Have Fun Staying Healthy: Reasons to Sing

New treatments for cystic fibrosis mean that CF patients are living longer, better quality lives. However, doing all these treatments can be a lot of work. Having fun is a very important part of living a healthy life, so finding new activities that are fun and have benefits to lung health can make it easier to stay healthy.

What’s an activity that can be lots of fun and involves breathing exercises? Singing! If you like music, you might want to consider taking a voice class or participating in a local chorus group or church choir. Breathing control is a big part of singing, and some studies have shown that trained singers have higher lung volumes and better lung function than normal. This may not come as a surprise, but an article in the NY Times last month discusses some benefits of singing that made me think of potential benefits to CF patients, not just because of lung function, but because of the effects on fat levels in the body.

The article, found here, discusses several studies that have found that benefits to singing, including:

• stronger chest-wall muscles, which helps with breathing
• more efficient heart pumping, which helps the body distribute oxygen
• maintenance of lung capacity that normally declines with age
• respiratory improvements even after a short period of singing training

One surprise, though, was the effect of singing on leptin, a hormone that regulates fat storage in the body. It seems that singers have an increased tendency to be resistant to leptin, which can increase their tendency to gain weight (think about the stereotype of opera singers: “it’s not over to the fat lady sings!”). The article mentioned this as a downside, but when I was thinking about CF, this could be a good thing! Since many CF patients struggle with maintaining weight, if singing really does increase fat storage in the body, this might be helpful for those looking to put on weight.

Now, this is just my own hypothesis, but regardless of the theories on fat storage, it seems clear that singing can be very helpful to lung function. That alone means it would be a good activity for CF patients to consider. Of course, it would not be a replacement for airway clearance, cardiovascular exercise, and other treatments, but it never hurts to include fun activities that can improve lung health!