Laughter, Good for your Heart

A group of American researchers have recently found that watching comedy films has a very good effect on your heart.

The explanation offered by scientists is that laughter boosts blood flow to the heart, and keeps it pumping strong.

The study, published in the medical journal "Heart", had 20 participants, who were asked to watch 15-30 minutes of sad films, such as the opening scene from "Saving Private Ryan", as well as scenes from comedies, such as "There's Something About Mary". The scenes from sad films, on one hand, and humorous films, on the other, were watched at least 48 hours apart.

Brachial artery blood flow, a good indicator of the body's blood flow, was measured in all participants, before and one minute after phases of laughter and sadness. The brachial artery runs from the shoulder to the elbow. A total of 160 measurements of brachial artery blood flow were taken, and the results of these measurements indicated, in 14 of the 20 participants, a reduced blood flow after watching distressing movie clips. Also, an increased blood flow was noted in 19 of the 20 participants after watching the comedy clips.

The difference in blood flow between measurements associated with sad films and those taken after comedy films exceeded 50%.

The authors of the study compared the impact of watching a sad film to the recollection of moments of anger or to doing mental arithmetics, while the impact of watching a comedy was compared to "a bout of aerobic exercise" or to starting statin treatment.

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