Singing is good for you!

Jewish Pavilion volunteer, Penny D'Agostino, has been leading a choir for seniors at Horizon Bay for more than two years.

Singing releases endorphins into your system and makes you feel energized and uplifted. People who sing are healthier than people who don't.

Singing gives the lungs a workout, it tones abdominal, intercostal muscles and the diaphragm, and also stimulates circulation.

Singing makes us breathe more deeply than many forms of strenuous exercise, so we take in more oxygen, improve aerobic capacity and experience a release of muscle tension as well, according to Professor Graham Welch, director of educational research, University of Surrey, Roehampton, U.K.

Singing even strengthens the immune system. According to research by scientists at the University of Frankfurt in Germany. concentrations of immunoglobin A- proteins in the immune system which function as antibodies- and hydrocortisone, an anti-stress hormone, increased significantly during music rehearsal.