Laughter is good medicine for hearts, new study shows

If you’ve ever said, “Laughter is the best medicine,” you were right — to an extent, at least.

A new study from the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre in Brazil has found that having a good laugh can cause the heart to expand, thereby letting more oxygen to flow throughout the body.

Lead author Marco Saffi, a professor at the hospital, presented his team’s findings at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Amsterdam.

“Our study found that laughter therapy increased the functional capacity of the cardiovascular system,” he told the Guardian.

Their test involved 26 older adults (average age of 64) who had coronary artery disease caused by plaque buildup.

Half were asked to watch hourlong comedy shows over three months. The other half watched serious documentaries during the same time period.

The comedy group showed a 10% increase in how much oxygen their heart pumped to their bodies. Not only that, the 13 in the laughter group showed reduced inflammatory biomarkers for heart attack or stroke risk.

“When patients with coronary artery disease arrive at hospital, they have a lot of inflammatory biomarkers,” Saffi said. “Inflammation is a huge part of the process of atherosclerosis, when plaque builds up in the arteries.

“This study found that laughter therapy is a good intervention that could help reduce that inflammation and decrease the risk of heart attack and stroke.

“Laughter therapy could be implemented in institutions and health systems like the NHS for patients at risk of heart problems.

“It does not have to be TV programmes — people with heart disease could be invited to comedy evenings, or encouraged to enjoy fun evenings with friends and family. People should try do do things that make them laugh at least twice a week.”