Have a laugh – it’s good for your mental health and your heart

Have a laugh – it’s good for your mental health and your heart

By William Smith

Laughter is really great medicine.  Watching a film that makes you laugh improves vascular function.  The opposite effect can be found after watching a film that causes mental stress.  This is the finding of new research.

‘The idea to study positive emotions such as laughter came about after studies had shown that mental stress caused blood vessels to constrict,’ said Dr. Michael Miller, the lead investigator.

An initial study, conducted more than 10 years ago by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, surveyed 300 men and women with or without heart disease on situational humor.  If you went to a party and saw someone wearing the same clothes as you, on a scale of 1-5 (ranging from not funny at all to very funny) how would you respond?  This type of situation was 40% less likely to be considered funny by people with heart disease.

This study then led to a further series of studies testing whether laughter may directly affect vessel function.  This research was presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Paris August 28, 2011.

In this new study, volunteers watched clips of comedy films, such as ‘There’s Something About Mary’ on one day and on another day they watched the violent opening segment of stressful films such as ‘Saving Private Ryan.’

When the study volunteers watched the stressful film, their blood vessel lining developed a potentially unhealthy response which reduced blood flow.  This response is called vasoconstriction.  This finding confirmed previous studies, which showed that there was a link between mental stress and the narrowing of blood vessels.

After watching funny films, the blood vessel lining expanded.  After some 300 measurements the researchers discovered a 30-50% difference in blood vessel diameter between the laughter and mental stress phases.

‘The magnitude of change we saw in the endothelium (the inner cell wall of a blood vessel) after laughing was consistent and similar to the benefit we might see with aerobic exercise or statin use,’ said Miller.

The endothelium has many powerful effects on blood vessel tone and blood flow.  It adjusts coagulation and blood thickening and produces chemicals in response to injury and inflammation.  It also plays an important role in the development of cardiovascular disease.

‘The endothelium is the first line in the development of atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries, so it is very possible that laughing on a regular basis may be useful to incorporate as part of an overall healthy lifestyle to prevent heart disease.  In other words, eat your veggies, exercise and get a good belly laugh every day,’ Miller said.

The research results make a connection between laughter and vascular health although more studies are needed.

‘What we really need is a randomised clinical trial to determine whether positive emotions reduce cardiovascular events above and beyond today’s standard of care therapies,’ Miller concluded.

In short this study suggests that feeling stressed can constrict blood vessels and laughter has the opposite effect.  So now if you are stressed you can just laugh your way to being fitter.

Source: European Society of Cardiology (ESC)  

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