The People's Pharmacy

<p>Pain is an important warning signal, helping you protect your body from damage. That’s why we can view acute pain as an asset. Chronic pain, though, can be debilitating. In this episode, a pain psychologist offers a roadmap for managing chronic pain.</p> <p><em>At The People’s Pharmacy, we strive to bring you up to date, rigorously researched insights and conversations about health, medicine, wellness and health policies and health systems. While these conversations intend to offer insight and perspective, the content is provided solely for informational and educational purposes. Please consult your healthcare provider before making any changes to your medical care or treatment.</em></p> <h2>How You Can Listen</h2> <p>You could listen through your local public radio station or get the live stream at 7 am EST on Saturday, June 13, 2026, through your computer or smart phone (<a href="https://www.wunc.org">wunc.org</a>). <a href="https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/find-a-radio-station">Here is a link</a> so you can find which stations carry our broadcast. If you can’t listen to the broadcast, you may wish to hear the podcast later. You can subscribe through your favorite podcast provider, download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of the page, or listen to the stream on this post starting on June 15, 2026.</p> <h2>Managing Chronic Pain</h2> <p>Nobody likes feeling pain. Joe remembers that as a child, he would ask the doctors and nurses if the procedure was going to hurt. They always lied and told him it would not. As a result, he ended up not trusting them.</p> <p>We often think of pain as located in the body part that hurts (hence, tell me where it hurts). In actuality, though, pain is a complex phenomenon the brain and its interpretation of the situation at least as much as the body. That is why Dr. Rachel Zoffness maintains that pain is biopsychosocial–the result of three overlapping circles in a Venn diagram: biological, psychological and sociological. The biological circle includes our genetics, tissue damage, diet, sleep and movement. Psychological factors are never just psychological. The brain uses the same limbic system to process emotions and pain, so our feelings about our situation have a major impact on our pain experience. In the sociological realm, we find access to care, a history of trauma, and factors like racism or poverty. One result is that pain is incredibly subjective, varying from one individual to another and even from day to day.</p> <p>Another example of the power of the brain to generate pain is phantom limb pain. You may have heard of someone whose foot hurts even though the leg was amputated. Dr. Zoffness tells us about a boy with hand pain after a fireworks accident that resulted in his arm being amputated. The hand wasn’t there, but the pain was real.</p> <h2>What Is Your Pain Recipe?</h2> <p>In managing chronic pain, it helps to know what your pain recipe is. What factors contribute to a bad pain day? A few common ones are poor sleep, too much junk in the diet, lots of stress, too little movement. Once you have the recipe for a bad pain day, you may be able to turn that around to find the recipe for a low pain day. If you get enough sleep, does that turn down the pain dial? How about diet?</p> <p>We also discuss the power of self-hypnosis and biofeedback. If you can practice warming your hands up, as Dr. Zoffness has learned to do, you can also practice making yourself more comfortable. She shares another story of a teenager who suffered from crippling migraines, social anxiety and generalized body pain. He had not been to school in years, but taking very small steps at first–just standing in the sun on his front porch–he was gradually able to build himself a low-pain recipe. Taking the dog to the dog park helped him move his body and his brain started producing chemicals like dopamine and serotonin. Eventually Sam was able to return to high school, even graduating.</p> <h2>Using Pain Medicines in Managing Chronic Pain</h2> <p>Physicians have often learned that managing chronic pain is something of a prescription puzzle. Which drug will work best for this patient? A decade or more ago, the answer was frequently opioids. That’s no longer the case. As a result of the overdose epidemic, doctors usually try to prescribe some other type of medication. Two of the most popular are gabapentin and tramadol.</p> <p>When our listeners tell us about their experience with gabapentin, the results range widely. For some people, it seems to be a life-changing medication. For many others, it is lackluster at best, and for some, the side effects of brain fog, dizziness, breathing problems, edema and an increased risk of dementia are too much.</p> <p>Dr. Zoffness has heard similar reports about gabapentin. Her guideline for pain medicine is to try it for three months and see if it makes a (positive) difference. If not, ask the prescriber to help you taper off. Stopping any pain medicine suddenly could be a mistake. For managing chronic pain, people need a healthcare professional who can help them create a personalized pain management plan. For improving sleep, which is often a key ingredient in the pain recipe, she recommends cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI). The sleep hygiene protocol she suggests can also be helpful, dimming lights and gearing down as the day comes to a close.</p> <h2>The Roadmap for Managing Chronic Pain</h2> <p>The last section of Dr. Zoffness’s book is a detailed pain protocol. She reminds us that there is no quick hack for pain. If trauma is part of the pain recipe, addressing the trauma will be useful. Medications are important tools, but they are not a permanent fix for chronic pain. She wants us all to remember that if the brain can change, pain can change. It is in our power.</p> <h2>This Week&#8217;s Guest</h2> <p>Dr. Rachel Zoffness is a leading global pain expert, pain psychologist, speaker, author, and thought leader in pain medicine. She is faculty at the UCSF School of Medicine, teaches pain science at Stanford, and is a winner of the prestigious Mayday Fellowship. Dr. Zoffness is the author of <a href="https://amzn.to/4fEJqDl"><em>Tell Me Where It Hurts: The New Science of Pain and How to Heal</em></a>. Her website is <a href="https://www.zoffness.com/">www.zoffness.com</a></p> <div id="attachment_140251" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-140251" class="size-medium_large wp-image-140251" src="https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Zoffness-Headshot-Main-768x927.jpeg" alt="Rachel Zoffness, PhD, author of Tell Me Where It Hurts" width="768" height="927" srcset="https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Zoffness-Headshot-Main-248x300.jpeg 248w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Zoffness-Headshot-Main-848x1024.jpeg 848w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/l7LJZvI2-Zoffness-Headshot-Main-124x150.jpeg 124w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Zoffness-Headshot-Main-768x927.jpeg 768w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Zoffness-Headshot-Main-420x507.jpeg 420w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Zoffness-Headshot-Main-290x350.jpeg 290w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Zoffness-Headshot-Main-166x200.jpeg 166w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Zoffness-Headshot-Main-99x120.jpeg 99w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Zoffness-Headshot-Main-400x483.jpeg 400w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Zoffness-Headshot-Main-160x193.jpeg 160w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Zoffness-Headshot-Main.jpeg 1080w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /><p id="caption-attachment-140251" class="wp-caption-text">Dr. Rachel Zoffness, pain expert at UCSF</p></div> <p>The People’s Pharmacy is reader supported. When you buy through links in this post, we may earn a small affiliate commission (at no cost to you).</p> <h2>Listen to the Podcast</h2> <p>The podcast of this program will be available Monday, June 15, 2026, after broadcast on June 13. You can stream the show from this site and download the podcast for free.</p> <p>Download the <a href="https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/store/radio-shows/show-1476-tell-me-where-it-hurts-a-roadmap-for-managing-chronic-pain">mp3</a>, or listen to the podcast on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peoples-pharmacy/id268003768">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4fRFa83kT7XUZQAaT6sYid">Spotify</a>.</p>

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<p>You may think of allergies as causing sniffly noses and congestion in the spring or fall. But allergies can go far beyond that. As Dr. Kari Nadeau points out in this episode, allergies can affect us from head to toe, including eyes, nose, throat, lungs, sinuses, skin and gut. In the most dangerous instances, the whole body is threatened with an anaphylactic reaction. That’s a medical emergency! One in three Americans will develop allergies at some point in our lives, so it’s important to know what works to control them.</p> <p><em>At The People’s Pharmacy, we strive to bring you up to date, rigorously researched insights and conversations about health, medicine, wellness and health policies and health systems. While these conversations intend to offer insight and perspective, the content is provided solely for informational and educational purposes. Please consult your healthcare provider before making any changes to your medical care or treatment.</em></p> <h2>How You Can Listen</h2> <p>You could listen through your local public radio station or get the live stream at 7 am EST on Saturday, June 6, 2026, through your computer or smart phone (<a href="https://www.wunc.org">wunc.org</a>).  <a href="https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/find-a-radio-station">Here is a link</a> so you can find which stations carry our broadcast. (Welcome, Huntsville, Alabama!) If you can’t listen to the broadcast, you may wish to hear the podcast later. You can subscribe through your favorite podcast provider, download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of the page, or listen to the stream on this post starting on June 8, 2026.</p> <h2>What Are Allergies?</h2> <p>We begin our discussion of your allergy survival guide with an explanation of what is happening during an allergic reaction. The immune system perceives some foreign compound, usually a protein, as dangerous even though normally it would not be. So it reacts by trying to flush the invader out by producing extra mucus. The turbinate sinuses can make one to two gallons of mucus a day, and naturally, it has to go somewhere. That’s why you might be congested. Having all that mucus in the sinuses can also encourage bacterial growth, so if the allergic reaction persists, some people have to deal with sinus infections.</p> <h2>Emergency Treatment</h2> <p>In determining what works, you need to know the nature of the reaction. If you have two or more organs involved, if you are having trouble breathing or if you feel dizzy, you may be in the midst of an anaphylactic reaction. What works for that is an epinephrine injection and immediate medical attention. This is potentially life-threatening, so you will want to figure out what triggered the reaction so you can avoid it in the future. Once someone has suffered one anaphylactic reaction, they should keep epinephrine with them at all times in case of another episode. Epinephrine comes as a self-injector pen or a nasal spray (<a href="https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/will-new-epinephrine-shot-be-more-affordable">neffy</a>).</p> <h2>Can You Spot Drug Allergies?</h2> <p>In the warnings that are rattled off as part of a TV ad for a pricey new drug, we often hear viewers cautioned not to take the medicine if they are allergic to it. That sounds like simple common sense, but it also has a Catch 22 quality. How do you know you are allergic to a medication unless you take it–and experience an allergic reaction for which you might need treatment. Most of these presumably are immune system-mediated reactions, in which the body produces IgE. That is how allergies to penicillin or sulfa drugs work.</p> <p>Some drugs cause a different type of reaction, not IgE-mediated but dangerous nonetheless. Lisinopril is the most commonly prescribed blood pressure medicine in this country. Like other ACE (ACE is short for angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitor medications, lisinopril can trigger <a href="https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/lisinopril-and-angioedema-a-life-threatening-side-effect">angioedema</a>. This swelling can affect the face, lips, tongue and throat, where it can compromise breathing. The most insidious aspect of this reaction is that it can occur after the person has been taking the drug without problems for weeks, months or even years. “Red man syndrome” or infusion reactions in people taking vancomycin can likewise occur without warning.</p> <p>The last type of drug reaction is not actually an allergy at all, although people occasionally use that terminology. It is better described as sensitivity. For example, a stomachache is a common reaction to the antibiotic erythromycin. Some people are disabled by this abdominal pain and try to limit their exposure to erythromycin thereafter.</p> <h2>What Works and What Doesn’t?</h2> <p>Since the immune system is acting inappropriately to cause allergic reactions, treatment should involve immunotherapy. Eye drops can help eyes feel less itchy and irritated. Likewise, OTC nose drops or nasal sprays can often help the nose. The corticosteroid <strong>Flonase</strong> (fluticasone) and the antihistamine <strong>Astepro</strong> (azelastine) are good examples. During allergy season, some people find that a daily nasal wash (with a neti pot or <strong>NeilMed</strong> device) can help reduce the mucus and remove the allergens such as pollen causing the reaction. There are also oral antihistamines and inhalers for asthma. For decades now, allergists have offered their patients shots to help desensitize them to the allergen causing their trouble. Joe had these as a child and teenager and has been largely free of allergies since. Not everyone gets such lasting relief.</p> <h2>Complications from Current Therapies</h2> <p>Medications have side effects, and that is true of allergy medicines as with other drugs. Antihistamines, especially the older ones like <strong>Benadryl</strong> (diphenhydramine), are notorious for causing drowsiness. That’s one reason it is often included in nighttime pain relievers as the “PM” in drugs like <strong>Advil PM</strong>. We worry about regular use of such antihistamines because it has been linked to a greater risk for dementia.</p> <p>A second-generation antihistamine such as <strong>Allegra</strong> (fexofenadine) is much less likely to make someone feel sleepy. However, Dr. Nadeau has seen patients on antihistamines suffer worse allergies if they stop suddenly. The People’s Pharmacy has received hundreds of reports from people who experienced unbearable itching upon discontinuing <strong>Zyrtec</strong> (cetirizine) or <strong>Xyzal</strong> (levocetirizine). This can last for weeks.</p> <p>Doctors don’t usually worry much about steroid nasal sprays like Flonase because they are topical. Presumably, nasal tissues pick up most of the dose. Just the same, using such a nose spray day after day for a long time could result in systemic steroid exposure that is not trivial.</p> <h2>Stronger Medicine</h2> <p>Dr. Nadeau is enthusiastic about the benefits of two potent prescription medicines. One is <strong>Xolair</strong> (omalizumab). It was originally developed to prevent asthma, but is now approved for chronic sinusitis, food allergies and chronic hives. Paradoxically, Xolair is one of those medicines that could cause a severe allergic reaction even on the first dose, so the FDA warns that the initial injection should be given in a healthcare setting prepared to treat anaphylaxis. This is uncommon, though, occurring in 0.1 to 0.2% of patients.</p> <p>The other medication Dr. Nadeau is prescribing for allergy patients who don’t respond well to other treatments is <strong>Dupixent</strong> (dupilumab). The FDA has approved this medicine to treat a wide range of conditions, including eczema, asthma, chronic sinusitis, allergic reactions affecting the esophagus and chronic hives, among other things. Most insurance companies will not cover this pricey injection unless the patient has failed all other therapies.</p> <h2>Fighting Air Pollution: What Works</h2> <p>Air pollution makes allergy symptoms worse, so using an effective air filter inside the home is a good step. A HEPA (high-efficiency particulate-arresting) filter is ideal, especially as part of the air-handling system. If that’s not possible, utilizing a MERV 13 in the part of the home where you spend the most time is a good second choice.</p> <h3>Sonu</h3> <p>One new option for treating allergies is acoustic resonance therapy with the SoundHealth Sonu headband. It uses vibration from sound to loosen mucus from the sinuses so that they can clear. The FDA has approved its use for children as well as adults. New research was just published demonstrating its helpfulness in treating children with nasal congestion (<a href="https://aao-hnsfjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oto2.70247"><em>Oto-Open</em>, April-June 2026</a>).</p> <p>SoundHealth has underwritten The People’s Pharmacy podcast. Dr. Nadeau has also been compensated for her role in conducting studies of this device (<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41158109/"><em>International Forum of Allergy &amp; Rhinology</em>, Dec. 2025</a>). Since it does not employ medications, there are no drug side effects.</p> <h2>This Week&#8217;s Guest</h2> <p>Kari C. Nadeau, M.D., Ph.D., is Dean of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health ( starting July 1 2026). Until then, she holds many other positions. At Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health she is: John Rock Professor of Climate and Population Studies; Chair of the Department of Environmental Health; and Director of the Allergy, Extreme Weather, and Exposomics Lab. Dr. Nadeau is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and serves in the Division of Allergy and Inflammation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford Medical School. Dr. Nadeau is also the co-author of <em>The End of Food Allergy,</em> which provides strategies for treating and preventing food allergies in children. <a href="https://hsph.harvard.edu/nadeau-lab/news/food-allergy-news-updates/">Here is a link</a> to the research underway in her Harvard laboratory.</p> <div id="attachment_140176" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-140176" class="size-medium_large wp-image-140176" src="https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/KN-Headshot.JPG-768x1152.jpeg" alt="Kari Nadeau, MD, PhD, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health" width="768" height="1152" srcset="https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/KN-Headshot.JPG-200x260.jpeg 200w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/KN-Headshot.JPG-683x1024.jpeg 683w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/A3xmTE7h-KN-Headshot.JPG-100x150.jpeg 100w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/KN-Headshot.JPG-768x1152.jpeg 768w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/KN-Headshot.JPG-1024x1536.jpeg 1024w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/KN-Headshot.JPG-420x630.jpeg 420w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/KN-Headshot.JPG-290x435.jpeg 290w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/KN-Headshot.JPG-133x200.jpeg 133w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/KN-Headshot.JPG-80x120.jpeg 80w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/KN-Headshot.JPG-400x600.jpeg 400w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/KN-Headshot.JPG-160x240.jpeg 160w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/KN-Headshot.JPG-scaled.jpeg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /><p id="caption-attachment-140176" class="wp-caption-text">PHOTO CREDIT: STACY GEIKEN<br />Taken in April 2017 at Kari Nadeau&#8217;s professorship dinner</p></div> <p><a href="https://amzn.to/4vtCQnP"><em>The End of Food Allergy: The Science-Based Plan That Turns Food into Medicine</em></a></p> <p>The People’s Pharmacy is reader supported. When you buy through links in this post, we may earn a small affiliate commission (at no cost to you).</p> <h2>Listen to the Podcast</h2> <p>The podcast of this program will be available Monday, June 8, 2026, after broadcast on June 6. You can stream the show from this site and download the podcast for free. This episode has additional information about <strong>Nasalcrom</strong> (cromolyn sodium nasal spray) and its effect on mast cells; alpha gal allergy to red meat; and the latest thinking on preventing peanut allergy among young children.</p> <p><a href="https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/store/radio-shows/show-1475-your-allergy-survival-guide-what-works-what-doesnt-whats-risky">Download the mp3</a>, or listen to the podcast on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peoples-pharmacy/id268003768">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4fRFa83kT7XUZQAaT6sYid">Spotify</a>.</p>

<p>Over the years, we have spoken with scores of healthcare experts about chronic illness. Many of them attribute the problems to inflammation, which is after all a natural response to infection or injury. But not everyone has a system for locating and addressing the source of the inflammation. If you want to treat the cause, not just the symptoms of your disease, you might want to consider functional medicine.</p> <p><em>At The People’s Pharmacy, we strive to bring you up to date, rigorously researched insights and conversations about health, medicine, wellness and health policies and health systems. While these conversations intend to offer insight and perspective, the content is provided solely for informational and educational purposes. Please consult your healthcare provider before making any changes to your medical care or treatment.</em></p> <h2>How You Can Listen:</h2> <p>You could listen through your local public radio station or get the live stream at 7 am EST on Saturday, May 30, 2026, through your computer or smart phone (<a href="https://www.wunc.org">wunc.org</a>).  <a href="https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/find-a-radio-station">Here is a link</a> so you can find which stations carry our broadcast. If you can’t listen to the broadcast, you may wish to hear the podcast later. You can subscribe through your favorite podcast provider, download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of the page, or listen to the stream on this post starting on June 1, 2026.</p> <h2>What Is Functional Medicine?</h2> <p>Many people have heard of integrative medicine. We asked our guest, Dr. Susan Payrovi, how this differs from functional medicine. (She practices both.) According to Dr. Payrovi, while both approaches embrace lifestyle therapies, integrative medicine may focus on individual organ systems, just as conventional medicine does. Functional medicine, on the other hand, is more likely to focus on how the body works. What functional systems are involved when a person experiences fatigue, for example? If there is a problem with the way the body produces energy, how could that be resolved?</p> <p>If you are dealing with a problem caused by underlying inflammation, you could prescribe a potent anti-inflammatory or even a medicine that counteracts the immune system’s response to danger by blocking interleukins, for example. Or you could search upstream for the disturbance that is causing the immune system to overreact. Going upstream to find the cause is the functional medicine approach.</p> <h2>Sending the Body Safety Signals</h2> <p>If inflammation is a response to a danger signal, how can we let the immune system know that the body is safe? Lifestyle therapies offer some powerful interventions, even though they may sound very ordinary. Getting adequate sleep can make a huge difference for the immune system and lower inflammation dramatically. Stress management is another potent non-pharmaceutical approach. Consuming a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods or even medicinal herbs could also contribute to a sense of safety and reduced inflammation.</p> <h2>The Silo Problem of Modern Medicine</h2> <p>We have spoken with many people who have struggled with a disease that manifests in multiple symptoms. They end up seeing a variety of specialists who don’t seem to communicate with each other. NO tool manages every condition. Too often, specialists pay attention only to the specific organ that they are assigned, and as a result, nobody puts the big picture together for a long time. The hope is that functional medicine would do a much better job for such patients, including those whose suffering has an emotional, psychological or spiritual aspect.</p> <h2>Functional Medicine and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome</h2> <p>One example where patients are demanding more of their medical care is chronic fatigue syndrome. Conventional medicine has a notoriously difficult time treating such patients. Coaching patients on small but important lifestyle changes is one approach that functional medicine can offer. Pacing and learning to prioritize are vital skills for such patients. Dr. Payrovi learned a lot about the value of such approaches in dealing with her own illness, multiple sclerosis.</p> <h2>Finding a Functional Medicine Practitioner</h2> <p>People looking for a functional medicine practitioner can consult the Institute for Functional Medicine. The organization lists practitioners on its website, <a href="https://www.ifm.org">ifm.org</a>. So does the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine, <a href="https://aihm.org">aihm.org</a>.</p> <h2>This Week&#8217;s Guest</h2> <p>Susan Payrovi, MD, is a physician practicing Integrative and Functional Medicine at Stanford’s Center for Integrative Medicine. Dr. Payrovi is board certified in Anesthesiology, Hospice and Palliative Medicine, as well as Integrative Medicine. She has additional training in Functional Medicine and acupuncture.<br /> <a href="https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/susan-payrovi">https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/susan-payrovi</a>. Her website is <a href="https://www.drsusanpayrovi.com/">drsusanpayrovi.com</a>.</p> <div id="attachment_140110" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-140110" class="size-full wp-image-140110" src="https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Payrovi_headshot.jpg" alt="Dr. Susan Payrovi, Stanford University Center for Integrative Medicine" width="500" height="500" srcset="https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Payrovi_headshot-300x300.jpg 300w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/4GQb6pEz-Payrovi_headshot-150x150.jpg 150w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Payrovi_headshot-420x420.jpg 420w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Payrovi_headshot-290x290.jpg 290w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Payrovi_headshot-200x200.jpg 200w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/4GQb6pEz-Payrovi_headshot-120x120.jpg 120w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Payrovi_headshot-240x240.jpg 240w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Payrovi_headshot-360x360.jpg 360w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Payrovi_headshot.jpg 500w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /><p id="caption-attachment-140110" class="wp-caption-text">Susan Payrovi, MD</p></div> <h2>Listen to the Podcast</h2> <p>The podcast of this program will be available Monday, June 1, 2026, after broadcast on May 30. You can stream the show from this site and download the podcast for free.</p> <p>Download the <a href="https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/store/radio-shows/show-1474-treating-the-cause-not-just-the-symptoms-with-functional-medicine">mp3</a>, or listen to the podcast on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peoples-pharmacy/id268003768">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4fRFa83kT7XUZQAaT6sYid">Spotify</a>.</p>

<p>What do you conjure up when you think of music? Perhaps you imagine a singer-songwriter telling her story. On the other hand, you might imagine a parade with a marching band, an orchestra playing an outdoor concert or a mother singing her baby to sleep with a lullaby. Regardless of the format, music acts on the brain in unique ways. Neuroscientists are learning how music heals and why healers around the world have integrated music into their rituals for millennia.</p> <p><em>At The People’s Pharmacy, we strive to bring you up to date, rigorously researched insights and conversations about health, medicine, wellness and health policies and health systems. While these conversations intend to offer insight and perspective, the content is provided solely for informational and educational purposes. Please consult your healthcare provider before making any changes to your medical care or treatment.</em></p> <h2>How You Can Listen:</h2> <p>You could listen through your local public radio station or get the live stream at 7 am EST on Saturday, May 23, 2026, through your computer or smart phone (<a href="https://www.wunc.org">wunc.org</a>). <a href="https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/find-a-radio-station">Here is a link</a> so you can find which stations carry our broadcast. If you can’t listen to the broadcast, you may wish to hear the podcast later. You can subscribe through your favorite podcast provider, download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of the page, or listen to the stream on this post starting on May 25, 2026.</p> <h2>How Music Heals</h2> <p>Dr.Elizabeth Margulis directs the Music Cognition Laboratory at Princeton University. This scientific endeavor is devoted to understanding how our brains react to music. One discovery is that music has a lot in common with infant-directed speech. It is highly repetitive with exaggerated pitch modulation. When people talk to babies, they may slow their words down a bit and raise the pitch of their voices. All of these properties make infant-directed speech a lot more like music than the rest of our everyday utterances. Caregivers around the world adopt this sort of “baby-talk” because babies pay attention longer when they do. Is music tapping into the same primal brain responses?</p> <p>Another characteristic of music is that it can trigger emotional responses. These are culturally conditioned; bagpipes do not have the same effects as Tibetan singing bowls. Howe er, the reminiscence triggered by music can be remarkably complete, putting us back in time not only to the place where we heard it before, but even to the bodily sensations that we experienced at that moment. Musical memories are exceptionally persistent. Older people with dementia who can no longer remember important facts about their own lives can often join in singing a popular song from their youth.</p> <h2>The Downsides of Music</h2> <p>Music may have social and political ramifications. Just imagine a chorus singing “We shall overcome,” and you will probably make assumptions about the singers and their values. As a result, we should not be surprised to learn that people may fight over music. Frequently entire generations have genre preferences such as hip hop or rock that are not shared by adjacent generations. How do we approach the music we love to hate? Can we understand how music heals even if we don’t like it very much or at all?</p> <h2>Musical Daydreams Help Us Understand How Music Heals</h2> <p>Dr. Margulis has studied and written about musical daydreams. What does she mean by this?</p> <p>As you watch a movie, you may appreciate the score. But even if you don’t notice it at all, the sound track influences how you understand the action on the screen. Likewise, when most people listen to a piece of music, they may create a visual to go with it. Dr. Margulis offers us an example of a snippet of music by Liszt that evokes for many people an image of a cartoon cat chasing a cartoon mouse. Needless to say, that is not what Liszt was thinking when he composed it, since cartoons did not exist at the time.</p> <h2>Choosing Music for Healing</h2> <p>Joe mentioned the unobtrusive but soothing music playing in the background when he has an acupuncture treatment. Dr. Margulis suggested that music activates motor areas of the brain, and that might help explain the benefit in this setting. We are still learning more about how music heals. This research may some day guide healthcare professionals in choosing music for their practices, even in the hospital.</p> <h2>This Week&#8217;s Guest</h2> <p>Elizabeth Margulis,PhD, is Professor and Acting Chair in the Department of Music, with affiliations in Psychology and Neuroscience. Dr. Margulis directs the <a href="https://www.elizabethmargulis.com/about-music-cognition-lab/">Music Cognition Lab</a> at Princeton University. Her research pursues questions that lie at the intersection of the humanities and the sciences. She was also trained as a pianist. Her most recent book is <em><a href="https://amzn.to/4wOUtQG">Transported: The Everyday Magic of Musical Daydream</a>s</em>.  Her website is <a href="https://www.elizabethmargulis.com/about">https://www.elizabethmargulis.com/about</a></p> <p><a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324095798">This link</a> takes you to the publisher&#8217;s page.</p> <div id="attachment_140026" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-140026" class="size-medium_large wp-image-140026" src="https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Elizabeth-Margulis-2025.jpg-768x1223.jpeg" alt="Elizabeth Margulis, PhD, Princeton University" width="768" height="1223" srcset="https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Elizabeth-Margulis-2025.jpg-188x300.jpeg 188w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Elizabeth-Margulis-2025.jpg-643x1024.jpeg 643w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/lPfhwWHd-Elizabeth-Margulis-2025.jpg-94x150.jpeg 94w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Elizabeth-Margulis-2025.jpg-768x1223.jpeg 768w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Elizabeth-Margulis-2025.jpg-964x1536.jpeg 964w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Elizabeth-Margulis-2025.jpg-1286x2048.jpeg 1286w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Elizabeth-Margulis-2025.jpg-420x669.jpeg 420w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Elizabeth-Margulis-2025.jpg-290x462.jpeg 290w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Elizabeth-Margulis-2025.jpg-126x200.jpeg 126w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Elizabeth-Margulis-2025.jpg-75x120.jpeg 75w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Elizabeth-Margulis-2025.jpg-400x637.jpeg 400w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Elizabeth-Margulis-2025.jpg-160x255.jpeg 160w, https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/peoplespharmacy/Elizabeth-Margulis-2025.jpg-scaled.jpeg 1607w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /><p id="caption-attachment-140026" class="wp-caption-text">Elizabeth Margulis, PhD, Princeton University</p></div> <p>The People’s Pharmacy is reader supported. When you buy through links in this post, we may earn a small affiliate commission (at no cost to you).</p> <h2>Listen to the Podcast</h2> <p>The podcast of this program will be available Monday, May 25, 2026, after broadcast on May 23. You can stream the show from this site and download the podcast for free.</p> <p><a href="https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/store/radio-shows/show-1473-how-music-heals-the-neuroscience-behind-an-ancient-medicine">Download the mp3</a> or listen to the podcast on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peoples-pharmacy/id268003768">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4fRFa83kT7XUZQAaT6sYid">Spotify</a>.</p>