Laughter Helps Your Health

More evidence that laughter really is the best medicine, or at least one of the best: A University of Maryland study which exposed two groups of test subjects to film clips from the comedy Kingpin and the war drama Saving Private Ryan found that after watching the former, the subjects’ blood vessels dilated by 22 percent, and constricted by 35 percent after watching the latter. When blood dilates, it is able to “move through the vessels with ease, taking strain off the heart and arteries.” More simply, laughter helps reduce blood pressure and actually acts as a substitute for aerobic exercise (during light exercise, there is a similar level of blood dilation). The study’s lead researcher, Dr. Michael Miller, recommends laughing “heartily” for 15 minutes per day to improve long-term heart health. The idea that laughter is good for your health isn’t anything new, but hearing it again it is pleasantly reassuring nonetheless. Perhaps someday, if real medication gets too expensive, doctors will start prescribing Netflix for high blood pressure?