Sing your heart out in a choir

Deirdre Burke (left) from Killiney and Paggy Caffrey from Waterford among members of Ireland’s first ever Complaints Choir. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien
Deirdre Burke (left) from Killiney and Paggy Caffrey from Waterford among members of Ireland’s first ever Complaints Choir. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien

If you like to sing but you haven’t yet extended your talents to beyond a few tunes in the shower, why not join a choir?

There's evidence that singing in a choir is linked to a feeling of wellbeing, and a recent study at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden suggests that the controlled breathing involved in choral singing could have benefits for the heart too.

"Our hypothesis is that song is a form of regular, controlled breathing, since breathing out exhaling occurs on the song phrases and breathing in inhaling between these," says researcher Björn Vickhoff in this web release .

“We already know that choral singing synchronises the singers’ muscular movements and neural activities in large parts of the body. Now we also know that this applies to the heart, to a large extent.”