10 Reasons To Drum For Your Health

You may (or may not) know that I have been a professional singing drummer since I was in high school. While to some, we drummers sit on a seat (known in drumming lingo as a "throne;" please keep your jokes to yourself!), most drumming requires a fair amount of physical and mental abilities. I happened to see a link to this article on Facebook; it pretty well confirms what I and other drummers have known for a long time: drumming is good for your health!

From the Dave Robertson Online blog:

Ten Reasons to Drum for Your Health

1. Drumming is for everyone

Drumming does not require advanced physical abilities or specialized talents. It does not require participants to read music or understand music theory. Drumming, even a simple pattern, offers benefits to a huge range of people. Drumming is a universal language. It transcends gender, race, age, and nationality. In fact, nearly every culture on earth has some form of drumming tradition.

Furthermore, group drumming and drum therapy is currently being used for people with brain injuries or impairment, physical injuries, arthritis, addictions, and more. Studies are finding numerous health benefits from drumming for people with these conditions.

2. Drumming reduces stress and boosts the immune system

Studies have shown that drumming lowers both blood pressure and stress hormones. The active component of drumming helps reduce stress in a number of ways. It’s fun, it’s physical, and it’s a great diversion from other stress-filled activities. If you need to vent, what better way than to hit something?

Drumming is also meditative, inducing relaxed mental states that reduce anxiety and tension. Drumming combined with deep breathing and visualization techniques offers even more stress reduction benefits. “We know that stress takes a toll on the immune system,” says Ann Webster, PhD. “When you’re under stress, blood levels of stress hormones go up and your body is no longer able to make killer cells and other cells of the immune system in the amounts it normally would, and that can lead to disease progression. Reducing stress is very restorative. It gets the system back in balance.”

A recent medical research study indicates that drumming does boost the immune system. According to cancer expert Barry Bittman, MD, the study demonstrates that group drumming actually increases cancer killing cells, which help the body fight cancer and other viruses.

You can see the remaining 7 reasons by clicking the link below. Come on out and see me play sometime!

(via 10 Reasons To Drum For Your Health.)