The Mozart effect – how K.448 in D improves gut health

hannagillving
May 1
3 min read

I have written before about some of the healing power of music. It is no mystery that listening to music (perhaps especially when experienced live, with real time instruments and singing) brings immediate effects on our wellbeing and how we feel; sounds, vibrations, communicative musical creations can indeed evoke the whole human spectrum of emotions.

In the past, studies have shown us that music has the power to bring positive impact on a variety of conditions, for example on a mitochondrial level and when recovering from trauma, depression, and other mental, or biochemical, imbalances.

A recent study shows us that music can also bring very interesting benefits to our gut health, or in other words, the environment of the microbiome. This is exciting, because as the Greek physician and philosopher Hippocrates once said, all disease begins in the gut. So, to take good care of it is key for anyone who wants to live a healthy and happy life, who strives to support the body's constant strive a state of homeostasis. And the more natural tools we have to support it, the merrier the gut. Especially when living in such artificial and modern times.

Food for gut health

Supporting the gut is a common thread in everything I do and teach, and eating real food is a key component. Because food is either medicine or poison. The latter can for example be ultra-processed, high-carb food products with hidden sugars and additives, preservatives, and artificial food dyes. Real food is free from chemicals, doesn't come with an ingredient label, and consist of for example grass-grazed animal protein, healthy and natural fats, or healthier carbs such as vegetables, fruits and berries – none of which have gone through any kind of production process. It is simply food.

Food as medicine has always been close to my heart, and I wrote my first book KETO-licious (Bladh by Bladh, 2019) to help guide anyone interested in going back to basics, by eating unprocessed, real foods. One doesn't have to be strictly ketogenic, but ketolicious foods are a great starting point and base to build from. And hey – if you want to explore the benefits of ketosis, that's great! But it is important to press that one way of eating does not fit all. It is all about finding your own best fuel mix, and that can be an exciting, and also a moving, journey. By moving, I mean that throughout life, needs and conditions will vary, and so the best fuel mix will not always look the same during a lifetime. And there is SO much valuable and health-promoting things to take into account and to investigate when exploring and building your best fuel, more than most know, but that's a whole other post.

Back to the Mozart study

Apart from food as medicine, gut health can be improved with different forms of exercise, and other holistic tools. And know we know for a fact that the sounds of Mozart's K.448 can be added to the tool box.

The Mozart study was conducted on 100 mice, which were divided into 4 groups: C, D, A and G.

The C-group was not exposed to music, while the D, A and G groups were exposed to Mozart's K.448, in either D, A and G tone. The study took place during 63 days.

The results

The three groups exposed to music developed a stronger gut barrier, had lower levels of inflammation, more resilient immune markers and overall healthier gut bacteria. In comparison to the mice exposed to silence, the groups D, A and G had doubled levels of beneficial gut bacteria. And the mice which had been exposed to Mozart's K.448 in D tone, stood out; they had developed a significant increase in the abundance of beneficial bacteria. So why not give yourself a dose of Mozart K.448 in D, to set the tone for your day while also boosting your microbiome's homeostasis? Here is a playlist to get you started.

With love,

Hanna