Laughing out loud is good for you! A study from The University of Maryland School of Medicine says that a hearty laugh on a daily basis increases the blood flow by expanding the blood vessels.
Remember Santa? “his belly would shake like a bowl full of jelly.”? Well, Santa might as well have been jogging!
According to William Fry, associate professor emeritus of clinical psychiatry at Stanford University, a belly laugh is internal jogging, because laughing involves “a great deal of physical exercise and muscular behavior” – your face and lots of other muscles all over your body take part in flexing and relaxing, your breathing gets deeper, increasing your pulse and pumping blood up with oxygen, not to mention the endorphins that the laughter creates. In fact, Fry calculated that laughing 100 to 200 times a day is the cardiovascular equivalent to rowing for 10 minutes.
Are you wondering how much you laugh a day? Well, I looked that up too – and found according to Marshall Brain of How Stuff Works, the average adult laughs 17 times a day.
Does that mean going to a comedy club or watching funny tv, or just “fake” laughing at your bosses jokes will benefit your health? Well, Lee Berk, a pioneer in the study of the effects of laughter, says “Yes! in fact, the biological changes we see with moderate, routine exercise, are very similar to the changes we see with the constant use of mirthful laughter” and he knows what he’s talking about because he’s an associate research professor of pathology and human anatomy at Loma Linda University, so he’s not joking.
Laughter has has become a major industry, what with jokes, sitcoms and comedy clubs all designed to get us laughing, and now it is becoming a workout! Laughing exercise leaders have been trained and certified by Laughter Club International and World Laughter Tour – there are thousands of laugh clubs world wide that attract people who want to loose weight while laughing.
Although there has been no hard studies, author, Kathy Overman (pen name, Namrevo) of Bellevue says in ther book, “Laugh It Off! Weight Loss for the Fun of It,” that she laughed off 35 pounds. She writes that she was a stress eater and by laughing 30 seconds to 5 minutes as often as 10 times a day, her cravings for comfort food stopped. She began loosing weight, had more energy and began to excercise.
Laughing fights, depression, boredom, and loneliness which are big reasons why people head to the fridge or the drive thru, it seems quite reasonable that you can in fact, loose some pounds simply by adding laughter to your diet routine. Besides, people love to laugh, and one of the best ways is hearing a good joke.
The Laugh Lab in the U.K. recently concluded a year long study on the best jokes in the whole wide world. (see, you can get a grant for anything)
Here’s the Winner:
Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, “My friend is dead! What can I do?”. The operator says “Calm down. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says “OK, now what?”
So remember, Laughter IS the best medicine, and it’s not hard to swallow…
…have you heard the one about…
