Is laughter the best medicine?

Laughter is the best medicine, as the saying goes, but is it really?
Well, don't take the saying literally; laugher will not cure your ailments.
But does it have any measurable impact on a persons health, and do we know what, if any, the mechanisms are?
For starters, laughter is physical, and as such it does have a positive effect on your body.
When you laugh, you take in more air, which delivers more oxygen to your heart, lungs and tissues.
Laughter may help to ease pain, by leading the body to release endorphins. Indeed, a study found that laughter may positively affect the pain-spasm cycle common to some muscle disorders.
Laughter can soothe tension, by stimulating circulation and helping muscles relax; both can reduce the physical symptoms of stress.
Surprisingly, scientists have found that laughter can protect against the risk of heart attack.
In a study conducted at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, they found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to those without heart disease.
In other words, those with heart disease responded with more anger in everyday life and laughed less, even in positive situations.
While there is no understanding of why laughter protects the heart, mental stress has been linked with the impairment of the endothelium, which is a protective barrier that lines blood vessels.
When the endothelium is impaired, it can lead to inflammatory reactions which, in turn, can lead to a build up of cholesterol in the coronary arteries.
This finding is not surprising, as laughter creates a positive emotional climate between people, defusing conflict and diminishing stress.
So while laughter in and of itself does not directly affect your health, it does act indirectly, both by improving your social relationships, which means that your are more content and less stressed, and by mitigating stress itself.