Informative SpeechEssay Preview: Informative SpeechReport this essayHi my name is Jenn and today Id like to let you all in on a little secret. How would you like to improve your health without having to go to the doctor, take a pill, or even alter your daily activities in any way? While it may seem impossible, the answer to a healthier you lies within.
Over the past few decades, doctors and other researchers have found evidence that laughter improves health. Laughter is like internal jogging, a form of exercise that keeps the body and the mind fit. In an article I recently came across, Dr. Donald Black explains how simple everyday laughter can give the heart muscles a good workout, improve circulation, increase your pulse rate, fill the lungs with oxygen-rich air, decrease tension, and perhaps even relieve pain.
You may be thinking “Of course. Laughter means your happy and when your happy you tend to be healthier” While the benefits of laughter on the mind and spirit may be obvious, there is an enormous amount of medical evidence behind how laughter really in fact physically leads to a healthier life.
What is laughter? Laughter, as described by Lee Berk, a lead researcher for the University of California Irvin College of Medicine is a form of good stress that releases those bad and distressful emotions that cause harmful chemical effects on the body.
Medical evidence lies in the fact that laughter gives you an aerobic and internal workout. When you laugh, you inhale more oxygen and therefore you feel refreshed. Researchers have found that one minute of laughter is equal to 10 minutes on the rowing machine. The diaphragm gets a great workout when we laugh really hard. Our respiration is enhanced, blood pressure is lowered and the amount of oxygen in the lungs and blood stream increases. For this reason, it has been proven to help people suffering from bronchitis and asthma.
Many humor and laughter studies from Duke University, UCLA, and even from other countries such as Great Britain have recognized the positive outcomes of laughter. Laughter strengthens the immune system. University studies show laughter increases T-cell production which fight infections, and increases the number of disease-fighting cells. Laughter is also said to increase immunoglobin A and B which have protective qualities against virus and bacteria and provides antibodies with the strength to attack dysfunctional cells. These are all natural hormones that send pain-killing chemicals through the body and help in reducing the intensity of pain. So while you laugh, and for a short time afterward, you dont feel pain. This has proven to be true
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The study, which is being funded with $50, 000 in research funds (more details in funding and a paper for further study soon), is published in the journal PLoS ONE.
It is a collaboration of eight groups of scientists from a university in Belgium and a medical school in Germany. The study involved 40 adult rats. All exhibited a characteristic facial features, including the nose and the mouth. They were put in a group with six other, non-experts who all shared a common history of laughter and physical activity, and had performed simple but effective tasks, such as making music.
Joint findings
In the first study, 10% of the participants had been exposed to laughter and 23% had been exposed to other groupmates.
In the second study, the researchers identified 18 potential causes of laughter, and found 4.6% were an environmental cause.
The researchers also found that a small dose of laughter can have negative side effects; a slight feeling of uneasiness and a sore throat, which are symptoms of pain in the nose or throat.
The study suggests that laughter can have a wide range of symptoms including anxiety, anxiety-like behaviour syndrome, and a feeling of loneliness or isolation. One study found that 15% of participants said they had suffered from the symptoms. Another found 10% had experienced psychological side effects like insomnia, anxiety or depression and 20% had experienced a sensation of cold blood.
The researchers noted several problems with the research and described them as ‘misdiagnoses, assumptions or errors’.
Dr Paul Böhm, the head of the team, said: “We are very proud of our progress in this area and it shows the amazing power of human psychology. Many of us have been doing studies like this for a long time, but none of us are so well known nor so talented. We have the ability to find new ways to solve the problems that we were forced to solve and to connect with friends. To continue to do this is truly our wish.”
Dr Böhm added: “We know the human brain does a lot of damage so it is of great help to extend this work to animals. The more we can explore this idea of laughter – and not just as laughter – the more we can start to understand human psychology.
“Now more research is needed and more groups and studies will be needed to better understand how laughter is associated with emotional and cognitive decline, anxiety reactions, depression, cognitive decline or physical health effects.
“This could be a major advance in improving our understanding of this very natural process within our everyday life.”
Explore further: Scientists to work on “brain-related therapies’