Laughter IS The Best Medicine!

   Want to lower your cholesterol, have fewer heart attacks, or have better blood sugar control?  Try laughing! Amazingly, it may be better for you than even taking a medication.

 Let’s take a look at a few studies. During a Loma Linda University study, Lee Burk, DrPH, MPH, divided 20 diabetic patients at high risk for getting heart disease into a laughter and a non-laughter group. The participants of the laughter group watched a funny video for thirty minutes every day for a year. At the end of the year, the people in the laughter group saw their good cholesterol (HDL) rise by 26 percent, and had a 66 percent decrease in the inflammation markers in their blood compared to the control group. This is important because both HDL and inflammation have been shown to be important risk factors for developing heart attacks.

Laughter, amazingly, may also help with short term blood sugar control – which for me, is fascinating because it suggests that there is more we can do for blood sugar than just watch our diets, exercise and take medication.  A study in Japan gave people with type 2 diabetes identical meals, while they watched either a boring forty minute lecture, or a Japanese comedy show. When participants watched the comedy show, they had lower blood sugar levels, even though they ate exactly the same meal. 

In addition, laughing may help to improve circulation – an important point when it comes to heart attack prevention.  During a study at the University of Maryland, a group of volunteers watched the violent opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan (Dreamworks). While viewing this, the participants’ blood vessels constricted. While the participants watched scenes from the company Kingpin (MGM), the participants’ blood vessels opened up more while laughing. These measurements were taken both during viewing and 30 to 45 minutes after people watched these clips, and this stressful constriction and healthy opening up of blood vessels happened both during and after viewing.

Learn more about laughter’s health benefits, and spend time laughing, too, at an event at the Pujari Center: Dr. Carrie Horwich Laughter Groups.