Laughter: Good Heart Disease Med?

The old bromide, "laughter is the best medicine," may be on-target.

It's been well-established that our state of mind can affect our physical well-being.

Factors such as stress, and negative emotions such as depression and distress, are widely believed to contribute to the development of heart disease and the triggering of symptoms and heart attacks, notes The Early Show medical correspondent Dr. Emily Senay.

Stress management therapy during cardiac rehabilitation after heart surgery is becoming more and more common.

The exact relationship between mental and physical health is not fully understood.

But research has shown that heart patients who undergo stress management as part of their therapy have less depression and emotional distress, and experience physical benefits such as improved blood vessel health and an improvement in the ability of the body to handle surges in blood pressure.

Along those lines, a recent study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine showed that laughing causes physical effects in the blood vessels similar to the effects of exercise. In essence, Senay points out, a chuckle a day may help to keep the doctor away.

Researchers had 20 healthy volunteers watch a 15-minute clip from the 1996 comedy movie "King Pin" then, 48 hours later, view a clip from the 1998 war movie "Saving Private Ryan." After each movie was shown, researchers used ultrasound to measure physical changes in blood vessels.

On average, blood flow increased 22 percent after the comedy clip, and decreased 35 percent after the war film."That very much indicates," Senay told The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm, "that laughing could actually improve your cardiovascular status and maybe even prevent or help treat heart disease, because you really want to increase blood flow, not decrease it, when you're talking about heart health."

So, Senay observes, it seems that laughter has physical benefits that go along with being in a positive frame of mind.

Stressful emotions and depression are common among heart patients, Senay notes. According to a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, one-in-five patients hospitalized for a heart attack suffers from major depression, and these patients may be more likely than other heart attack patients to need hospital care again within a year for a cardiac problem, and be three times as likely to die from a future attack or other heart problems.

The report also found that those with major depression can have a delay in returning to work, worse quality of life, and worse physical and psychological health after they leave the hospital.

Psychotherapy and other stress management techniques are now routinely used to help patients manage depression, hostility and other stressful emotions following heart surgery. From these early results, it seems that lightening up with comedy could also be tried as a way to complement medical care. We need further study on the effects of laughter as a therapy.