Laughter is the Best Medicine for Your Heart

Laughter may just be the best medicine for your heart. A recent study by cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore found that people with heart disease were 40% less likely to laugh in many situations than people of the same age without heart disease.

An active sense of humor and laughter may help protect you from a heart attack.

Researchers compared the humor responses of 300 people in the study. Half of the participants did not have heart disease. The other half had either suffered a heart attack or undergone coronary artery bypass surgery. They were given one questionnaire with a series of multiple-choice answers to determine how much or how little people laughed in certain situations, and a second questionnaire used true or false answers to measure anger and hostility.

Those with heart disease generally laughed less, even in positive situations, and they displayed more anger and hostility.

Finding humor in daily life may help your heart.

Laughter expert and cardiology professor, Dr. Michael Miller, discusses how to make your heart happy in daily life.