Monday, December 20, 2004

Benefits of Laughter

I was going through some old issues of Inside the Human Body, and stumbled upon an article on laughter. Up until now, I always thought that Hunter "Patch" Adams is the only doctor who takes laughter seriously...

Both this year and last, one of the 'things to bring' for d'NA was 'a sense of humour'... I wonder if Scripture Union (SU) and the Fellowship of Evangelical Students (FES) are aware of these medical benefits of laughter?

Anyway, here's the excerpt:


Health Benefits

Immune system -- laughter reduces levels of certain stress hormones that suppress the immune system and raise blood pressure. It also increases white blood cells.

Blood pressure -- laughter lowers blood pressure, and increases vascular blood flow and oxygenation of the blood.

Saliva -- laughter leads to increased production of salivary immunoglobulin A, which helps to prevent pathogens invading the body via the respiratory tract.

Exercise -- laughter exercises the diaphragm and abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg and back muscles, which explains why people often feel exhausted after laughing a lot. It's estimated that laughing 100 times is equivalent to 15 minutes' workout on an exercise bike.

Mental health -- laughter provides a way to release negative emotions. Patch Adams pioneered the therapeutic uses of laughter.


So, I suppose all I have to do is... hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha... ;-)

2 comments:

nh said...

Laughter sure is good. But in reality, noone can laugh all day. So, I suppose a smile is good enough. Heh. :)

I'm from Alor Star. I was somehow linked to your blog from others' blogs or Phases mailing list. Not too sure about it. Anyway, you can just call me Ang.

Anonymous said...

Just wondering: then how come you have fat and jolly people and thin and sour but no fat and sour or thin and jolly?=P -aud