If so, your heart thanks you. According to a new study through the University of Maryland, "laughter, along with an active sense of humor, may help protect you against a heart attack." People with heart disease are 40% less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to others the same age without disease.
Michael Miller, M.D., is the director for the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center. He says they don't understand yet why laughter protects, but they do understand that stress, hostility, and negative feelings have a damaging effect on the lining of the veins and arteries. Atherosclerosis, begins as inflammation and damage to the arteries that leads to deposits of fat and cholesterol.
The study compared how 300 people answered humor responses. Half of the people asked to participate had already suffered a heart attack or had coronary artery disease. The other half did not have heart disease. The questionnaires asked how much or little people laughed in certain situations and the second one used true or false answers to measure anger and hostility.
Dr. Miller found that those with heart disease found less humor in everyday situations than those who did not. They were generally more angry and hostile and laughed less even in positive situations.
A popular inflammatory marker is CRP, or C-reactive protein. This is a blood test that measures general inflammation in the body. Marsland, in a study of 855 middle-aged subjects showed that hostile affect was independently associated with increased CRP levels (Antagonistic characteristics are positively associated with inflammatory markers independently of trait negative emotionality).
Naturopathy also offers a variety of herbs to help reduce inflammation in association with laughter.
Orlando has a wonderful comedy club named SAK, that our office had the pleasure of visiting on Friday. We laughed and laughed, and then laughed some more! They were superb! Laughter is the best medicine!
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