Choral Singing: Hearts Beating as One and Other Delightful Health Benefits

I’ve taken a bit of time off the blog due to a heavy schedule, a need for a break, and a bout with a bug that had the temerity to slam me down in the middle of summer!  But I’ve turned the corner and am marching forward again.

And speaking of health, a most amazing news piece flew through MCE a couple of weeks ago, and although every choral blogger in the world has probably written about it, I can’t resist the urge to add my voice to the…er…chorus.  Actually it flew around the world I think; my husband heard it on NPR and told me, and then two chorus members sent me stories about it, one quoting The London Telegraph, the other quoting the journal Frontiers of Neuroscience.  And I’ve since found a reference to it in another story.  I don’t know which publication originated it, but it’s a pretty intriguing discovery.

It seems that a team of researchers at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg, led by Björn Vickhoff, found that when a group sings together their heartbeats tend to synchronize.  This generates a calming effect similar to yoga.  Apparently the controlled inhalation/exhalation that occurs in choral singing, especially the exhalation, activates the vagus nerve, which slows the heartbeat.

This is quite a long nerve that trails down from the brain stem through the trunk, and influences the heart as well as some of the other organs.  It has some sway over the body’s sense of calmness or arousal.  In fact, according to Vickhoff: “When people are singing slow songs together, waves of calming effect go through the choir,”

The benefits may not stop there.  Some claim that singing releases endorphins, much as exercise does.  And a study done at the University of Newcastle in Australia has found that singing lowers depression and anxiety in the elderly, and provides a general sense of well-being for all those who participate, no matter their age.

I suspect that none of this is a surprise to MCE singers.  We’ve often commented to one another how pleasurable singing is, how close to one another we feel as a chorus.  It seems there may well be a physical reason for that; it’s not just the exercise of talent!  In fact, Vickhoff and team speculate that choral singers experience better coordination and sensitivity to one another as their hearts synchronize.  They are designing another experiment to test that out.

Here is a link to one of the stories:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/singing-may-just-healthy-yoga-scientists-184153164.html

And in the meantime, find somewhere to sing—together!

Dr. Linda Gingrich

Artistic director and conductor

Master Chorus Eastside