Smiling!

September 28th, 2024| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Smile. Laugh. Your life depends on it. So said researchers from Yamagata University, Japan, in “Associations of Frequency of Laughter With Risk of All-Cause Mortality and Cardiovascular Disease Incidence in a General Population,” in the Journal of Epidemiology recently.

Researchers worked with 17,152 participants aged 40 or younger and tracked how often they laughed over several years and concluded that increasing the frequency of laughter will reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and increase longevity. Yup, your life does depend on it!

All-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease incidence were significantly higher among subjects with a low frequency of laughter.”

So much so, the local government in Japan’s Yamagata prefecture is taking action. Drastic action. It has just passed an ordinance calling on residents to laugh at least once every day to promote better physical and mental health (although the new law has gone down like a bad joke in some quarters).

Reported the newspaper Yomiuri:

Put forward by members of the normally strait-laced Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the ordinance encourages local residents to snigger, chortle or guffaw daily and asks business operators to develop a workplace environment that is filled with laughter. The eighth day of every month has also been designated as the day for residents to promote health through laughter.”

Not everybody liked it, though. Toru Seki of the Japanese Communist Party complained:

To laugh or not to laugh is one of the fundamental human rights that are guaranteed by the constitution regarding freedom of thought and creed, as well as inner freedom.”

And Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan member Satoru Ishiguro was equally disparaging:

We must not undermine the human rights of those who have difficulties laughing due to illness or other reasons.”

That makes me laugh!

But yes, if you are in Yamagata, laugh. It is the law. (Though how it is going to be policed is anyone’s guess. Maybe it’s all a joke. So … laugh!)

One article in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine even recommended that doctors write prescriptions for laughter:

We propose that laughter prescriptions might contain detailed information as to the frequency, intensity, time, and type of laughter (forming the useful mnemonic “FITT”), much like pharmacological prescriptions and exercise prescriptions. An example of a laughter prescription: (F) Frequency: once a week; (I) Intensity: belly laughing; (T) Time: 30 minutes; and (T) Type: your favorite sit-com.”

Another study in Nursing & Health Sciences demonstrated that laughter dramatically suppresses stress hormones, lowering adrenaline and, presumably, having a beneficial effect on longevity.

Declared Robin Dunbar, an emeritus professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford, who has studied both the psychological and physiological effects of laughter on health:

It’s true. Laughing will have a positive impact on your health. Laughter will not only help your heart health but make you feel good, boost your immune system and mood. For instance, when we belly laugh, the physical exertions of the rib cage trigger the release of protective endorphins, the brain chemicals that help us to manage pain and promote feelings of bliss and help promote heart health.“

But, the best way to find joy (and laugh)? In God!

I have set Yahweh before me continually;
because [He is] at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is joyous and my inner being jubilates;
yes, my flesh will abide in safety. …
You will make known to me the path of life;
fullness of joy [is with] Your presence;
pleasures in Your right hand perpetually.
Psalm 16:8–9, 11

SOURCE: MSN; S China Morning Post; Journal of Epidemiology