Laughter proves good medicine for heart

Acking a sense of humour might not just be bad for your social life; it might also be harming your cardiovascular health. A new study shows that laughter actually increases blood flow in the body, proving right the old adage that laughter is the best medicine, at least when it comes to the heart.

Cardiologist Michael Miller and colleagues at the University of Maryland tested blood flow in 20 healthy men and women after they watched 15-to-30-minute clips of the comedy movies Kingpin and There's Something About Mary and a stressful film, the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan. The researchers measured blood flow both before each viewing and one minute after it ended. "We wanted to see whether laughter induced a vascular response," Miller explains.

Prior research inspired the team to conduct the experiment. A series of questionnaires administered to sufferers of coronary heart disease by the cardiologists revealed that patients who had suffered a heart attack failed to find the humour in a situation, such as wearing the same outfit to a party, 40 percent more often than their healthy counterparts. "We didn't know whether that was cause and effect or just part and parcel of having the disease," Miller says.

They decided to investigate the possible healthy effects of laughter by measuring vascular dilation after people chuckled at funny bits or reacted to intense images. In total, the researchers gathered 160 measurements of blood flow in the brachial artery, which connects the shoulder and elbow, from the 10 men and 10 women. While laughing, 19 of the subjects' increased healthy blood flow by an average of 22 percent. And comparing the amused and stressful states brought on by film clips, more than 50 percent more blood flowed when laughing, according to the paper published in the current issue of Heart.

In fact, being light-hearted boosted blood flow about the same amount as light exercise or drugs that lower cholesterol. Drama-induced stress, on the other hand, cut that rate by as much as angry memories or mental calculations. "What that suggests, at the very least, is that laughter on a regular basis will undo some of the excess stress we face in our everyday lives," Miller notes. "Patients at risk for cardiovascular disease should loosen up a bit.”

By David Biello

Fuel something good

More often than not, we tend to give up. Instead of fighting bravely against the problem, we drop our sword and the battlefield and try to run away from the problem. Most importantly, we act stupid.

I also used to be a great pessimist. I had given up. Just before a few days, I realized my mistake. It was a lazy afternoon, pretty dull. As I had nothing to do, I was glancing through some old editions of Reader’s Digest. Some articles caught my attention and in fact, taught me quite a lot. I was lucky to read about two actresses who used their bitter experiences to do really wonderful things.

I don't think most of us know about Patty Duke. She won an Oscar at age 16 for The Miracle Worker and had gone on to star in The Patty Duke Show. Her life was never a smooth ride. When she was a little girl, she was discovered by Ethel and John Ross. They were a pair oh theatrical managers who exploited her for their own benefit. When she became a rippling, beautiful teenager, they fed her pills and molested her several times. Later, when she managed to get rid of them, she got married three times and never found happiness. At a point, she suffered from mental illness. Still, she was always a great mother. After many years, she used the experience to help others who were in a similar condition. In 1986, she got married to a military man and since than, lived happily ever after, like a fairy tale.

Ah, well, I think I need to tell you about someone we know about . Otherwise you might get bored . Am I right?

Halle Berry, a regular on the most beautiful list and an oscar winning actress, is one of those people in Hollywood who give their time and money to raise awareness, and more money, for causes close to their hearts. Being a diabetic for almost last 20 years, she helps to raise funds for research and treatment of childhood diabetes. Since her father abused her mum and elder sister , and she herself is partially deaf in one ear because of being abused by a man she was involved with, she in involved with the Jenesse Centre to help abused women .

Like many other people, she could have developed a severe depression and could have dreaded her experience till the very end of her life. Instead , she is helping hundreds of people .

If they can do it, why can't we? Although we are not famous or super-rich, we can at least make small steps. If all of us decide to use our experiences to fuel something really good and make small steps, it can do a lot of good, trust me.

The writer forgot to give the name

In his novel Rose Madder, Stephen King tries to get into the shoes of the animal as he paints a pretty gruesome picture of a wife-beating cop.

After fourteen years of tolerating inhumane beatings from her policeman husband Norman, Rosie Daniels suddenly arrives at the conclusion that he will ultimately kill her. Early on in the novel, it becomes clear that it wouldn't be the first time he has killed, either. The epiphany compels Rosie to nick Norman's credit card and escape.

Arriving at a strange city thousands of miles away, Rosie finds new friends, a new identity, a new love interest and finds, leaning on the kindness of strangers, a new life for herself. Yet the fear of Norman catching up with her is her constant companion.

The fear is justified, because Norman, a bad cop with good instincts for tracking people, is on the hunt and he's fit to kill.

The story, which would have made a compelling read as it was, makes a departure from the credible as Rosie finds an odd painting that compels her to buy it. One stormy night, she walks into the picture and meets a mad deity who tells her what she must do.

From that point on, the bizarre and the believable runs neck-and-neck as Norman draws ever closer, and the tension builds up to an explosive finish.

Now, I love King's other works. I love how he makes his weird stories something you can relate to. Rose Madder definitely didn't fall into that category. It reads like a lot of leftover material from his other stories somehow slopped into one book. Nevertheless, it's the sheer 'what the hell' element that'll keep you reading till the very end.

By Sabrina F Ahmad
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