Think music heals? Trombone player begs to differ

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Each day, thousands of music students head to band practice with their trumpets, trombones and saxophones. But they may want to pay a bit more attention to the way they clean out their instruments when rehearsal is over. One musician in Connecticut learned the hard way about the dangers of not cleaning his horn — after he developed a condition that’s being called “trombone players’ lung.”

“I coughed. I had a horrible deep barking cough — especially when I played trombone,” Scott Bean says. It turned out that his trombone, or what was inside it, was making him sick.

Scott Bean spends hours each day performing, practicing and teaching the trombone. But for years, Bean struggled with health problems that made it hard to play his instrument.

Doctors thought Bean had asthma, but none of the usual therapies worked. After 15 years, Bean went on vacation for the first time without his trombone — and felt better. He began to wonder if the instrument could be making him sick.

Full story: Think Music Heals? Trombone Player Begs To Differ : NPR

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