Good For You: Belly Laughs

photo by mare.bowe

There’s a Christmas tradition in our house that doesn’t involve presents or cookies or light-up trees or turkey or big fat men in red velvet. We have traditions around those, of course, but the best is this: Christmas Game Night.

Yup, that’s right. My entire family—parents, sister, The Man, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents—all gather ’round to kick each other’s butt in the game of the year. Last year, my cousin whipped up a three-act twisted version of charades that had all of us heaving with laughter. This year, I expect we’ll top the ’08 fun.

That memory (and looking forward to this year’s games) got me thinking about laughter. People say that laughter is the best medicine, but I started to wonder if there was any truth to the cliché. Turns out, there is.

University of Maryland researchers forced a bunch of participants to watch funny movies (tough job, but someone’s got to do it) before they measured blood vessel dilation. The belly laughs caused the blood vessels to expand and increase blood flow. Those same participants then watched a stressful movie (some emotionally intense movie like The Pianist, Schindler’s List, or Apocalypse Now, I’m guessing) their blood vessels narrowed and reduced blood flow.

In another study, researchers investigated a link between 300 participants’ frequency of laughter and their heart health. They found a connection between those who laughed more often and a lowered risk for heart disease.

In fact, just anticipating laughter can reduce stress hormones that weaken the immune system. (For me that includes thinking about watching Ben Stiller in Zoolander. And, yes, I know that I’m the only one that thinks the movie is funny, thank you very much.)

So going into the holiday season, I wish you health, happiness, and some big belly laughs thrown in for good measure.