Reading poetry out loud can reduce stress and anxiety, among other beneficial effects, according to Dr Michael Mosley in a recent edition of  the BBC science presenter's five-minute Radio 4 broadcasts called Just One Thing. Each episode aims to answer the question: what’s one thing you could do to improve your health and wellbeing? Replies include, for example, using music, relaxing your body, trying yoga, nordic walking and consuming flaxseeds. Oh, and reading poetry.

A recent episode asserts that reading poetry out loud can reduce stress and anxiety, as well as helping us express how we are feeling. He interviews a Swiss art therapy expert who declares that just five minutes of rhythmic poetry being read aloud can be more effective than breath exercises to relax mind and body.

None of which is news to you, our esteemed online poetry community. Throughout the 19 years of Write Out Loud’s existence, we have regularly received your feedback about the beneficial effects you experience from engaging with poetry. And if that feedback is anything to go by (it is, you are the experts), it's not just reading it out loud that makes a therapeutic difference - it’s the reading of it, the writing of it, and the sharing of your words with others in a supportive environment, whether in our poetry blogs, or one of the many open-mic poetry events listed in our gig guide.

And, oddly, our funding campaign has brought even more of this powerful feedback to our attention, as you – our donors - explain how you benefit from being part of the Write Out Loud community, and what you would lose if it went.

Perhaps Michael Mosley should have asked us to ask you. What do you think?

The current series of Just One Thing can be found here