Beat Stress At Work By Beating Drums

[Champ]

By Lori Lyle

(LOUISVILLE, May 19th, 2004, 5:30 p.m.) -- Is frustration at work making you want to beat on something? Maybe a drum would help. As Medical Reporter Lori Lyle discovered, a recent study indicates making music may be the answer to lowering stress and improving health.

A recent study shows workplace stress can double the rate of death from heart disease and increase the risk of cold, flu and stomach inflammation. It's also to blame for high job turnover. But making music may be the answer to relieving stress.

Dr. Barry Bittman with the Mind-Body Wellness Center in Meadville, Penn., conducted a study to determine the effect drumming can play in reducing workplace stress. Since the nursing industry is high-stress and has a notoriously high turnover rate, Dr. Bittman used some of the 400 employees of the Wexbury Retirement Community.

"The reality is that turnover rates, in long-term care, range between 40 and 100 percent per year," says Bittman.

http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=1880642

[Servo300]

1. Could the same be said for guitars?

[jmowreader]

3. Only the breakaway ones

You don't use as many large muscle groups when you play guitar as you do when you play a drum.

That is, unless you're Townshend or Entwhistle and close out your set by hammering your guitar against the floor...but as Meat Loaf's father once said, "that's no way to treat an expensive musical instrument."

[LastKnight]

5. it doesnt give as much physical activity...

but it does relax you, at least it relaxes me... so i think it might do something...

just my 2 cents

-LK

[jmowreader]

2. Check out this site...

http://www.remo.com/health/

Remo makes drumheads, and they sponsor the Health Rhythms program--drumming to reduce stress, increase cardiovascular activity and so on.

Also, drumming is a socially and politically acceptable way to solve one of mankind's basic needs: the requirement to just beat the living shit out of something every once in a while. I was looking in hockshops the other day for drum accessories and found a floor tom for $35. I am going to purchase the drum, install a hydraulic beater head on it, and put it and a pair of cheap sticks in our breakroom with a "stress relief program, beat on this until stress disappears" sign on the side.

I also recommend carrying drumsticks in your car. Everyone should do this. When you're in a traffic jam, or you're sitting at a light that just will not change, instead of yelling and screaming, grab your sticks and play the steering wheel rim. It's a great stress reliever and it costs almost nothing.

[2cents]

4. LOL...might help the nurses...

...but I think the patients might find spontaneous drumming a little unnerving.

[darkstar]

6. Seeing Todd Rundgren in New Orleans tomorrow nite

hmmmmmmm.........