The idea of music as a healing influence which could affect health and behavior is at least as old as the writings of Aristotle and Plato. The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) promotes a vast amount of research exploring the benefits of music as therapy through publication of the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives and other sources. A substantial body of literature exists to support the effectiveness of music therapy.

You don't have to have a particular music ability to benefit from music therapy. No particular style of music is more therapeutic than any other. You just need to enjoy your experience. Music will lower stress and help you relax. It has been proven that it reduces acute and chronic pain. Even during child birth. It can elevate moods to counteract depression and it can counteract apprehension or fear.

So today just sit back and listen to some music, do some drumming or percussion rhythms, hum some tunes, blow on a flute or harmonica even if you don't know any particular songs. Be creative. Take advantage of the sunshine and beautiful weather and just step outside and listen to the birds, the wind, and the rhythm of mother nature. The stand by of anything else is to plug in a favorite CD and close your eyes and just let it sink in.

My friend -- who has a friend newly diagnosed with brain cancer -- greeted me at the door the other day and asked with a sense of urgency, "How can I help?"

"Help your friend?" I asked.

"Yes, she said, unsure of what she might say or do in this time of great difficulty for everyone involved.

I told her a few things. And then I thought of some more. It wasn't terribly easy to come up with these ideas. Because even though I myself was on the receiving end of help during my cancer journey, it's still hard to imagine what an individual wants or needs -- or doesn't want or need. But here's what I've got to offer.

I hope this helps my friend.

I hope it helps you too.

• Allow your loved one to take the lead. If you sense this person wants to talk, then talk. If you sense talk is not welcomed, then don't talk. To determine whether or not your friend or family member wants to discuss cancer, approach the topic and judge the response you get. I know I can usually tell if someone is willing to open up -- typically the conversation just flows -- and when someone is putting the brakes on chit-chat -- typically the conversation falls flat.

• If talk is not in the cards, then consider an offer of food. Sometimes actions speak much louder than words. So think about calling a restaurant in your friend's town and ordering a meal to be delivered right to the door. Most eating establishments accept credit card numbers over the phone so location should be a non-issue. Even those deep in despair need to eat, and taking away the chore of cooking and cleaning up can be quite a gift.

• If the gift of food is not up your alley, how about sending a small gift, like a candle, a pair of cozy socks, a grocery store gift card, a music CD, a gift certificate for a spa. You name it, your special something might brighten the day.

• If you live near your loved one and have some free time, offer to drive to appointments, visit during treatments, pick up kids and entertain them for the day, clean house, cook, and clean up dinner. Try to be very specific with your offers. Say, "I'd like to pick up your kids tomorrow at lunch so you can take a nap" or "I'm coming over on Sunday to rake leaves." These offers are easier to accept than the "call me if you need anything" kind.
  

• If a quick stop at your loved one's house is possible, drop off a book on the front porch or set some pretty potted flowers by the door. Or do both. Then walk away without saying a word. Let your help take your friend by surprise.

• When you do have the chance to talk, avoid guiding the conversation with your own thoughts and advice, unless requested. Saying, "Everything will be OK," for example, may not be true. Assuring your friend she will sail right through chemotherapy may backfire if nausea and fatigue are just down the road. Stating, "it's OK, your hair will grow back," doesn't really help those living with the horror of hair loss. So stay away from promises and predictions and stick to the present. Ask questions, listen, and paraphrase back what your friend has shared. These are basic counseling techniques. The premise is that allowing the person to work through the issues is more important than what we can do to directly help.
  

• Don't forget about the good old greeting card or short note that lets your loved know how much you care. Let the card say it if you wish to avoid writing and then add an address, a stamp, and send your support on its way.
  

• This makes eight -- so much for sticking to my Sunday plan -- but I must share this too: Don't forget about your loved one after months and even years pass by. Initial diagnoses are tough and treatments are tough too. But as your friend survives each day, remember to check in. Cancer is a life-long battle for many. Support and assistance may be just as valuable a year down the road as it is on day one.

This past summer, a man in the business of helping smokers quit, was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Just months later, anti-smoking guru Allen Carr lost his battle with cancer. On November 29th, Carr died at his home in Malaga, Spain.

A heavy smoker for 33 years before quitting 23 years ago, Carr claimed to have found an easy way to quit smoking. From that discovery, he founded The Easy Way to Stop Smoking Program, which would eventually grow into 70 clinics in 30 countries. In addition, his company publishes how-to quit smoking books, CDs, tapes and DVDs.

Using cognitive therapy, Carr told smokers interested in quitting that they could do it without willpower, without suffering withdrawal and without gaining weight. The celebrity endorsements for his program include Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sean Bean, Marie Helvin, Johnny Cash, George Harrison, Lisa Stansfield, Sir Richard Branson, Britney Spears, Susannah York, Bruce Oldfield, Stefano Gabbana and Julie Christie.

Carr is credited with helping over 25 million people to quit smoking.

An Easy Way to Stop Smoking Program clinic spokesperson was quoted as saying, "Allen spent many years in smoke-filled rooms after he quit, while treating smokers for addiction. He is certain that had he not quit, he would have died 20 years ago." Near the time of his death, Carr wrote a letter to Tony Blair urging his government and NHS to accept the easy method program. Carr was 72.

In Letting it all out might increase chances of cancer survivorship, we shared that finding techniques to minimize stress is an effective way to better health. Our focus in that post was journaling and talk therapy as a means to expressing thoughts and feelings, rather than stuffing your emotions and keeping it all inside. According to the experts featured in that post, "It's about the link between the mind and the body and how your mind state can affect the disease state in the body."

In addition to journaling and talk therapy, cancer centers are offering cancer patients and caregivers self hypnosis techniques to help reduce stress as a part of an overall cancer treatment program. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's social work supervisor Aida Molano, who has taught hypnosis and self-hypnosis classes at the center for the last 16 years, is offering a 30-minute self-hypnosis CD online as a free download.

According to Molano, hypnosis can help patients and caregivers offset sleeping difficulties, fear of medical procedures, problems concentrating, pain and fatigue using hypnosis techniques. If interested, by clicking on this link, you can download the free 30-minute self-hypnosis CD.

I'm Too Young For This! (i2y) is a recently launched portal for adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors. Featured i2y resources and support services include survivor spa retreats, online forums and blogs, social networking, camping excursions, fertility education, peer counseling, and financial scholarships.

"The i2y website is primed to become a premiere online resource for AYAs with cancer by eliminating the stress and hassle of navigating through thousands of search engine results," said Matthew Zachary, founder and executive director of Steps For Living and an 11-year young adult survivor of pediatric brain cancer. "Our goal to make I'm Too Young For This! the first place adolescents and young adults with cancer think of to go when in search of credible, targeted support programs, tools and services."

"This website is just what the doctor ordered. Now, with the click of a mouse, they can instantly connect with a universe of others just like them." Doug Ulman, Chief Mission Officer for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and a 10-year young adult survivor says, "We are pleased that Steps For Living is dedicated to making a difference in cancer advocacy for this community."

To raise awareness for the i2y organization, the AYA Steps For Living musician/cancer survivors have released a 21-track benefit CD featuring their original songs and music. You can listen to the playlist here. Included in the album is an i2y online resource guide.

The tagline of i2y reads: Got Cancer? Under 40? Sucks, huh? Get Busy Living. Indeed, if you are between the ages of 15-39, i2y is a destination meant just for you. If you are a caregiver or friend of a teen or young adult who is facing the challenges of cancer survivorship, let them know about i2y. This is a phenomenal group of artists, musicians, writers and photographers who, as young adult cancer survivors, got busy living. Visit I'm Too Young For This! to learn more.

Living and managing metastatic breast cancer can be challenging however, with some knowledge and support, you can face the disease head-on. HER Connection is a program designed to provide you with resources you need to help you understand more about your disease. Enroll today and receive important information about your condition, your treatment options, and how to partner with your healthcare team. In addition, you will receive a complimentary music CD - Healing Sounds.

Once the enrollment form has been submitted you will receive a personalized Doctor Discussion Guide to print out, with essential information, including:

• Descriptions of the specialists who may be part of your healthcare team
• Explanations of the roles and responsibilities of these different team members
• Questions on a range of issues you may want to ask the different members of your team as you confront metastatic cancer

You will also receive several emails, all customized specifically for you based on the information you provide on the registration form.

Each year, Hallmark offers a specially-designed, one-of-a-kind greeting card in honor of breast cancer awareness month to remind women of the importance of early detection. Consumers can join the cause -- Cards for the Cure -- by picking up these cards at Hallmark Gold Crown retail shops and by sending them to women in their lives. Cards are available while supplies last through October 31. And they are free.

Hallmark has supported the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for eight years now -- and in addition to the Cards for the Cure initiative, Hallmark offers several items for sale and will donate 10 percent of profits to the Komen Foundation. The breast cancer awareness gift collection includes an exclusive CD by Grammy award winner and breast cancer survivor Olivia Newton-John, a keepsake angel ornament, note cards, a pink suede journal, and pink champagne glasses.

Breast cancer awareness is a personal initiative for those at Hallmark. It has touched family and friends and employees and customers. And so they are commitment to the cause. And they have already made a difference with the $2.3 million they have donated over the years to the Komen Foundation.

In 1998, former Beatles Sir Paul McCartney lost his beloved wife Linda to breast cancer. At the time, she had been helping him work on his fourth classical album Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart). When Linda died, Paul says in his grief the music stopped and he could not work for a year.

Ecce Cor Meum is an orchestral work in four movements. Interlude is Paul's tribute to Linda. BBC News has quoted Paul as saying, "There is an interlude in the middle of Ecce Cor Meum which is a very sad piece of music. My colleague and I remember actually sitting at the keyboard just weeping when we were doing this piece. It does it to me every time. It was a very, very emotional, very sad time for me, obviously, losing Linda."

Last Sunday was Linda's birthday. The album Ecce Cor Meum, recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, was released on Monday. For Paul, the timing of the release of this work is meaningful. If you plan to be in London on November 4, Ecce Cor Meum will be performed live at the Royal Albert Hall.

Ecce Cor Meum is available for sale at Amazon, with short audio samplings of Spiritus; Gratia; Interlude (Lament); Musica and Ecce Cor Meum. Some of the pieces have a delicate haunting sadness and an exquisitely beautiful emotional quality that makes the music superb. Ecce Cor Meum is a moving tribute of love and remembrance.

A chemical found in hard plastics -- such as CD cases, baby bottles, food-storage containers, and even electronics parts -- has been loosely linked to incidences of breast cancer. Popular opinion cautions that if we were not worried about this news yesterday, we should not be worried about it today -- because studies are preliminary and nothing is definitive at this point. But there are definitely two sides to the debate over how harmful these hard plastics may be.

The chemical in question -- a pseudo-estrogen called bisphenol-A (BPA) -- appears to be absorbed by breast tumor cells, according to a new study published in the August 28 issue of Chemistry & Biology. Previous studies have linked small exposures of BPA to prostate abnormalities in mice that suggest a link between the plastic chemical and human prostate cancer. Some studies even theorize that embryonic and fetal exposure might influence mental retardation and birth defects. And because this pseudo-estrogen is a synthetic material that in human cells can trigger estrogenic effects, breast cancer now comes up as a disease that may result from this questionable chemical.

Critics say that average levels of the chemical found in urine is infinitesimally small -- about one part per billion. Some say the results of this research come from in-vitro studies that one expert says can never fully explain human disease. Yet the real crux of the matter, according to another expert, is that we are surrounded by all sorts of chemicals that are pseudo-estrogenic -- not just BPA -- and it's the cumulative effects that we do need to worry about.

Sing for the Cure CD is a profound musical journey chronicling the experiences of women diagnosed with breast cancer. Narrated by Poet Laureate Dr. Maya Angelou, and featuring the performances of librettist Pamela Martin, the Turtle Creek Chorale and the Women's Chorus of Dallas, the CD offers original songs that capture the emotions of ten composers.

The selections on the Sing for the Cure CD include Prelude For The Uncommon Woman; The Community's Voice; Who Will Speak?; Facing Diagnosis; Borrowed Time; The Partner's Voice; The Promise Lives On; Taking Control; Livin' Out Loud Blues; The Child's Voice; The Sister's Voice; Girl In The Mirror; The Mother's Voice; Who Will Curl My Daughter's Hair; Pursuing A Cure; Groundless Ground; Proclaiming Hope; One Voice: I Will Not Be Silent; Testimonial and Come To Me, Mother.

Live concert performances of Sing for the Cure, dedicated to those affected by breast cancer, have been held in more than 50 US cities, including Carnegie Hall in New York City. The Sing for the Cure CD is available through the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation gift shop.

Steps For Living just released an inspirational CD fittingly called Both Sides of the Coin by friend and concert pianist Mathew Zachery and Dr. Adam Dachman, an osteopathic surgical oncologist and composer. Zachery a cancer survivor and Dachman a cancer surgeon have produced an 18 song collection of songs that are both relaxing and uplifting. The CD sales for $15 and the total net proceeds of this CD will go to the Steps For Living non profit. What does Steps For Living do?

What does it mean to be a cancer survivor? Steps for Living reaches inside this question and gives answers from a survivor's eyes. Steps For Living non profit and their Art of Survivorship program is working hard to reach the fall 2007 deadline they have chosen to release their Toolkit For Living that includes a comprehensive survivorship 'yellow pages', along with the 22 track Sounds Of Hope compilation audio CD featuring music by cancer survivors and for cancer survivors. There is a lot of information out there on the Internet to sift through when you're trying to find survivorship resources. Steps For Living is taking some of the work out of that for you by compiling a directory to assist you in your survivor resource needs. Their Art of Survivorship program is an educational cancer advocacy project that harnesses the power of music and the arts to foster health literacy and raise awareness for the cause of cancer survivorship.

I have to proudly and selflessly give shouts to the artists on the Sounds of Hope compilation CD that will be included in the Toolkit For Living directory, since I am one of the 22 and also know some of the artists participating in this program. I have enjoyed listening to a preproduction advance copy of the compilation CD of these artists on a daily basis to keep me inspired. So forgive me but kudos to the following in order of appearance on the compilation CD; David M. Bailey, Christine Baze, Vicki Blankenship, Cindy Bullens, Kevin Carlberg, Suzanne Ciani, Adam Dachman, Kyler England, Kevin Hearn, Laura Higgins, Clint Holmes, Eliot Popkin, Mara, The Readings, Denise Rich, Teri Scheinzeit, John Schrader, Michael Tiernan, Michael Troy, and Mathew Zachery who just happens to be the Founder of Steps For Living.

South Beach, FL Producer/Recording Artist Sandra Grace is donating part of the proceeds of her new CD "Do You Have A Lover?" to breast cancer research and awareness in honor of her mother, aunt, and some dear friends who have survived breast cancer and inspired the music on the album. She will personally autograph and mail out each CD ordered from her website in July 2006. The CD sells for $9.99.

As for the music, "Do You Have A Lover?" can best be described as Madonna meets Fran Drescher! It's a good work-out album: electronica with dance and progressive house influence, and a pop ballad snuck in for cool-down. I know I for one can use a new work out CD to exercise to. To get an advance copy of "Do You Have A Lover?", please visit her website here. 

Sandra Grace was just recently featured on the cover of  Express, a South Florida newspaper, with Lily Tomlin and George Bush!

Hey U.G.L.Y. Unique. Gifted. Lovable. You., an organization that develops self-esteem building tools for teens, asked celebrities to donate their laughter for a fundraising CD of contagious laughter called Laugh It Off. According to the president of Hey U.G.L.Y. Betty Hoeffner, "We know the healing powers of laughter and how it can improve health and relieve stress." Past research has shown, from a biological standpoint, that laughter and humor do have healing power.

Why a CD of celebrity laughter? "When we saw other charities asking celebrities to donate things like purses, shoes and even bras, we thought celebrities donating their laughter would be a perfect fit," explains Hoeffner. Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Rick Erwin, the 60-minute CD and includes the laughter of: Jimmy Neutron voice talent, Debi Derryberry; Emmy-award winning actor/comedian Ben Hollis; JBTV host, Jerry Bryant; and commercial voice talent, Richard Schoen; Saturday Night Live's Tim Kazurinsky; Frank Sinatra's opening act comedian, Tom Dreesen; nationally syndicated radio host, Mancow Muller; and Late Show with David Letterman regular, Bob Sarlatte. One woman wrote Hey U.G.L.Y. that her brother, who has cancer, listens to the CD three times a day and loves it.

Can laughter cure cancer? Not by itself -- but there are numerous studies that show laughter initiates a powerful biological process of feel-good healing chemicals that support and strengthen the immune system. We have done several posts here, here, here, here, here and here about the healing power of humor and the laughter associated with it.

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is featuring Maria Friedman in one of the profiles of people making a difference. Friedman, a breast cancer survivor and cancer prevention advocate, is a remarkable woman and actress, who decided the show must go on despite a breast cancer diagnosis, surgery and treatment. She continued to perform on the Broadway stage in The Woman in White, and even recorded a new CD of songs with composer Stephen Sondheim. During the month of May, you can watch her sing at New York's landmark Carlyle Hotel.

Friedman -- the mother of two -- chose to appear on NBC Nightly News because she wants women to know that they can survive breast cancer and live a full life. She also wants women to get checked and to pay attention to any changes in their body. She found the lump on her own, and because of its location, it would not have been picked up with a mammogram. Friedman emphasized that the breast is a much larger area than most women think of it, going up to the collarbone and wrapping down under the arm. You can read the rest of the television interview and watch a video of the interview here.

To benefit the National Breast Cancer Foundation, NBCF, Discovergirls is releasing a new CD, Catalyst18, featuring original pop, rock, and alternative songs from 18 female singer songwriters. All proceeds from the sale of the CD will go to the breast cancer charity. Since 1998, Discovergirls has maintained an online portfolio for aspiring film actresses, recording artists, and fashion models. Discovergirls founder, David Selig, a 23-year cancer survivor, produced Catalyst18 to help fund research for a cancer cure.

The Discovergirls press release quotes Monica Moore, producer of ABC’s Good Morning America, as saying, “Clear Channel Communications believes that the artists on Catalyst18 are as talented as the icons routinely heard on commercial radio stations today, the only difference being that the Catalyst18 artists simply have not had the exposure of people like Cheryl Crow, Alanis Morrissette, or Melissa Etheridge." To learn more about the Catalyst18 CD, the female artists performing on it, and hear sound clips of the songs, visit the Catalyst18 website.