Laughter is the Best Medicine

 

It’s said, “laughter is the best medicine”. And there's lots of evidence that laughter does good things for us.

                                                                                                                                                                                  It reduces pain and allows us to tolerate discomfort. 

It reduces blood sugar levels, increasing glucose tolerance in diabetics and non-diabetics as well.

                                                                                         

It improves job performance, especially if your work depends on solving complex problems and/or creativity.

                                                                                         

Its role in relationships is vastly underestimated and it really is the glue of good marriages.

It synchronizes the brains of speaker and listener so that they are emotionally attuned.

Laughter establishes -- or restores -- a positive emotional climate and a sense of connection between two people.

In fact, some researchers believe that the major function of laughter is to bring people together.                                     

And all the health benefits of laughter may simply result from the social support that laughter stimulates.                     

Now comes new evidence that laughter helps your blood vessels function better acting on the inner lining of blood vessels causing vessels to relax and expand, increasing blood flow.                

So it's good for your heart and brain.

Dr. Michael Miller of the University of Maryland reported this year that in a study of 20 healthy people, provoking laughter did as much good for their arteries as aerobic activity. He doesn't recommend that you laugh and not exercise. That’s funny!

                                                              

But he does advise laughing on a regular basis. The endothelium, he explains, regulates blood flow and adjusts the propensity of blood to coagulate and clot and it secretes assorted chemicals in response to wounds, infection or irritation.

It also plays an important role in the development of cardiovascular disease.

"So given the results of our study, it is conceivable that laughing may be important to maintain a healthy endothelium and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease."

                                           

At the very least, Dr. Miller adds, "laughter offsets the impact of mental stress, which is harmful to the endothelium."

So laughter may not be the best medicine or the only medicine but I do believe it’s a part of a healthy existence.