Amazing Facts About Laughter

By Lisa Collier Cool Jan 03, 2014 Health Blogs Main

Day in Health
by Lisa Collier Cool Recent Posts

A New Test to Predict Heart Attacks Can chilly weather really cause a cold? Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs for 2014

More Articles Chortles and chuckles may help you burn calories, lower blood sugar, and cut your chances of heart attack. But laughter isnt always the best medicine, warn researchers from Oxford and Birmingham, UK in a new review article published in the medical journal BMJ. In rare cases, busting a gut metaphorically can lead to real-life hernias or other health problems. When unfortunate consequences of cackling occur, they tend to follow prolonged periods of uncontrollable laughter in people with pre-existing medical conditions or other susceptibility factors. For most people, the risks of laughter are low. In fact, more mirth in your life may actually make you healthier.

Laughter can do a body good

The authors of the review article used two biomedical databases, Medline and Embase, to find reports of benefits and harms linked with laughter. They focused on genuine unintentional laughter, also known as Duchenne laughter, and reviewed 785 papers published between 1946 and June 2013. Among other potential perks of mirth, the authors found reports that laughter may help: Increase pain thresholds Alleviate anger, anxiety, depression, and stress Reduce arterial wall stiffness and lower the risk of heart attack Improve lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Lower blood glucose concentration among people with diabetes Burn up to 40 calories for every fifteen minutes of genuine guffaws

Merriment may even help to enhance fertility, according to one of the studies reviewed. Women entertained by clowns for 12 to 15 minutes following in vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer were 80% more likely to become pregnant, compared to a giggle-free control group. 10 Simple Tricks For an Amazing Smile

Hilarity is not always healthful

Unfortunately, not all of the authors tidings were glad. They also found reports of potential harms associated with laughter. For example, riotous rounds of amusement may contribute to: Headaches Stress incontinence Asthma attacks Pneumothorax, also known as a collapsed lung Fainting, arrhythmias, heart rupture, or other cardiac concerns

In one case, a woman with racing heart syndrome collapsed and died after a round of intense laughter, which was found to have caused a possible heart rupture or torn gullet. The authors of the review article note, with tongues in cheek, that their conclusions are tentative: It remains to be seen whether, for example, sick jokes make you ill, dry wit causes dehydration, or jokes in bad taste cause dysgeusia [a distortion of the sense of taste]. Best Tips For a Healthier Heart

Glee is global
Investigators from around the world have also made incredible findings about the benefits and hazards associated with laughter: The bodys response to repetitive laughter is similar to the effects of repetitive exercise, according to Lee S. Berk, DrPH, a psychoneuroimmunology researcher and preventive care specialist, and his colleagues. As a form of positive stress, repetitive mirthful laughter boosts mood, decreases stress hormones, improves immune activity, lowers bad cholesterol and systolic blood pressure, and raises good cholesterol (HDL). Pseudobulbar affect (PBA) is a condition that causes involuntary bouts of laughter or crying, often in socially inappropriate contexts. It can occur among patients with neurologic illness or injury, such as stroke, epilepsy, or multiple sclerosis. In a survey released by the National Stroke Association, over half of respondents reported symptoms of PBA following stroke. Although the condition negatively influenced many of their social lives, few of them received treatment for PBA episodes. Laughter may be universal, according to a study conducted in Britain and remote settlements in Namibia. People around the world communicate in different ways, using varied body language

and sounds to express themselves. However, some basic emotions and their vocalisations may be cross-culturaland laughter appears to be a well-recognized sign of amusement in culturally diverse communities. Gelatophobia, or fear of being laughed at, may also cross cultural boundaries . In a study reported in the journal Humor, scientists from 74 countries issued a questionnaire to 22,610 participants. Gelatophobia occurred in all communities, but some populations were more susceptible to snigger-induced social insecurity than others. For instance, only 8.5% of respondents from Finland reported gelotophobia, while 80% of respondents from Thailand did so. Humans may not be the only comical creatures. Young orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos also hoot and holler when tickledand a qualitative phylogenetic analysis reported in Current Biology indicates a common evolutionary origin for tickle-induced vocalisations among humans and other great apes.