LAUGHTER is the BEST MEDICINE
- Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after.
- Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease.
- Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body's natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.
- Laughter protects the heart. Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.
Here's a list of research findings, followed by lots of funny videos from YouTube … there will be at least one to make you laugh, smile, or just feel good no matter what mood you're in.
University of Maryland Medical Center - Dr. Michael Miller
The following laughter results have come from research at the University of Maryland.
- decreases blood pressure
- increases muscle flexion
- improves overall performance of heart's muscle function
- possibly wards off heart disease
- oxygenates your blood
- relieves stress
- increase blood flow through the expansion of the inner lining of arteries
- patients with heart disease are 40% less likely to laugh versus those without heart disease
- there was a 22% increase in blood flow after watching a comedy film
- Dr. Miller is quoted as saying, "Thirty minutes of exercise three times a week and 15 minutes of laughter on a daily basis is good for the vascular system."
- Additional Dr. Miller quote. "Patients who suffered heart attacks or had heart surgery were 49% less likely than healthy people of the same age to see the humor in daily life.
Laughter should be incorporated into daily activities just like other heart protective measures, such as exercise."
New England Journal of Medicine
Ten minutes of laughing can allow up to 2 hours of pain relief.
Norwegian University of Science and Technology - Sven Svebak
This study included 54,000 Norwegians studied over a seven year period. Some of the results are listed below.
- adults who have a sense of humour live longer
- in a study of a subgroup of 2015 people who had a cancer diagnosis, a great sense of humour cut chances of death by 70% as compared to people with a poor sense of humour
- those diagnosed with a severe disease and a good sense of humour increased their survival rate by 35%
America Medical Journal and AATH
Ten minutes of laughter drops 10-20mm in blood pressure.
Duke University - Dr. Wei Jiang
At a meeting of the American College of Cardiology, Dr. Wei Jiang of Duke University reported on how mood affected health. In a study of over 1,000 heart patients, Dr. Jiang discovered patients with mild depression had nearly twice the risk of death by heart failure than those with a more cheerful disposition.
Indiana State University
In a study, two groups were divided in what they were given to watch. One group watched a travel film, while the other group watched a laughter video. After, the group that watched the laughter video produced significantly more killer T cells.
International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine
People with severe diseases increased survival rate by 31%, if they had a sense of humor.
Journal of Psychosomatic Research
The beneficial effects of laughter on preventing the exacerbation of diabetic nephropathy are strongly suggested in terms of normalizing the expression of the prorenin receptor gene followed by reducing the level of blood prorenin.
Journal of Psychosomatic Research - Hajime Kimata
Breastfed babies with eczema experienced milder symptoms if their mothers laughed hours before feeding them. Kimata showed breastfeeding mothers either a feature length Charlie Chaplin movie or bland footage of weather information, and took samples of breast milk at regular intervals afterwards. Two milk feeds later, he also measured their babies' allergic reactions to dust mites and latex.
Those infants whose mothers had laughed had markedly reduced reactions. Kimata also found significantly higher levels of melatonin in the laughing mothers' milk. The hormone is associated with relaxation, and levels are reduced in people with eczema.
Norwegian University of Science and Technology & St. Olav's University Hospital
In a study of patients with chronic kidney failure, patients answered questions regarding age, gender, education, quality of life and sense of humor. If the patient belonged to the half that scored relatively high on sense of humor, the risk of dying within two years was reduced by 30 percent. The figures appeared after making considerations to aspects that could be caused by other health issues, the general quality of life, and other conditions. No other patient characteristics could predict life or death within two years as strongly as the score on the sense of humor.
Loma Linda University - Lee Berk and others
The following laughter results have come from research at Loma Linda University.
- increase levels of good hormones
- reduced levels of stress hormones, through decreased levels of cortisal and adrenaline
- improvement in the body's immune system, possibly by increasing the body's secretion of growth hormones
- increased endorphins to fight pain and depression
- increased beta endorphin blood levels, also known as the body's morphine
- effects lasts between 12 and 224 hours after the laughter event
- increased blood flow because of the dilation of the endothelium (inner lining of the blood vessel.)
- above effect could possibly reduce atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries
- increased antibody levels especially NK cells (white blood cells), which are increased in number and activity
- 2001 research took 48 heart patients and divided them into two groups. One group watched 30 minutes of comedy everyday, while the other group watched none. Only 2 of the first group had a recurrent heart attack, while 10 did in the second group.
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/43589
Testing the effects of laughter on diabetic patients:
Within two months, laughter group had lower levels of some stress hormones and inflammation factors, as well as rising levels of good (high density) cholesterol. At the end of a year, the laughter group's good cholesterol levels had risen by 26 percent, compared to 3 percent for the control group, while levels of artery-damaging C-reactive proteins had declined 66 percent in Group L, compared to 26 percent in the control group.
Berk and Tan, who presented their results before the American Physiological Society's annual meeting in New Orleans in April, said the study suggests that adding laughter to standard pharmaceutical care for diabetes may lower patients risk for heart disease.
http://news.smh.com.au/world/laughter-improves-health-research-20081114-66c4.html
Laughing also helps to break down stress hormones and build up hormones associated with happiness. And laughing helps to increase the immune defences in the bloodstream, including those that help the body protect itself from cancer and heart disease. The antibody-containing immunoglobulin in the saliva, which inhibits germ attacks on respiratory organs, also rises.
Now for the funny videos from YouTube - Enjoy!
Very Intelligent Animals
Cats really know how to relax - we could learn a few things!
Funny Cats
Just Very Cute Animals - Get the Fuzzy Feeling!