Danny Yu
By Danny Yu
SYLP student
A couple of laughs is good enough for some people, but in current economic times with all the depressing and angering events going on, you might want to add a few more laughs.
Sure, you may not be suffering from depression or stress, but in recent studies, laughing has been shown to assist you in social relationships and even your physical and emotional health.
No, you don’t have to laugh all the time, but with a couple more laughs a day — who knows what it can do?
Top: Above: Everyone cracks up. From right to left: SYLP students Cheng Li, Alan Liu, Emily Lisanti, Jihae Lee, Aleyna Yamaguchi, and SYLP volunteer Christine Chen. Bottom: SYLP coordinator Amy Lu gives SYLP student Brandon Lee a great big hug. (Photos by SYLP volunteers and Amy Lu)
In a study at the University of Maryland, medical department cardiologists have studied the effects of having an active sense of humor. Forty percent of patients with heart disease were less likely to laugh than patients without heart disease.
Mental stress can cause heart attacks or strokes by damaging our endothelium, the protective layer of our blood vessels.
Since stress is lowered by laughing, logically speaking, the chances of heart attacks or cholesterol problems would also be lowered.
After the stress segment of the study, two questionnaires were given to 150 healthy patients and 150 patients suffering from heart disease. The true or false questionnaire showed that out of the 300 patients participating in the study, people with heart disease had a less umm … hysterical sense of humor as opposed to healthy patients.
Heart disease patients also indicated that they acted more displeased in joyful situations as opposed to the healthy patients in the study.
We have taken up so much time in researching this, but we are not using it to its fullest potential.
For instance, doctors can prescribe comedic films to patients, as it makes them laugh. Come on, just taking a couple minutes out of your day to watch a hilarious YouTube video could help your health, so why not try? So make that small change to have a couple of laughs to help the good old body. ♦
Danny Yu can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.
(The stories in this issue are written by SYLP students, not Northwest Asian Weekly staff. Opinions herein do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of the newspaper.)