Study finds singing Amazing Grace can reverse effects of heart disease

Singing Amazing Grace for 10 minutes can reverse the effects of heart disease, a study has found.

US researchers studied the impact of singing four different songs on the blood vessels of older people with heart disease.

The results showed 22 per cent of volunteers had their blood flow improve when they sang Amazing Grace, written by John Newton in 1772.

Belting out The Beatles’ Hey Jude brought smaller benefits, as did Dolly Parton’s Jolene. Only 10 per cent were boosted by Woody Guthrie’s 1940 folk song This Land Is Your Land.

The effort of singing the hymn was “comparable with walking at a moderately brisk pace”, the Medical College of Wisconsin study, published in the journal medRxiv, said.