AT school we would sing every day. A teacher at a wonky piano would bash out hymns, nursery rhymes and daft songs like One Man Went to Mow, initiating infant class children into the wonderful world of group singing.

At Christmas there was the nativity play, usually more sung than spoken. Whatever the talent, everyone had a part to play. A few had notably superior voices, but we all had the opportunity to make our own special noise, be it beautiful or a bit off-centre.

Playground enmities were forgotten in the communal effort to blast out those words. We didn't know what notes were at that point.

At "big school" we joined the various levels of choir, graduating to competitions against and amongst other songsters from across the world, and real live Welsh singers at eisteddfods held in the Valleys.

Sometimes there was glory, sometimes disappointment, coming home with our hopes and our Handel sheet music crushed.

But the experience – and the remembrance of it – is unbelievably joyful, bringing a glow even 30 years later.

Whatever the result, the act of singing took us to a level of goosebumped exhilaration that few activities since have succeeded in evoking.

But, once school was behind us, the act of singing became almost extinct, except for the odd turn at a carol service or shouting it out against the amplifiers at a gig.

A longing to sing again returned after a chance viewing of BBC1's Last Choir Standing, the current Saturday evening series that reaches its grand final, a sing-off between three very different choirs, tomorrow night.

Just as Wimbledon fortnight sees public tennis courts flooded with those who fancy themselves as the next Rafael Nadal or Venus Williams, so LCS has no doubt sent thousands of closet singers off to find the nearest singing group, or even a night class, to sign up for and have a go at barbershop or learning to sing songs from the musicals in the safety of numbers.

So we know that music is uplifting and it seems to reach parts that other pursuits might not. We also know that politicians have woken up and acknowledged what musicians and educationalists already knew about singing being an important part of creativity, confidence-building and even literacy.

That's why the government committed £40m last year to the promotion of singing in primary schools, to return to our children a gift that older generations enjoyed and took for granted which has been largely lost over the years, edged out by the demands of the National Curriculum.

Wherever there's karaoke there's a crowd – however inebriated – and there are now said to be more choirs than chip shops in the UK. What's it all about? Whatever it is, we can't keep it in.

A few years ago the Yorkshire-based charity Heart Research UK initiated the Sing for Your Heart events, in which formal and informal singing groups across the country get together in school halls, on station concourses, in pubs, clubs and gymnasia to fund-raise each December.

It's not just a gimmick, say organisers. There's a strong argument that singing is good for your heart.

"Among the various benefits, singing helps to boost the immune system, lower blood pressure and levels of the hormone cortisol, which is linked to stress," says Denise Armstrong of Heart Research UK.

Medical practitioners, scientists and public health strategists have recently begun to examine the physical, psychological and emotional benefits of singing, and next month experts from around the world will gather to pool their knowledge on how expressing ourselves in song may fit into the development of health care, social care and community development.

There's been comparatively little research into the link between health, well-being and song, but when physiologists and psychologists studied the effort a human being makes in order to produce musical sound and the side effects of that effort, the evidence showed it to be life-enhancing on many levels.

"Singing and its connection to health is an area of study that has opened up since the early 1990s," says Professor Stephen Clift, head of the Sidney de Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health at Canterbury Christ Church University.

"Singing involves increased input and output from the lungs, raised temperature and heart rate, better oxygenation of the blood, breathing from deep in the diaphragm rather than shallow breathing, and
good posture.

"In the US, research has been shown that singing is helpful to patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with remarkable effects, not only because it's fun but because it encourages a different pattern of breathing.

"There's also evidence that singing is of benefit to anyone
of any age who suffers from asthma.

"It may not be that challenging for a fit 25-year-old, but for someone in their 60s who is learning complicated choral work, there are substantial benefits."

It's been established in a study of patients who have have been left unable to speak through stroke that singing can help them to regain speech.

"When people suffer stroke, paralysis usually happens to the right-hand side of the body, affecting the left-hand side of the brain, where the primary language centres are," says Prof Clift.

"The centres responsible for understanding and making music are on the right side of the brain, so singing is possible although speaking isn't. In the US a widely-used treatment called Melodic Intonation Therapy uses singing to help recover speech in these patients who have lost language."

Prof Clift and his team have carried out a host of studies, including a review of all the major research works on singing and health from academics around the world, and a report based on evidence gathered
from 1,100 members of 21 adult choirs in the UK, Germany and Australia.

Across the three countries, results were reassuringly similar, in that choristers said that singing made them feel happier, less stressed, relaxed and generally enjoying a high level of well-being.

Even more interesting, says Prof Clift, were the responses of choir members who said they suffered from some sort of chronic physical or mental health problem, especially depression.

"About 50 people reported mental health problems, but they still felt motivated enough about singing to attend regularly. It could be that because serious choral singing is intellectually demanding so it helps them to forget anxieties and day-to-day problems.

"Some people said that although they arrived at a rehearsal exhausted and stressed, as soon as they became absorbed by the singing the worries of the day drained away."

Prof Clift, who's a consultant in public health and part of a small singing group himself, says groups set up for people with Alzheimer's show how patients can engage with music even when spoken communication has become very difficult.

His team are working with health authorities in Kent and Medway on a referral scheme which will enable patients with mental health problems to take part in singing groups as part of their treatment plan. It's hoped the scheme will be up and running in 2009.

"What's been crucial in this plan to make singing available 'on prescription' is that there are health professionals involved who also happen to be singers, and understood at first hand what some of the benefits are."

The professor is also a great believer in the power of song as a social leveller and agent for inclusion.

"No matter what your background, job or problems – when you're singing you're all the same. It's very valuable for personal well-being and open to anyone because we really can all sing. We vary in how much singing we've done and whether we can read music, but once you start to sing you improve greatly in a short time. Even karaoke, which is why it's so enjoyable."

So, if you need encouragement to get up there and grab the
mic or feel too embarrassed to give full vent to Satisfaction in the shower – park your bashfulness at the door and
let it all go. You know you want to, and we know it's good for you.


For more information log on to www.canterbury.ac.uk/centre
s/sidney-de-haan-research or www.singforyourheart.org.uk

For information about healthy living contact Research UK on 0113 297 6206 or email lifestyle@heartresearch.org.uk