Laughter and Health

Hippocrates,   father of medicine, insisted that medical students give full weight  to the emotions, both as a contributing cause of disease as well as a factor in recovery.

Medical researchers at many medical centers have been studying the effects of laughter on the human body and have discovered a wide array of beneficial changes, all the way from enhanced respiration to increases in the number of disease fighting immune cells.

Jane Brody, personal health column writer for the New York Times reports that laughter's impact on cardiovascular and respiratory functions are of particular note:

"When one is laughing hard, normal breathing rhythm is disrupted.  Inhalation and expiration become more spasmodic as well as deeper. Heart rate, blood pressure, and muscular tension increase, but when laughter subsides, these levels often drop temporarily to below normal, leaving one very relaxed. Hence the expression 'weak with laughter' to describe someone who has laughed hard and long.

The sense of relaxation lasts about 45 minutes after the last laugh and may be beneficial in countering heart disease, high blood pressure and depression. Given these benefits, proponents of laughter therapy jokingly call it ho-ho-holistic medicine."

So the next time your boss remarks about "too much laughter around here" advise her that you are trying to save the company money on health benefits.