We've heard this over and over again for a long time. So is it true? Does laughter really improve your health? When we laugh, we generally are happy. And we are happy more often when we are with people we connect to, be it family or friends.
Research has shown that laughter is associated with higher pain tolerance and lower blood sugar levels in Diabetes. And laughter appears to burn calories too. A research group at Vanderbilt university conducted a small study in which they tried to ascertain the loss of calories while laughing. It turned out that 10-15 minutes of laughter burnt 50 calories. While the results are intriguing, we shouldn't be too hasty in ditching the treadmill. One piece of chocolate has about 50 calories; at the rate of 50 calories per hour, losing one pound would require 12 hours of concentrated laughter!
Dr. Miller, Chief of Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland, had research projects which concluded that people who laugh more are less likely to develop heart disease. He says the recommendation for a healthy heart may one day be exercise, eat right and laugh a few times a day.
One of the biggest problems with laughter research is that it's very difficult to determine cause and effect. For instance, a study might show that people who laugh more are less likely to be sick. But that might be because people who are healthy have more to laugh about. Or researchers might find that, among a group of people with the same disease, people who laugh more have more energy. But that could be because the people who laugh more have a personality that allows them to cope better.
As Mark Twain once said, "There's one common denominator in people that I love -- they all make me laugh."
What I'm trying to say is if we enjoy laughing, isn't that reason enough to laugh? Do you really need a prescription?
The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. ~ E E Cummings
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