The next time you’re trying to decide between watching the Marx Brothers and the latest Quentin Tarantino movie, go with the comedy.
It seems that a good belly laugh may be as good as statins or aerobic exercise in terms of its positive effect on the heart, a new study suggests.
“We’re not saying to take laughter instead, but to incorporate it as part of your daily life to improve vascular health,” lead author Dr. Michael Miller told reporters at the annual congress of the European Society of Cardiology.
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Dr. Miller, director of the Center for Protective Cardiology, and his colleagues at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, tested the theory of whether laughter may impact vessel function after their previous studies showed that mental stress causes blood vessel constriction.
This time around, volunteers were asked to watch 15 minutes of funny movies like “Shallow Hal,” “There’s Something About Mary,” and “Kingpin,” as well as the cinematically stunning, but brutal opening segment of “Saving Private Ryan.”
More than 300 measurements of blood vessel diameter identified a 30%-50% difference in blood vessel diameter in the brachial artery when volunteers were watching funny films vs. viewing the boys landing at Normandy. It appears that while stress causes blood vessel construction, laughter caused blood vessel dilation, similar to that achieved with aerobic exercise or statins.
“You can see differences almost immediately,” Dr. Miller said.
He suggests that the positive effect of laughter is due in part to the release of protective endorphins at the level of the vascular endothelium, which plays a key role regulating vascular health and in the development of cardiovascular disease.
“It’s a brain-heart crosstalk,” he said.
While more work is needed to verify the study findings, it seems that even short doses of laughter leave a lingering effect.
“We only tested it to about an hour, but others investigators have seen this out to about 24 hours,” he said. “So we think that the effect is reasonably long-lasting, considering you’re only laughing for about 10 to 15 minutes.”
That’s good news, particularly since many viewers could be hard pressed to squeeze 15 minutes of laughter out of “Shallow Hal” or many of its contemporaries.
--By Patrice Wendling
