Ever think of your body as a symphony, its tiniest cells producing waves of energy, sending signals and messages that work in synchrony to keep the body healthy – or to repair it when something goes awry?

That was the talk among some 40 researchers, doctors, physicists, musicians and music therapists who gathered at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne for the national Alliance for Research in Music Medicine conference. IPFW has a music therapy program, which made the school a good fit, organizers said.

“The goal is to bring scientists and musicians together to explore the healing effects of sound and music,” said Dr. Angela LaSalle, a Fort Wayne endocrinologist and co-founder of the 3-year-old alliance.

“Frequency and vibrations play a vital role in the function of the body,” said Claude Swanson, physicist and author of “The Synchronized Universe.”

“The body is a complex symphony of different parts, but they all communicate,” he said, pointing out how the body’s internal vibrations – the minuscule movement of cells – make waves. When the waves reproduce they make “the blueprint of our body.” The waves produce energy in short and long wave-lengths and with varying pitches.

“Health means these vibrations work together,” Swanson said. “The basis of life is the balance and interplay of the elements of this symphony. If an instrument is out of tune or too weak or strong, this corresponds to illness,” he added, noting the biophysicist embraces the premise that “activities between molecules are synchronized like an orchestra.”

University of Arizona researcher Melinda Connor’s presentation focused on the role of water in the body.

“Water is not just H2O,” she said.

While the compound does not change chemically, water contains different clusters that microscopy has uncovered. “The nano bubbles change,” she said.

In several experiments at the Optimal Health Research Program at the University of Arizona, she and colleagues found that water may carry memory. Subjects focused on water in jars for a period of time, picturing an unnamed object inside the water. Then they shook the water, after which other subjects came into the room, were given blank paper and told to write their thoughts and what they pictured, if anything, inside. Each of the 16 jars of water had, on average, five exact matches to the item pictured by both subject groups; 10 matches were allegorical, or described within the writing.

The body is mostly water, and Connor said the research findings suggest further studies should be done to determine whether the water is a “secondary system in the body that is storing memories.” For a military veteran who is struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), understanding that the memories of his war experiences may be not only stored in the brain but in the body’s water could be important.

“We don’t know how much of the body’s water is stable,” or remains for a lifetime, she said.

Other speakers discussed how the brain is affected by music. Mark Rider from the University of North Texas and author of “the Rhythmic Language of Health and Disease” said the brains of healthier people have more plasticity and can change more quickly and are more responsive to music, which has neuro-immunological implications. Rider is a psychologist, brain researcher and music therapist.

Miku Isobe, a music therapy intern at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill, said learning more about the effects of both internal and external sounds on the body helps her better understand what is occurring in her patients’ bodies.

“Research like this helps support what we do in music therapy,” said Rachel Brummett, who is also an intern at Lutheran General in Illinois. Through music at the bedside, “We see physiological and spiritual changes in our patients. We see their pulse lower, breathing deepen, their oxygen saturations go up.”

The general perception that mainstream medicine – and insurance companies – have about music as treatment is that it’s not proved, LaSalle said. “So the challenge is to go get the science. That’s what we’re doing here.” The goal is not to replace traditional treatment methods but to include music “into the repertoire,” she said.