This is a science.

I'm Christopher Intalyata.

Got a minute?

Oh.

This is an issue. This isn't your typical choir practice and it's not held in a traditional practice

either. These singers are all dealing with cancer, theirs or loved ones.

There are people in our choirs who are undergoing treatment right now.

There are some people who are waiting for treatment.

Rosie Dow leads the choir groups at Tennevis Cancer Care in the UK.

We do have some terminally ill patients as well in our choirs, so people in palliative care.

And then we also have people who've lost people to cancer, so carers and supporters.

Anecdotally, chorus members have said that belting out tunes makes them feel good.

But Dow and her colleagues wanted to see if that's psychological effect might translate to a biological effect.

So they selected five choir groups in Wales with a total of 193 singers, and they took saliva

samples both before and after an hour of singing.

They found that singers had significantly lower levels of a stress hormone,

cortisol, after the session than they'd had prior to choir.

Along with an increase in proteins

called cytokines, which the researchers say might suggest a boost in immune

activity. The results are in the journal E-cancer and medical science.

Of course, it's still not clear whether those biochemical changes translate to any better outcome for patients.

Inquire practice is in addition to not instead of conventional treatments.

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