Did you know that laughter has MANY positive health benefits on your body?
Here's a few:
1. Your immune system. Yes, researchers have found that laughter is associated with an improved ability to fight illness. Specifically, it has been shown that laughter can boost your immune cells, as well as your antibodies (these guys help fight off infections).
2. Blood sugar levels. We don't want these levels to be too high in the blood (high levels are associated with diabetes). Early research has found a link to higher levels of laughter and resultant lower levels of blood sugar. Nice.
3. Blood pressure. In recent studies, Dr. Lee Burk, a psychoneuroimmunology researcher, found immediate decreases in blood pressure following laughter (and, not surprisingly, increases in blood pressure following stressful siutations).
4. Cholesterol levels. Likewise, Dr. Burk and colleagues, over the course of a 12-month experiment of diabetic patients, found increases in HDL ("good") cholesterol and decreases in LDL ("bad") cholesterol in the group of patients who were assigned to the "Laughter Group" of the experiment, with no such changes found in the "Control Group". The "Laughter Group", by the way, was subjected to 30 minutes per day of self-selected comedy television.
5. Inflammation. Among other things, inflammation in our bodies can lead to damage of the endothelium (a protective lining in blood vessels), fat and cholesterol build-up in coronary arteries and ultimately...heart attacks. Cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Centre have found a significant link between inflammation and laughter. Sure enough, groups who laughed less were associated with a higher incidence of heart disease.
5. Mood. Laughter helps elevate mood and lower the levels of certain "stress" hormones in the body (namely, cortisol, epinephrine, and dopamine). Chronically elevated, these hormones can have detrimental health effects on the body (including impairing your immune system functioning).
Are you getting the picture?
Now, I'm not saying that laughter is the cure to all of life's ailments. In fact, the researchers of these studies are quick to point out that larger scale studies are needed before drawing any type of conclusions from them. Fair enough.
But perhaps, in addition to making good lifestyle choices (like regular exercise, healthy eating, not smoking, getting enough sleep, for example), we could remember to not take ourselves too seriously. To take time to enjoy the simple things in life. And yes, to laugh a bit more.
With that in mind, have a good laugh watching this bit of hilarity from Ellen Degeneres and David Beckham:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsuvCozVaRI
You're welcome.
