Our family has always enjoyed telling jokes and puns—and we think we’re healthier for it, at least emotionally. In fact, our grandma always said, “Laughter’s the best medicine.” And, she’d quote the Bible: “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” Our guess is that this is all good for our health—at least emotionally. Agree? Disagree?

—Jokester from Pennsylvania

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PART 1: Laughter is the Best Medicine
PART 2: Laughter is the Best Prescription

Researchers who study centenarians, people who live to one hundred years old, have found that the majority have a wonderful sense of humor. Indeed, a great deal of medical research has demonstrated the direct impact that humor, including smiling and laughter, has on boosting both the immune and cardiovascular systems.

At the University of Maryland, doctors tested the “ability to laugh” of several hundred patients. Those with the lowest “humor quotient” were significantly more likely to have heart disease. In fact, they were 40 percent less likely to laugh at the “gaffes, mix-ups, and irritations” of day-to-day life than were those without heart disease.

While presenting this study at a meeting of the American Heart Association, one of the researchers, Michael Miller, MD, said, “Laughter is no substitute for eating properly, exercising, and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol with medication, if need be, but enjoying a few laughs every day couldn’t hurt, and our research suggests that it might help your heart health.”

How do humor and laughter have this effect? The studies I’ve reviewed don’t provide a conclusive answer. Nevertheless, many researchers feel that lightening one’s emotional load through laughter causes the body to decrease the level of inflammation in the walls of the blood vessels—an inflammation that contributes to hardening of the arteries, heart attacks, heart failure, and strokes. When the inflammation is reduced through smiling and laughing, the risk of blood clots decreases, as does blood pressure.

Researchers at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania, showed that students would have a significant rise in their blood pressure and heart rate prior to giving a speech in front of the class. Yet the students who watched a funny television program, which caused them to laugh hysterically, before they gave their speech had much lower elevations in their heart rate and blood pressure while delivering their talk. It was as though the comedy “inoculated” the students against the negative effects of anxiety and stress.

A physician friend told me how stressed he’d feel during busy days of seeing patients back to back. One weekend he decided to purchase a small television set with a videotape recorder built in. Before the workweek began, he rented three comedy videos and brought them to the office with him. He watched part of a video while eating lunch. His laughter was so loud that his nurse checked on him. In no time, she and other staff members joined him for lunch and videos.

“My stress levels dropped like a brick,” my friend told me. “And not only mine, but my staff ’s as well! We began handling the stress of the day without getting more stressed ourselves. And we seemed to provide even better care for our patients who were suffering from stress.”

Walt Larimore, MD, has been called one of America’s best known family physicians and has been named in the “Guide to America’s Top Family Doctors,” “The Best Doctors in America,” “Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare,” and “Who’s Who in America.” He’s a former Vice President and Physician in Residence at Focus on the Family and the American Life League has named him a “Rock-Solid Pro-Life” awardee. He’s also an award-winning medical journalist and the best-selling author of over 40 books. He and his childhood sweetheart and wife of 50 years, Barb, have two adult children and reside in Colorado Springs. You can find Doctor Walt’s health blog at www.DrWalt.com and follow him on Facebook at “DrWalt.com”. Have questions for Dr. Walt? Email them to editor@todayschristianliving.org.