Sometimes it's enough just to hum something while you are doing something: what is the humming effect

Remember the part of the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”, where Hannah dines with Belfort and, during a conversation about how to work on the stock exchange and “make the blood run faster,” starts punching her chest, chanting a mantra? What if he is not doing it for fun, but is fighting nasal congestion?

Photo: Erik Mclean. Source: Unsplash.com

There is a hypothesis

On this topic about fifteen years ago in the journal Medical Hypotheses came out noteworthy research. Its author stated that a certain “buzzing technique” helps to relieve nasal congestion and ease breathing in those who suffer from chronic rhinosinusitis.

According to him, the point is how the concentration of nitrogen oxide exhaled by a person in the sinuses changes. Natural vibrations of the respiratory tract can increase it and obtain an antibacterial effect. A scientist from Austin (USA) calls this technique “humming“, And there is an assumption that”The money chant“Is a good illustration of this” buzz “.

But it cannot be considered a serious method of treatment. Although the use of nitric oxide for therapeutic purposes is discussed today – in the context of a complex epidemiological situation. So, in the magazine of the same name (Nitric Oxide) came out articledescribing the effect of new uses for supporting patients with respiratory disease.

A similar effect – but already of low-frequency vibrations – was used to help patients with chronic bronchitis and COPD… Study Scientists from New York have confirmed the connection between improving the condition of patients with “playing” on a specially designed therapeutic “lung flute”. The procedures were carried out under the supervision of doctors within six months, and only one of the sixty-nine participants in the experiment did not feel noticeable progress and decided to stop therapy.

Outside medicine

The first thing that comes to mind from the musical analogs of such techniques – throat singing… This technique is typical for the peoples of Siberia, Mongolia, Tibet and implies a mix of low-frequency “buzz” and overtones… Some of the most famous approaches – “kargyraa”, “khoomei“And” playit “. They use low, mid and high frequencies respectively.

According to poll more than 180 participants in khoomei-seminars, its connection with a positive impact on the well-being of listeners was traced. But regular throat singing can harm to the performers themselves – there are much more articles about this.

Chants similar to the “hum” described above and the more musical “hum” may not have a therapeutic effect, but they do give a calming effect for sure.

there is opinionthat such a perception was formed in the course of our development – silence for a long time was for a person a sign of a potential threat, and gentle singing was accompanied by other relaxing factors.

What to listen to

If you’ve tried humming something like this while reading this post, you’re not alone. Humming techniques are used in a variety of genres – from ethnic music to R&B, jazz and classical.

Just listenhow it sounds in the most popular and famous compositions. By the way, they say that now you can google music just with the help of such tunes. Have you tried it?

There is also a special subspecies of ASMR clips c soothing tunes… We recommend listening to this example and similar audio content with headphones. Thank you for reading – enjoy your holiday this weekend and let the musical mood accompany you!

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