Laughing: Key to a Happy Heart

Do you remember the last time you laugh your hearts out? How does it feel?

Most of us don’t even remember the last time the laugh because of the stressful world we are living in. But have you ever thought that it could give bad effects on your health. Experts say that emotions can affect your health. It is just like when you feel too much stress, anger, sadness, pain and guilt you take toll of your health. However laughter has a different effect.

A person’s ability to laugh gives a feeling of superiority and power. And foster a positive aura and hopeful attitude. And therefore helps you to have a happy heart. There were studies that show connection of healthy heart and laughter or ability to laugh. If the blood vessels vasodilation (ability to expand) is poor, it increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. During the study the 50% of the correspondents watch violent and stressful movies and the other group watches relaxing and humorous movies and checked the vasodilation. They found that:

• Blood flow was significantly reduced by about 35 percent of the volunteers who saw the stressful film.
• Blood flow significantly increased by 22 percent of the volunteers after watching the funny movie.
  

Laughter and humor is similar to exercise. A regular dose or laughing as often as you can make you feel better and help you prevent some health problems. Here are some of the positive effects of laughter and humor to your health:

• An increase in the number and activity level of natural killer cells that attack viral infected cells and some types of cancer and tumor cells.
• An increase in activated T cells (T lymphocytes). There are many T cells that await activation. Laughter appears to tell the immune system to "turn it up a notch."
• An increase in the antibody IgA (immunoglobulin A), which fights upper respiratory tract insults and infections.
• An increase in gamma interferon, which tells various components of the immune system to "turn on."
• An increase in IgB, the immunoglobulin produced in the greatest quantity in body, as well as an increase in Complement 3, which helps antibodies to pierce dysfunctional or infected cells. The increase in both substances was not only present while subjects watched a humor video; there also was a lingering effect that continued to show increased levels the next day.