How delightful it is to learn that laughter really is the best medicine and will perhaps add as many good years to your life as other familiar health tips. A positive attitude reduces heart disease and stress-related hormones, improves the immune system and leads to a long life.
Happy people tend to live longer and experience better health than their unhappy peers according to a review of more than 160 studies of human and animal studies. Lead author, Ed Diener, summarized "...the general conclusion from each type of study is that your subjective wellbeing - that is, feeling positive about your life, not stressed out, not depressed - contributes to both longevity and better health among healthy populations."
Laughter has been shown to benefit the immune system by increasing protective natural killer cells that help fight infection while lowering both the stress hormone cortisol and the inflammatory marker interleukin-6.
Laughter will increase beneficial growth hormone, the anti-aging hormone that keeps us young. While happiness might not, by itself, prevent or cure disease, evidence that positive emotions and enjoyment of life contribute to better health and a longer lifespan is stronger than the data linking obesity to reduce longevity.
Eat right, exercise, maintain a healthy weight and don't smoke, but most importantly remember that attitude determines thought, thought determines action, and apparently thought determines health. Good humor is good medicine. So dance like no one is watching, sing like you are the star, whistle while you work and laugh until your eyes water, your belly shakes and you gasp for air!!
*Taken from: IMC Integrative Medicine Center Western
