This week laugh a lot

'Teenagers, are you tired of being harassed by your stupid parents? Act now. Move out, get a job, and pay your own bills - while you still know everything.'
- John Hinde

Laughter relieves stress, makes you pull faces, and gets you taking life a little less seriously. Let's face it, laughing's pretty funny, though too much of it and they'll think there's something wrong with you. Look at Jim Carrey.

The Washington Post reports:
'A hearty laugh a day may keep the doctor away, say the findings of a unique study. Whereas previous studies have examined how negative emotions can adversely affect our health, this study took a new spin - they measured the affect of watching a funny movie on the ability of heart blood vessels to expand. And they found some surprising results - laughing increased blood flow as much as a 15- to 30-minute workout.

The ability of blood vessels to expand is known as vasodilation. Poor vasodilation means that passageways may be blocked and blood flow may be cut off. The result is an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. In the study, 20 healthy men and women watched clips of two movies - a violent battle scene from "Saving Private Ryan" or a humorous scene from a comedy such as "Kingpin." Each participant's vasodilation was measured prior to the movie and again afterward.

The results were "dramatic." Of the 20 participants who saw the stressful film, 14 had significantly reduced blood flow. However, after watching the funny film, 19 of the 20 volunteers had significantly increased blood flow.
Specifically:
Blood flow decreased by about 35 percent after experiencing stress
Blood flow increased by 22 percent after laughing, which is equivalent to what happens after a 15- to 30-minute workout.

Paul J Rosch MD, president of the American Institute of Stress, agrees: 'In one study of 2,500 senior citizens who were followed for six years, those who scored high on a happiness quiz had much fewer strokes than those at the bottom of the scale. In another study of more than 200 middle-aged healthy London civil service employees, those who reported feeling happy almost every day, whether while at work or on weekends, were significantly healthier and had lower heart rates than others who were not as consistently jolly and gleeful.

After adjusting for age, smoking, weight and other possible influences, it was found that people in the top fifth for daily happiness scores had cortisol levels 32 percent lower than those in the bottom quintile. Happiness was also linked to a lower average heart rate in men. While the majority showed some rise in fibrinogen following the mental stress test, this was far greater for the least happy group compared to those at the other end of the scale.

…benefits of laughing reported by this and other groups here and abroad include:
Relaxation and reduction in muscle tension
Lowered production of stress hormones
Improved immune system function
Reduction in blood pressure
Clearing the lungs by dislodging mucous plugs
Increasing the production of salivary immunoglobulin A, which defends against infectious organisms that enter through the respiratory tract
Aerobic effects that increased the body's ability to utilize oxygen
A rapid ability to disregard aches and pains or to perceive them as less severe