Laughter is the best medicine! This statement appears to be true when it comes to heart health. At least that’s what Michael Miller, director of the Center for Heart Prevention at the University of Maryland, says. A team of researchers from this university has shown that people with heart problems are 40% less likely to laugh at funny situations than those with healthy hearts. The study was based on questionnaires where people were asked to record their reactions to different situations where humor intervened. Not only did people with heart problems laugh less, they had difficulty recognizing humorous situations and showed more aggression than those with healthy hearts. So, according to Miller, “the ability to laugh can have a big impact in a society like the United States where heart disease is the leading cause of death.”
However, the study does not reveal whether humor helps prevent heart disease or whether people with it lose their sense of humor. For Dr. Rose Marie Robertson, president of the American Heart Association and cardiologist at Vanderbilt University, the latter question would be more interesting, although more difficult to answer. However, she admits that studies on the psychological aspect of heart disease are of growing interest to cardiologists: “I believe that [cette étude] suggests that we need to take a more serious look at the psychological state of our patients ”.
HealthPassport.net
According to Associated Press, November 15, 2000
