![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Flaviu-Costin-on-Unsplash-1024x579.jpg\")
Flaviu Costin on Unsplash<\/p>\n Flaviu Costin on Unsplash<\/p>\n
Singing has been linked to numerous benefits for health, wellbeing, disease resistance, and recovery from injury, but when singing in a group, these benefits are seen to be superior to those seen in solo singers.<\/p>\n
The research<\/a>, though not new, still makes for a pretty darn good reason to join a caroling group or church choir for the holidays, or to take New Year\u2019s Eve as an opportunity for some karaoke.<\/p>\n In this era of research into health and wellbeing, with more information available than ever, and expert voices contradicting recommendations at every turn\u2014even those long thought to be made up of \u2018settled science,\u2019 it pays to set down some first principles.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s one that serves as an effective guiding light in almost all situations: human health is the most resilient when existing in accord with our species\u2019 evolutionary history.<\/p>\n Homo sapiens\u00a0is a social animal, with virtually every facet of his lifestyle dependent in nature on his fellow man. Given that social isolation is deadly to our species, it probably shouldn\u2019t be a surprise that harmonizing our voices together makes us feel better than belting out a song on our own.<\/p>\n Some scientists believe humans actually sang before we could speak<\/a>: that we gradually expanded our capacity for vocalizations by mimicking the tones of nature.<\/p>\n Singing activates the vagus nerve, which modulates our body\u2019s ability to calm itself. The activation is done through long and slow expirations and inhalations needed to sing whole verses and long notes, which doubles up with a thorough activation of numerous neural pathways on both sides of the brain, and a release of feel-good endorphins.<\/p>\n David Cox, exploring this topic for the BBC, wrote<\/a> that singing also produces other measurable physical effects, including regulation of the heart rate and blood pressure. Singing in groups or choirs, Cox says, has even been found to boost \\immune function in ways that simply listening to the same music cannot.<\/p>\n Some of this might be explained by the demands singing puts on the pulmonary system, which has been calculated to be as demanding as a brisk intensity walk. Where there is cardiovascular exertion, there is health and greater physiological alignment, including in the immune system.<\/p>\n MORE EVERYDAY HEALTH: <\/strong>Parents Should Sing More to Their Babies For the Positive Impact on Infant\u2019s Mood\u2013And Their Own<\/a><\/p>\n