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Laughter -- Really Is the Best Medicine!A Study Into the Effect of Laughter and DepressionA daily dose of laughter may be good for you because, like exercise, it makes blood vessels work more efficiently, American researchers reported recently. Another study found that stress and depression can raise the risk of dying from heart failure.The two studies were presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Orlando, Florida. Both showed how psychological factors could affect a person's health. "We don't recommend that you laugh and not exercise, but we do recommend that you try to laugh on regular basis. 30 minutes of exercise three times a week, and 15 minutes of laughter on a daily basis is probably good for the vascular system," said Dr Michael Miller of the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. In the experiment, researchers showed two movies, one humorous and the other stressful, to 20 healthy volunteers and monitored the blood vessels' reactions. The researchers specifically looked at the endothelium, the linking of the vessels, and found that blood flow was reduced by 35 percent in 14 of the 20 volunteers after watching the stressful movie clips. However, in 19 of the 20 volunteers who laughed at the funny movie segments, blood flowed 22 percent more freely. "The endothelium is the first line in the development of the atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries. So, given the result of our study, it is conceivable that laughing may be important to maintain a healthy endothelium, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease," Miller said. "The magnitude of change we saw in the endothelium is similar to the benefit we might see with aerobic activity, but without the aches, pains and muscle tension associated with exercise." Anatomy of an IllnessIn his famous book, Anatomy of an Illness, Norman Cousins described his fight against a disease for which doctors had no known cure or treatment. He was told that he had little chance, if any, of surviving. Hearing this, Cousins decided to take matters into his own hands. He began planning his own recovery plan, including laughter and affirmative emotions like love, faith and hope. He also took a great deal of Vitamin C, which he read would be beneficial for his condition.He said, "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep. When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again, and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval." He watched Marx Brothers films. Cousins also believed that his body chemistry was enhanced up to the stage that inflammation from his disease actually decreased markedly several hours after each laughing episode. Despite his doctor's grim pronouncements that he would never survive, he turned his back on heavy medication and went on to cure himself of his disease -- an achievement that surprised all his doctors and the medical community. His famous line is, "Drugs are not always necessary. Belief in recovery always is." Depression, the Best Poison?If laughter helps increase blood flow, and in Norman Cousin's case heal him from his disease, negative emotions like stress or depression could lead to death, especially in people who are ill.In a study carried out by Dr. Wei Jiang and his colleagues from Duke University in North Carolina, it was found that heart failure patients with mild depression had 44 percent greater risk of dying. The study was conducted on 1,005 volunteers. "This adverse association of depression and increased long-term mortality was independent of other factors, including age, marriage, cardiac function and the root cause of the heart failure," Jiang said. "Approximately half of all patients with heart failure will die within five years of diagnosis, and we believe that our study appears to identify a group of these patients who are at a higher risk for dying." Jiang said it is not clear why, but that patients with depression tend not to exercise or take medications properly. "Also, depressed patients tend to make unhealthy lifestyle choices in such areas a diet and smoking," she said. Also Read:
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