Humor Is Good for You and You... Health Article

It's no joke. Humor is good for your health. We've all heard the saying "laughter is the best medicine," and now, research backs it up. A good guffaw pumps up your heart, increases your circulation, works your muscles, and strengthens your immune system.

Laughter and a sense of humor also may help cut your risk for heart disease, says Michael Miller, M.D., a heart disease prevention specialist in Baltimore. In a 2005 study, he gauged the effect of emotions on cardiovascular health when he showed both funny and scary movies to 20 healthy men and women. Dr. Miller found that laughter causes the muscles in the walls of the blood vessels to relax, increasing blood flow. "At the very least," he says, "laughter offsets the impact of mental stress," which is harmful to the blood vessels.

The research has come a long way since 1979, when journalist Norman Cousins wrote about humor's effects. Believing that negative emotions had a negative impact on his health, he credited his victory over a life-threatening spinal disease to his belief that laughter eased his pain while inducing feelings of hope, confidence, and joy.

Other benefits

Over the years, researchers have also learned this about a good belly laugh:

• It lowers your blood pressure. While you're laughing, your blood pressure first rises. But after that hearty ha-ha, your blood pressure drops to a level that's healthier than before you laughed.

• It works your muscles. The exercise of laughing gives your abdomen and diaphragm a good workout. The muscles of your thorax, neck, shoulders, face, and scalp also benefit.

• It strengthens your immune system. By decreasing stress hormones, humor and laughter increase infection-fighting antibodies.

• It improves your breathing. Lower blood pressure deepens your breathing, which relaxes you.

• It reduces stress. Chemicals in your brain called endorphins are also released, says Dr. Miller, "resulting in a feeling of euphoria."

Best under stress

Jest and jocularity are at their best in stressful conditions. "During difficult times, humor and laughter give you a release from tension," says Patty Wooten, R.N., a past president of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor. When you're afraid or trying to cope with an unpleasant event, humor can buffer you from emotional distress and lighten things up.

These are other things that humor can do:

• Humor distracts you from negative emotions. For a moment at least, "when you're laughing, it's impossible to feel angry or anxious," Wooten says.

• Humor changes your perspective. If you come at life's hurdles with a sense of humor, you see them as less overwhelming.

• Humor increases your energy. Seeing the humor in things and laughing about them can rev you up.

• Humor connects you to others. "Laugh and the world laughs with you," the song says. A sense of humor attracts others who want to be around cheerful, positive people.

• Humor makes you feel good. Even after the last giggle has gone, your mirth can remain, letting you feel lighthearted and carefree.

You can decide to find humor almost anywhere. When you've rushed out the door trying to make that appointment only to end up stuck in traffic, laugh at the absurdity of it instead of flaring up. Seek out humor and build it into your day with bouts of laughter. Just like regular exercise, ample sleep, and a nourishing diet, your good health can profit from it.