He Who Laughs Last, Lives Longer? « « CardioLogix.comCardioLogix.com

Are you someone who laughs a lot?

Personally, I have always had a tendency to be too serious – especially when I get really stressed out. This isn’t good for your cardiovascular health, according to research presented at the end of August 2011 at the European Society of Cardiology’s conference in Paris.

Studies have found while stress is linked to higher risk of cardiac events, laughter is GOOD for your heart!

This is in agreement with findings in previous studies that suggested a link between mental stress and the narrowing of blood vessels, says Dr. Michael Miller, Professor of Medicine and lead investigator from University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland.

According to Albertina Torsoli of the Bloomberg News Service, republished in The Denver Post:

When volunteers watched parts of a stressful movie, the opening sequence of “Saving Private Ryan,” their inner blood vessel lining, known as endothelium, developed a potentially unhealthy response called vasoconstriction, reducing blood flow, according to the study. After watching some of a funny movie such as “There’s Something About Mary,” their blood vessel lining expanded.

The difference between the constriction caused by stress and the expansion resulting from laughter was 30-50 percent across all participants, ranging in age from 20’s to 50’s.

Could laughing on a regular basis reduce risk of heart attacks? Miller thinks more research is needed in order to know. But it sure doesn’t hurt to add regular laughing into your life as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Prescription for health should include laughter” Miller said. “In other words, eat your veggies, exercise, don’t do unhealthy things like smoking, and get a good belly laugh every day. (Read More

Conversely, other research presented at the conference confirmed the adverse effects of anger and stress, according to Michael O’Riordanin in an article posted on theheart.org. (Anger, job stress bad for the heart, but a little laughter and therapy could go a long way )

Dr Tea Lallukka of the University of Helsinki, Finland, presented evidence that people working in the public-sector who worked more than 3 hours of overtime per day had increased risk of coronary heart disease compared with those working little to no overtime.

Dr. Franco Bonaguidi, Institute of Clinical Physiology in Pisa, Italy, showed that patients with angry-personality profiles (assessed by psychological inventory testing) had a larger percentage of recurrent cardiovascular outcomes as compared to their less-angry counterparts.

What is the bottomline? Laugh more, stress less, live longer!