SOAAK App Review: Sound Healing for PMDD

PMDD is a psychological well being situation that impacts about 10 p.c of all menstruating folks, per the Cleveland Clinic. It is a extreme type of PMS characterised by shifts in temper, anxiousness, power, and ache ranges within the 10 to 14 days main as much as your interval. Medical doctors aren’t precisely certain why it occurs, but it surely possible has to do with the steep drop within the hormone progesterone within the days earlier than menstruation, affecting your “feel-good” neurotransmitter serotonin, which regulates sleep, temper, and ache, per the National Institutes of Health.

The standard therapies for PMDD embrace remedy, antidepressants, and life-style modifications like decreasing stress, getting higher sleep, and consuming a balanced weight-reduction plan with wholesome protein and fat, all of which I’ve carried out. Whereas these strategies do work to maintain my PMDD in examine, I nonetheless typically want one thing extra to take the sting off every month (particularly if I am below plenty of stress).

That is the place pure therapeutic modalities come into play. Enter: SOAAK, a sound healing app that simply launched its new frequency composition known as “PMS Assist,” to assist folks handle the signs of PMS and PMDD. I would by no means tried a pure technique for my PMDD, however when given the prospect to strive the app free for 30 days, I jumped on the probability.

Here is my assessment of the SOAAK app’s “PMS Assist” frequency, the app itself, and whether or not sound therapeutic labored to alleviate my most annoying (and typically debilitating) PMDD signs.

First, what’s SOAAK?

SOAAK technologies is a well being tech firm in affiliation RenuYou—an in-person pure clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The corporate began about 9 years in the past when co-founder Henry Penix and firm president Laura Widney mixed their data of know-how and naturopathic therapeutic. When the duo’s in-person shoppers started asking the way to reap the advantages of sound therapeutic remedy within the consolation of their properties, the pair started working with scientists, medical doctors, and app engineers to create the SOAAK app.

Whereas the idea of a sound therapeutic app is pretty new, sound therapeutic remedy itself has existed for generations as a staple of Conventional Japanese medication. You may usually discover tuning forks, Tibetan singing bowls, or gongs utilized in sound bath treatments, to assist folks loosen up and scale back a mess of bodily and psychological well being signs, in line with December 2020 assessment in Integrative Medicine (Encinitas). Even spa-like music throughout a therapeutic massage, or the sounds of nature, might be thought-about sound remedy.

The SOAAK app has 30 totally different sound frequency compositions to select from primarily based in your wants. The most well-liked embrace:

• “Sleep nicely” (for insomnia)
• “Anti-anxiety”
• “Temper enhance”
• “Focus” (for higher focus throughout the day)
• “Headache and migraine assist”
• And now, “PMS assist”

Every 20-minute frequency composition might be downloaded and performed at any time, very like a meditation. Every composition has quite a lot of tones set at totally different Hertz (Hz)—a measurement of sound. Essentially the most generally used frequency in religious therapeutic is 432 Hz, which has additionally been related to lowered coronary heart charge and blood strain, per an August 2019 assessment in Explore: The Journal of Science & Healing. However there are zero to (mainly) a trillion totally different Hz frequencies that may be mixed and customised to satisfy your want, in line with Widney.

You may take heed to frequency compositions of their authentic kind, or layered below sounds of nature or music. Different app options embrace:

• A collection of 21-day packages on varied psychological well being and motivational subjects from scientists, physicians, life coaches, and extra. One instance is “Therapeutic Your Inside Little one” with psychotherapist Amy Van Slambrook.
• A well being biometrics part—the place you’ll be able to join your wearable machine (like an Apple Watch) to maintain monitor of issues like coronary heart charge, coronary heart charge variability, sleep cycle, and extra.
• A digital well being concierge—a chat the place you’ll be able to ask questions concerning the app’s frequencies, packages, and different self-care ideas. This software can even suggest frequencies primarily based in your present well being biometrics.
• A gratitude journal—the place you’ll be able to mirror in your day or expertise with a frequency.
• A twin audio characteristic—which lets you play the frequencies whereas watching a video, listening to a podcast or audiobook, or listening to your individual music.
• A pacesetter board—the place you’ll be able to “gamify” your sound therapeutic expertise by seeing the way you match up with different prime app customers.

SOAAK App — $29.99

• Person-friendly
• Comes with 30 totally different frequencies
• Bluetooth pairing to your Apple Watch
• Can play and pause the frequencies if you want

• Doesn’t checklist the hertz (Hz) frequency info within the app
• Month-to-month charge might be dear for some

My 30-day SOAAK app assessment

I made a decision to begin utilizing SOAAK’s “PMS assist” frequency originally of the month (my interval often hits on the finish of the month) to get the total impact earlier than and through that 10-day window.

After I opened the app on day one, I used to be greeted by my identify on the prime, a weekly calendar, and a daily affirmation with the optimistic message,”I can adapt to any state of affairs that comes my approach.” (You may choose to have every day affirmations despatched to you by way of e mail or textual content, too.) General, I discovered the app very user-friendly and straightforward to navigate. Plus, it simply appears high-tech and aesthetically pleasing.

I clicked on the “frequencies” icon on the backside of the web page, and scrolled till I discovered “PMS assist.” The outline of the frequency mentioned it helps assist “balanced feelings, hormones, ache reduction, and decreased bloating.” As I started to play the unique model of frequency, it gave the impression of I used to be floating by means of outer house, however with decrease, extra grumbling undertones than I would imagined. (It did not sound as high-pitched and flighty because the stress-relief composition, for instance.)

I discovered myself gravitating towards the music model of this frequency—a guitar strumming sound with the frequencies taking part in beneath—which I listened to throughout my lunch break on the primary day (with an alarm set on my cellphone in case I dozed off, in fact).

For the remaining days, I made a decision to both take heed to it at night time or in morning, in mattress with my cozy sleep mask on. I began by listening to them out loud, however found that sporting headphones provides a extra elevated expertise. Some days, I could not get round to listening to all the 20 minutes, so it was good that I used to be capable of pause and play it every time I needed. I acquired into the routine of listening after which logging how I felt afterward within the gratitude journal.

Throughout my “good time” of the month, I discovered that SOAAK’s “PMS assist” frequency was a pleasing option to cap off or begin my days. I entered a meditative-like state, the place I used to be conscious, however my mind felt calm and gradual. It felt much like after I take heed to binaural beats—i.e., beats set at two totally different frequencies and recorded utilizing two separate microphones, for a layered impact in every ear— which can have the potential to change brainwave exercise, per the Sleep Foundation. (Nevertheless, extra analysis is required to verify any well being advantages.)

On some days, “PMS assist” additionally gave me a calming, head-tingling sensation that I really feel after I watch or take heed to ASMR (a bodily sensation in response to visible or auditory stimuli, additionally known as autonomous sensory meridian response, per UCLA Health). I positively added “PMS assist” to my rotation of stress-free content material that I take heed to frequently, and really feel that it may assist me loosen up even after I’m not within the throws of PMDD.

Then got here the true take a look at: the ten days earlier than my interval.

Did SOAAK assist my PMDD signs?

One of many predominant methods I do know I am headed into that pre-period time is after I begin having repetitive, intrusive ideas. They have an inclination to get caught on a loop, and are sometimes damaging self-talk in nature. When this occurred this month, I turned on “PMS assist,” regardless of the time of day, along with my morning or night time ritual. I even performed it as soon as whereas walking with my dog, and whereas cleansing my condo.

Listening to the frequency helped my mind instantly concentrate on one thing else, and the racing thought loop simply…stopped. Even when I attempted to get the ideas going once more, it was more durable to conjure them up. It felt nice to get instant reduction from considered one of my most annoying PMDD signs—particularly after I’m below extra stress. I additionally really feel like my anxiousness typically was barely decreased after listening to it spontaneously.

Whereas I would not say “PMS Assist” relieved my bodily signs (like cramping, complications, bloating, and fatigue), it did assist take my thoughts off any ache for a short while till any medicines I took, like Advil or Midol, kicked in. (Although some folks could discover ache reduction whereas listening; everybody’s totally different!)

General, I do really feel that SOAAK’s “PMS Assist” frequency composition helped me have a calmer, much less emotionally tumultuous time main as much as my interval. It definitely wasn’t a cure-all (I nonetheless use my conventional remedy strategies), but it surely did assist, and I imagine I can begin utilizing it along with remedy, medicine, and different stress-relieving techniques.

This leads me to a bigger query: Does sound therapeutic typically truly work? (Extra on this beneath.)

Does sound therapeutic remedy actually work?

There is no strong proof to counsel that sound therapeutic remedy can remedy any illness. The research on sound therapeutic remedy for each bodily and psychological well being situations are restricted, have combined outcomes, and infrequently showcase quite a lot of outcomes. That mentioned, it may well nonetheless be a useful supplemental remedy along with different clinically backed therapies, particularly to assist promote leisure.

On a broader scale, we do know that our nervous methods reply to sound—for the higher, and typically, for the more serious.

“Our autonomic nervous system has the tendency to reply and co-regulate to the rhythms round us,” says Ellen Vora, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist specializing in girls’s psychological well being, and creator of The Anatomy of Anxiety. “This implies, in occasions of stress, our our bodies can choose up and sync with sounds round us—like noisy metropolis life or folks shouting, which have sure sound frequencies—inflicting us to really feel even worse.” These sounds can improve our coronary heart charge and even ship our nervous methods into fight-or-flight mode, she provides.

However once we take heed to extra stress-free frequencies, like wind rustling by means of bushes, birdsong, ocean waves, or sure music, our coronary heart charge can even sync up (and decelerate) with this rhythm, stress-free us, says Dr. Vora. This is also why the sound of issues like singing bowls elicit a chilled response. Dr. Vora says it may assist us transfer by means of pent-up feelings, or what she calls “emotional constipation.”

Actually, a small July 2017 observational examine within the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine discovered that contributors who listened to a low-frequency, Tibetan singing bowl meditation scored considerably decrease on anxiousness and despair scales than previous to listening, suggesting it does have some psychological profit.

Backside line: Sound therapeutic remedy, within the type of sound frequencies, can’t essentially remedy or heal you, and extra scientific research are wanted so as to totally perceive its impact on mind chemistry. But when it brings you a way of calm, and helps you higher cope with issues like PMDD or PMS, it is innocent and might be value a strive, particularly along with care out of your physician.

And have in mind: In the event you’re having depressive ideas, ideas of suicide, or ideas of harming your self or another person, that is thought-about a psychological well being emergency that requires skilled care. Name your physician and go to the closest emergency room as quickly as potential. It’s also possible to name or textual content “988,” the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, for instant assist.

Is there a future for sound therapeutic remedy?

Sound therapeutic remedy could possibly be the wave (pun supposed) of the way forward for holistic well being care. There is no denying that apps like SOAAK are providing handy and straightforward choices to cease the consequences of stress and anxiousness in its tracks, and provide help to lead a calmer existence. Although we nonetheless have an extended option to go in utterly understanding the impact of frequencies on well being and the human physique, I’ve a sense we’ll begin to see an increasing number of sound remedy apps (and different holistic apps) crop up within the coming years.

Each Penix and Widney say they need to assist folks “reclaim their well being, and take their care into their very own palms.” Utilizing this app has definitely made me suppose extra concerning the methods I can higher care for myself throughout my 10-day, pre-period part, and reclaim this month-to-month routine.

If you wish to strive SOAAK

When you have PMDD, PMS, need to get higher sleep, or are simply plain curious concerning the results of sound therapeutic, obtain SOAAK right now on IOS or Android and begin a seven-day free trial. From there, you’ll be able to go for a month-to-month subscription of $29.99 per 30 days, or a yearly subscription at $24.99 per 30 days (or $300 per 12 months).