Laugh, heart!

2005/05/15 Rementeria Argote, Nagore - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Medikuntza
• Osasuna

The human being is the only animal with humor and who knows how to laugh: it is an indicator of intelligence.

Laughing is nice, it makes you feel good: it calms the body and clarifies the desire. Just to say that laughter is good for health. But the influence of laughter goes beyond pleasure and well-being. It has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack or heart attack.

The first tests were empirical, that is, based on observation. Gathered the data, it was observed that those who laughed the most had the least evils of the heart. For about five years, research linking laughter with heart disease has gained strength.

Trying to solve the mystery of laughter

Therefore, it was observed that there could be a relationship between laughter and heart disease, which caused the researchers' curiosity. Thus, they try to find out what is the mechanism that unites laughter and heart within the body. That is, it is a matter of knowing precisely the physiological effects of laughter, the mechanisms that are given to benefit health.

Children laugh and laugh much more than adults.

In this sense, a recent research has taken a first step in clarifying the reason for this link. According to this study, blood vessels recover more easily when laughing than when a tightening occurs. Keep in mind that many heart diseases are based on the degeneration of blood vessels: as flexibility is lost and become more rigid, the heart must work harder to distribute blood to the whole body, hence problems.

The burning of tobacco and the consumption of fatty foods, among other factors, harden the blood vessels, so heart disease is mainly due to tobacco and fat diet. Alongside them, of course, there are other agents that are more difficult to control, such as old age. However, it is necessary to keep the vessels healthy and young to reduce the risk of heart disease.

Well, the laughter keeps the vessels healthy. This connection has been made through an ultrasound tool that has measured the diameter of the arteries of the arm. The diameter of the arteries decreases when heartbeats are accelerated, such as sports, laughing, or being scared or stressed. Thus, blood quickly reaches all the muscles of the body.

Once this abnormal situation is over, the body relaxes and the arteries recover. The ability of blood vessels to return to normal diameter is an indicator of the health of the circulatory system. Therefore, they have measured the time it takes to recover the arteries of the arm after several situations.

Osasuna prefers comic films

When choosing a movie or book that is laughable, the heart will thank you.

For the research they used healthy people: ten men and ten women without heart disease. And they used movies to laugh and spend hard moments: comic films like There’s something about Mary, and movies with war images and other hard scenes like Saving private Ryan.

It is not a matter of joke, the results show it: once he laughs, the brachial artery recovered 22% faster than normal, that is, to its normal diameter, while after a worrying situation, it cost 35% more than normal.

Therefore, it is clear that for health it is much better to watch a film that causes crude laughter than to see one that puts you to kill fears. And leaving aside the movies and returning to everyday life, the same thing: it is clear that stress is not of much, and that worries contract not only the arteries but also life. That is, it is better to laugh to the point that laughter explodes rather than boil them.

Is there anything better between your friends than a good laugh session, until your face muscles get tired, until it reminds you that you have contracted abs? Little. The pleasure this generates should be enough for doctors, in addition to traditional medicines, to prescribe a dose of very bad laughter to the sick, and also those who are not.

Living too seriously does not benefit health: neither the heart nor the head.

On the one hand, laughter has been shown to reduce cardiovascular disease, but it is also important to note that people with cardiovascular disease laugh less, and it is especially recommended for these people as exercise.

In addition, laughter not only improves blood circulation, but also improves the head; it somehow lightens. For example, depressive people have less activity in areas of the brain where humor is located. Humor and laughter are, therefore, a perfect medicine for body and mental health: rich, pleasant... is where it is, is of taste and economic for all. Let's laugh!

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