DW: (forwarding to wife...)
If you want to be healthier, you may wanna zip it. Scottish singer Lulu has made waves by saying she practices a daily “speech fast” which has her staying completely silent until the middle of the day. The 75-year-old singer said in a recent interview that being stone-cold silent – not even a whisper – helps preserve her vocal cords so she can keep crooning.
And it turns out the singer might be onto something. A study from 2005 found that periods of silence led to “dramatically lowered blood pressure” for participants who speech-fasted. Meanwhile, a 2021 study found that knocking off the chatter reduced cortisol (a stress hormone) in the body. And if that’s not enough a paper in 2022 found that speech-fasting makes people become much better listeners.
Source: NY Post