Health & Fitness
Laughter is the Best Medicine
Laughter will not only lift your mood, but reduce your stress too. Now we know a little more about why this is so.
I have heard for many years, as you may have too, that “laughter is the best form of medicine”. It is totally logical that laughter, will not only lift your mood, but reduce your stress too. Now we know a little more about why this is so.
Cardiologists from the University of Maryland Medical Center believe that laughter helps the body alleviate the stress that commonly damages the endothelial cells that form the innermost lining of blood vessels.
Stress may lead to inflammatory processes of the endothelium cells, which would encourage plaque accumulation. Plaque accumulation can lead to heart attacks and/or strokes. Researchers performed a study involving 300 volunteers. Half of the participants had a history of cardiovascular disease, the other half did not.
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Through an extensive series of questionnaires, the physicians discovered that the individuals having heart disease were 40% less likely to find the humor in situations, compared to their healthier counterparts.
The average toddler will laugh hundreds of times day. The average adult laughs much, much less. It is unfortunate that many adults don’t really laugh at all. One study done at the University of Ontario,by Martin & Kuiper in 1999, found that adults laughed between 0 - 80 times a day and averaged about 17 laughs a day.
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Babies and toddlers many times laugh alone, while adults are not as likely to laugh alone. In 1989, Robert Provine, at the University of Maryland, found that people are 30 times more likely to laugh when they are with others, rather than when they are alone.
Some studies claim that if you force yourself to laugh, it has a similar physiological effect. I still think that genuine laughter is better.
An interesting side note is that if you laugh until you cry, the tears are not from true “crying”. The tears are produced from the overstimulation of the facial nerve, which controls both facial muscles and tear production.
So watch a comedy, pick up a joke book, lighten up and laugh it up. Your heart will thank you for it.