then we have the memories that go with that music as well. then it could be, like, a picture of you at a dance or a picture of you with somebody that you went to that dance with. Then there could be food or talk of food that you used to enjoy when you go to those concerts. All those things can inspire even more memories because they’re attached in a very tangible way to someone who might not be able to think abstractly in any way. The more senses that we can involve, the better. Even if we are using music as immortality.

Heather Sandison, ND

I love that you’re inspiring me. I can imagine it at Marama. Just having everyone go through it.  My favorite concert or my favorite song is, and here’s a picture of that day, and this is who I was with, and this is the food we ate. that there could be a sharing of that and the experience of sharing it and cementing the memory, or just coming back up with the memory. That sounds lovely.

Kate Kunkel

Or like going to a carnival, the smells in a carnival. You talk about that. All of those things can come together and pull the music or whatever sound. The calliope, for many of us, has amazing memories attached to it. Then you think about the food, the smells, and all the people around, as well as the experience of being on a Ferris wheel or whatever. All of those things can come back, and it brings our clients, our patients, back to us for a while, and it makes them feel more like they did before. It gives them the feeling of being a person again instead of just this vessel that they’re struggling with. Because they get you angry, you get frustration, and you get fear, of course.

Heather Sandison, ND

What a fun way to relive something and get that validation. You get back often when we go through these memories. We get back those same neurotransmitters, dopamine and serotonin, and Gavin and everything else that we had on that day. To relive it.

Kate Kunkel

That changes how your brain works. Because you’ve got those wonderful neurotransmitters, the hormones, you’ve got that working on your brain. With all of the other things, you do it. Marama, as we all do with our coaching, just gives them more of a chance to get out of that a little bit and improve a little bit. For those who are not already seriously in decline, this is a way to boost the cognitive reserve, the way to boost cognition in the memory. 

Heather Sandison, ND

What are examples of how we can get involved by making music? I was just brainstorming here, like, should we do this this way? But what are practical ways people can use music as therapy or sound as therapy at home? Starting today?

Kate Kunkel

This is my number one go-to; everybody can do it, whether you’re cognitively impaired or 100% sharp. I always recommend to my clients that they start humming mindfully. Of course, just humming is fine too, if you’re humming along with the song, but it’s good to mindfully hum. A good way to do that is by also breathing mindfully. Nice, deep breaths. then when you exhale rather than just exhaling, hum and notice what’s happening now for people who are more advanced in cognitive decline. It will be hard for them to get that together, but they can certainly hum. You may not be able to be mindful of what’s happening here, but they can most certainly be. But for those of us who are working on improving our brains and preventing this stuff by exhaling with a hum, firstly, you’re stimulating the vagus nerve, and the vagus nerve helps us get into a parasympathetic nervous state, which helps reduce cortisol, which improves all the other hormones and helps us think better. It also communicates between the gut and the brain. That’s one thing that it does, but it also sends you into a place where you are paying attention to what’s happening in your body. It’s important because people go through their lives and don’t even know how they’re feeling. But if you mindfully hum, and I’ve got a couple of other things that we do as well, it’s a great way to get in touch with them. Just do it yourself when you’re at home now watching me, watching us take a nice deep breath, and when you exhale, hum, and listen, close your eyes and feel and pay attention to how that is making your body feel. If you want to have some fun, cover your ears when you do it because then you will feel it even more, and I bet you there are even people with pretty advanced skills. I don’t work with too many people like that because mostly I do prevention. But I would imagine that more people would be able to get involved this way, even if they are fairly advanced. It would be great if you could make it a fun practice at Marama to do that thing.

Heather Sandison, ND

Kate, you’re talking about cognitive impairments, but I want to tell you, that I’m a little embarrassed, but I am very musically impaired and so humming. It feels accessible, even to me. I don’t have to be good at singing or I’m good at playing some instrument, which I never have been. I can still get down to humming. This is accessible in a lot of different ways and is so easy. Now what if somebody is into music? I would imagine that they clicked on this talk because they are excited about music and they want to learn more. Do we know who Xavier Rudd is? He’s an Australian musician, and he is like a one-man band. He plays like 13 instruments and sings all at the same time, and I just go like, mind-blown. I don’t know how anyone does that, but I can just think at the upper levels, humming on an exhale. It’s like down here at the bottom, and then there’s a whole spectrum in between. like Xavier Rudd or somebody like him, like this one-man band bass, or you’re playing multiple instruments and singing at the same time. Like, is there something in between, like, for people who are like, you maybe play an instrument?

Kate Kunkel

If you play an instrument, a lot of people played an instrument when they were in high school, middle school, or something, and then they haven’t done it since. Go find it, dust it off, and play it. I can tell you, I taught Harp for many years. People used to say, I’m not very good. I don’t want anybody to listen to me. I don’t want anyone to hear me. But I can tell you, it doesn’t matter. Just enjoy it. Just make music. Nobody cares. You’re the only one who is judging this. If you’re making music for yourself, that’s all that matters. That’s the thing I always tell my students, and it’s the thing I tell my clients. It doesn’t matter. But I’ll tell you a couple of things that are easy that you can do, even if you’ve never played any instrument, and even if you haven’t played for 40 years, get a drum. Just like one of those little Remo has some little drum pads, and I say, Get that the actual physical thing as opposed to just using your legs or the table because it makes you feel like you’re doing something rather than just imagining it. Get some cheap drumstick and just beat. Play along with a song that you love. Here’s a great way to pull in the music that you love listening to, and then as you’re drumming, just drumming along with it, even if it’s just one beat, every measure doesn’t matter. The point is, that you’re listening to the music because mindful listening to recorded music is almost as good for your brain as making music.

Heather Sandison, ND

That’s a huge deal. That’s why it’s not passive. It’s very active mindfulness. That’s the difference. That’s what makes it so much better for your brain.

Kate Kunkel

When we make music, we have that corpus callosum, the white matter that connects the two hemispheres. When we are musicians, drummers, or harpists who have pedal harps or pianists, where you use your hands and your feet, they have a stronger, thicker corpus callosum than other people. When you start listening mindfully to music, you’re inspiring the same thing that happens for those musicians in your brain. It happens. By listening mindfully then and playing along with it, or saying you like to watch videos, YouTube videos of an orchestra, or something, pick one of the instruments that you can see and follow along with them. Because then your brain is doing almost the same thing as the musician because you’re listening for when it comes in and out of the music, you’re watching the bowing, and you’re seeing how much I love the cello. I don’t play the cello, but I love it. I always watch the cello when I’m watching an orchestra or a chamber, or something like that, or a rock group and the bass guitar. Because then you’ve got beat going; anything like that, where you’re mindfully paying attention to what’s going on with the music or you’re playing along with it, is great. I recommend drumming. Also, if you happen to be in a situation like Marama where you have a group, get a drumming circle going because it’s so powerful. Number one, you’ve got other people around you engaging with other people, which is important. Number two, you’re making rhythm. From our first inkling of being humans, we are in our mother’s womb, and we hear her heartbeat. We have rhythm. Humans are rhythmic. We’re all mammals; we’re rhythm. That’s where it comes from. It’s a very natural part of us. When you work with or play with other people, just engaging with them makes you feel as if it’s somebody who’s cognitively impaired. It also gives them some sense of accomplishment because they’re there keeping a beat and they’re paying attention to other people. It’s engagement. It’s so important. I love drumming.

Heather Sandison, ND

I’ve heard incredible, miraculous stories of people with Parkinson’s coming in a wheelchair with an impaired gait, and they’re having trouble walking with that shuffle and tremor. After drumming, there’s so much dopamine naturally produced in their brain that they can walk without a shuffle or have their tremor go away temporarily. That act of drumming is so engaging that you can see these profound benefits and so much relief. Having people be able to do that themselves without taking a pill can be great for their well-being, mood, and mental health.

Kate Kunkel

If it’s something like when you mentioned Parkinson’s, we also know that using the 30-hertz frequency on the vibroacoustic, I’ve seen it myself. I treated many people with Parkinson’s. We can say it’s the same thing. It’s the vibration; I don’t know what it does. I don’t know how it does it. I just know that it doesn’t. It interrupts the frequency of the tremors. It’s the whole thing; it’s the whole cellular thing, just vibrating and everything is in tune, and it just seems to be the gate is better, the shuffle like the pick-up, the feet better. It’s amazing. That’s all just sound. All is just sound. We can do so much with it. Another good thing for people to do, excuse me, if they haven’t played a musical instrument,  it’s going to sound like,  my middle schooler does this. But recorders are easier to play. You can make all kinds of fun noises. They don’t usually squeak too badly, like when playing instruments, flutes, or something. Recorders are another thing, and they’re inexpensive. They’re accessible to everyone. You can make music with a recorder.

Heather Sandison, ND

How fantastic. For New Year’s, my daughter’s going to take ukulele lessons. I just feel like maybe I should take some lessons with her and try to get into something simple. But the recorder is these simple instruments: drums, potentially a ukulele. I don’t know. What are your thoughts on that?

Kate Kunkel

I love the ukulele. I’m just starting it myself now. About a year ago, I started doing it because it’s very simple, and I tried guitar. It’s not my instrument. I’m a harpist, and I’m a pianist. They weren’t working for me. The guitars, but the ukulele. I’m having fun with it. It’s light, and it’s inexpensive. There are so many. As an adult, if you don’t want to take lessons in person, there are so many things you can do online. That’s the great thing about the world we live in today. Whatever you want to take up, there’s something online. If you’re too embarrassed to go to a course, a class, or something, there are a gazillion free things online that you can do to learn, just like Cynthia Lin. Cynthia Lin is a lady who plays the ukulele. She’s Hawaiian, and I just love her. I play all of her stuff. I enjoy it.

Heather Sandison, ND

That’s so great because sometimes it’s not even like being embarrassed by the logistics; you live hours from a place where there would even be a lesson that you can take, so having a Zoom lesson if you want something one-on-one, but also these free YouTube videos that are accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. What a great idea. that you could have a drummer and a ukulele or a recorder—something easy, simple, light, and inexpensive to get into this. This is so inspiring. Thank you.

Kate Kunkel

There’s a company that makes all kinds of drums. I’m pretty sure it’s Remo. They have a free drum circle, just like you can join a drum circle.

Heather Sandison, ND

Is it REMO, Remo? The REMO drums?

Kate Kunkel

There are many ways to get involved without spending a fortune, without having to travel, and without using instruments. I have to tell you, the folk harp people because it’s so hard. It is not, it is very intuitive. It’s like C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C., anybody can make a folk harp sound good. I can tell you, because I have taught people who are profoundly disabled, like mentally handicapped people, many different people. I have been taught to play the folk harp because it’s so intuitive and so easy. It was a folk instrument. The ancients used to walk around with them, and they would tell stories with them. That’s how the news spread from town to town. That’s also another thing because a lot of people say, I love the sound of the harp, but it’s got to be so hard. But it isn’t. It isn’t that difficult. Not the pedal harp. That’s a whole different ballgame, but the folk harp.

Heather Sandison, ND

Of things like tambourines and maracas. There are a lot of things, especially the percussion instruments, that are pretty accessible. But a stringed instrument like a guitar or harp. That feels to me like getting intimidated very quickly. 

Kate Kunkel

If people haven’t done anything like that, But a lot of people took piano lessons when they were kids. Then at least it gives you that idea of what a skill is and that thing. It makes it a little bit easier, but nobody should be intimidated by it because it’s not about performing. This is what people have to understand. It’s just about joy. It’s about creativity because that’s huge, and that’s hugely important for our brains to inspire creativity. It’s just one of the things that we can do so easily and be happy, joyfully, happy.

Heather Sandison, ND

I love it. I want to make sure that everyone knows that you have brain health matters right behind you. You have a podcast host, and you’re a coach, and there’s so much you do and offer to those who are preventing or suffering from mild cognitive impairment. But to let everyone know how they can find out more about you.

Kate Kunkel

Sure, they can go to brainhealthmatters.today. I’ve just got a new website going up in the new year. By the time this airs, the new website will be up and running. I also teach people how to play, and this is going to sound scary to some people, but I do use the harp online to help people who want to play something but want to feel more creative and want to get involved in something. I do that, which is a lot of fun. I do have the podcast Brain Health Matters, and you can find it at brainhealthmatters.today.

Heather Sandison, ND

How fantastic. I’m just always so inspired. You are so creative and just such a shining example of someone who’s put a lot of effort and heart into helping other people so they don’t have to suffer the way that your mom did. Thank you so much for transforming that sad loss into helping others.

Kate Kunkel

Thank you. I may say that as for people who are watching this interview and listening to it, I’m also offering a copy of my book, The Musical Brain because it’s a great way to dig into little tidbits all the way along. There are little exercises you can do. It’s a gift from me to you. that you’re not worried about tapping into the power of music. You can just do it. It’s right there for you to play with.

Heather Sandison, ND

How generous. Thank you so much, Kate, for that gift. just for being here—the gift of your time.

Kate Kunkel

Thank you.