Read this in last month's issue of RD.
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Laughter reduces stress, improves memory and helps keep our hearts healthy. The ability to laugh is hard-wired into our systems, and new research shows that it’s not only good for us, it’s contagious. There’s a reason sitcoms are funnier when we’re in a group; when we see someone laugh, our brain seems to activate “mirror neurons” that send us into the same fit of laughter.
All the efforts we put into reducing stress we ought to put into laughing. A good giggle helps you:
Scorch kilojoules. Laughing for 10-15 minutes increases your hear rateby 10-20% which means you can burn an extra 40-165kJ a day. Over a year, that can add up to around two kilograms in weight loss. (so add a daily dose of laughter to your diet to shed those extra pounds)
Ease pain. Experts discovered that children tolerated pain better than usual when watching a funny tv programme (I wonder if this would also work in masking “tooth ache” … hmmm)
Stay Healthy. Humour increases the production and effectiveness of natural killer cells that stomp out germs. These cells are elevated for at least 12 hours after just an hour of comedy film or sitcoms.
(excerpt from “Spread The Laughter”, Readers Digest, May 2008 issue)
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[She Says]: Samsung WriteMaster with LightScribe. My way of archiving those torrents!
