Laughter May Indeed Be the Best Medicine

May 10, 2006 -- -- Let that belly laugh out. New research shows that it can literally change your blood chemistry and help protect you from disease and depression.

For several years now, scientists have suspected that "mirthful" laughter, as distinguished from nervous or self-conscious chuckles, can help the immune system and even fight heart disease, but serious data have been lacking.

Now, researchers at Loma Linda University in Southern California say they have found a physiological change that occurs when people laugh, and it lasts long after the laughter subsides.

Laughter, according to the scientists, stimulates the production of beta-endorphins, also known as the body's own morphine, and human growth hormone, which helps tune up the immune system.

It's a small study, and not likely to be embraced by everyone, but lead researcher Lee Berk says it's very convincing, and the changes take place "at the chemical level." The rewards, including the "feel good" attitude resulting from the increased supply of endorphins, can last up to 24 hours, he adds.

The research, which was presented at a recent meeting of the American Physiological Society called Experimental Biology 2006, is consistent with findings at a number of other institutions.

Cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center reported a few years ago, for example, that their research showed that an active sense of humor could help prevent heart disease, but the reason why was not yet clear. Last year, they expanded on their earlier findings and reported that laughter has a direct impact on the function of blood vessels, allowing an increase in the flow of blood.

Some of the current research, oddly enough, grew out of efforts to understand why exercise is so important. Berk, for example, got into the field more than three decades ago while studying the impact of exercise on stress. He found that people who exercised regularly released endorphins at a different rate than those who didn't.

"I thought, how interesting, here's a behavior that actually produced an effect on the human brain," he says. That led to another question. If exercise can do it, can other positive activities have a similar impact? To find out, he needed some kind of universal, positive experience.