Laughter is good for the heart because it prolongs life while depression increases the risk of an early death, according to two new studies.
A good bout of laughter every day provides similar cardiovascular benefits asexercise because it stimulates the blood flow, said Michael Miller, who headed one research team at the University of Maryland.
On the other hand, depression -- or the lack of laughter -- is often linked to unhealthy habits such as smoking and drug addiction and increases the risk of death by 44 percent, said Wein Jiang, who led a study of 1,000 heart patients for the University of North Carolina.
Miller said laughter produced a "magnitude of change ... in the endothelium ... similar to the benefit we might see with aerobic activity, but without the aches, pains and muscle tension associated with exercise"
While laughter should not replace exercise, he said, "we do recommend that you try to laugh on a regular basis. Thirty minutes of exercise three times a week, and 15 minutes of laughter on a daily basis is probably good for the vascular system."
每天笑15分鐘可以使你的心臟更健康
美國科學(xué)家的兩項最新研究結(jié)果顯示,笑能使人精神愉悅,同時還對心臟大有好處;相反,心情沮喪則不利于身體健康,甚至?xí)黾釉缢赖奈kU。
據(jù)法新社3月8日報道,其中一項研究的負(fù)責(zé)人、美國馬里蘭大學(xué)的邁克爾·米勒表示,笑給心血管帶來的好處就像鍛煉可以給心血管帶來好處一樣,因為笑可以促使血液流通。而北卡羅萊納大學(xué)的另一項研究則表明,心情沮喪或缺少笑容卻常常與諸如抽煙、吸毒等不健康的生活習(xí)慣聯(lián)系在一起,同時還能將死亡的危險增加44%。
在調(diào)查過程中,米勒選擇了20部讓人發(fā)笑的喜劇片或是會使人緊張不安的悲劇片,并讓20名平均年齡為33歲的,不吸煙、身體健康的志愿者觀看這些影片。當(dāng)志愿者觀看影片時,研究人員檢測他們血管內(nèi)發(fā)生的變化。研究顯示,觀看悲劇片時,20名志愿者中有14人胳膊上的動脈血流量減少;相反,在觀看喜劇影片時,20人中有19人的血流量增加。研究人員得到的結(jié)論是,在笑的時候,血流量會平均增加22%;而當(dāng)人們有了精神壓力時,血流量則會減少35%。
對此,米勒表示,笑和做有氧運動時差不多,但笑可以使我們遠(yuǎn)離由運動帶來的傷痛和肌肉緊張等不良影響。但是,他也同時表示,笑也不可能取代體育鍛煉,兩者應(yīng)該有規(guī)律地同時進(jìn)行。他說:“我們建議人們一周進(jìn)行3次體育鍛煉,每次30分鐘;另外,每天要笑15分鐘,這樣會對人們的身體健康有好處!