Join A Choir and Sing Along to Fight Cancer

As the saying goes, singing is good for mind, body and soul, people with cancer can also benefit by just singing as it boosts their immunity. A new study conducted by Tenovus Cancer Care and the Royal College of Music published in ecancermedicalscience has reported that singing in a choir for an hour can decrease stress and improve immunity among people with cancer.

The study was conducted among 198 cancer patients who were divided into five different choirs. Their saliva was collected before and after a singing session to find out the level of hormones induced in their body.

They found that when the participants sang for an hour, there was increased secretions of cytokines, immune cells of the body and decreased levels of cortisol, a stress hormone in the body. Singing also improved the depressive symptoms and mood of the cancer patients.

Dr. Ian Lewis, Director of Research and Policy at Tenovus Cancer Care and co-author of the research, said, "These are really exciting findings. We have been building a body of evidence over the past six years to show that singing in a choir can have a range of social, emotional and psychological benefits, and now we can see it has biological effects too.”

"We've long heard anecdotal evidence that singing in a choir makes people feel good, but this is the first time it's been demonstrated that the immune system can be affected by singing. It's really exciting and could enhance the way we support people with cancer in the future."

Source-Medindia