Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Laughter really is the best medicine

Posted: 14 September 2011

Members of the Bhopal Laughter Club during a rally on the occasion of International Laughter Day in Bhopal, India. (AFP File Photo)
PARIS: A rattling good laugh with friends will help you deal with pain thanks to opiate-like chemicals that flood the brain, according to a British study released on Wednesday.

Researchers carried out lab experiments in which volunteers watched either comedy clips from "Mr Bean" or "Friends," or non-humorous items such as golf or wildlife programmes, while their resistance to mild pain was monitored.

Another test was conducted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where the volunteers watched either a stand-up comedy show or a theatrical drama.

In lab conditions, the pain came from a deep-frozen wine-cooler sleeve which was slipped onto the arm or from a blood-pressure cuff that was pumped to the threshold of tolerance.

For the Fringe Festival, the volunteers were asked to do a tough exercise - leaning against the wall with their legs at right angles, as if sitting on a straight-backed chair - before and immediately after the performance, to see if laughter had helped with the pain.

Just 15 minutes of laughter increased the level of pain tolerance by around 10 percent, the study found.

In the lab experiments, the neutral, non-funny programming had no pain-alleviating effect at all. Nor did watching drama at the Fringe Festival.

However, the study notes two important distinctions.

The only laughter that worked was relaxed, unforced laughter that creases the eyes, as opposed to a polite titter.

And this kind of belly laugh is far likelier to happen when you are with others, rather than being alone.

"Very little research has been done into why we laugh and what role it plays in society," said Robin Dunbar, head of the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Oxford.

"Using microphones, we were able to record each of the participants and found that in a comedy show, they laughed for about a third of the time, and their pain tolerance rose as a consequence."

The protection apparently comes from endorphins, a complex chemical that helps to transmit messages between neurons but also dulls signals of physical pain and psychological stress.

Endorphins are the famous product of physical exercise - they help create the "buzz" that comes from running, swimming, rowing, yoga and so on.

In laughter, the release comes from an involuntary, repeated muscular exertion that comes from exhaling without drawing a breath, the scientists believe. The exertion leaves us exhausted and thereby triggers the endorphins.

Great apes are also believed to be able to laugh but, unlike humans, they breathe in as well as out when they do so.

The investigators believe the experiments help to understand the physiological and social mechanism of how laughter is generated.

The group seems vital in unleashing the right kind of endorphin-making laughter, they contend.

Previous studies have focussed more on why humans laugh, as opposed to how they do it.

One theory is that laughter helps transmit mating signals or cements bonding between individuals.

Another idea is that, in a group setting, laughter promotes social cooperation and collective identity. It is thus an evolutionary tool to help survival.

The paper appears in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a journal published by Britain's de-facto academy of sciences.

- AFP/de



Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Laughter really is the best medicine

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Parents who lose a baby can die of a broken heart

This is just sad...
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Posted: 08 September 2011


Pregnant mother
PARIS: Parents who lose a new baby run a high risk themselves of dying prematurely, according to a British study published on Thursday.

Investigators delved into a random sample of national death registrations for the years 1971 to 2006.

They compared deaths among parents who had been bereaved in the first year of a child's life or whose child had been stillborn, against deaths among parents whose baby had survived beyond the first year.

Bereaved parents were between two and four times likelier to die or become widowed in the first 10 years of the child's death compared with non-bereaved counterparts.

Mothers in particular were at threat.

Bereaved mothers in England and Wales were four times likelier to die prematurely, and bereaved mothers in Scotland six times likelier, than women whose child had survived beyond the first year of life.

The risk for mothers lessened slightly over time, but was still significant -- 50 percent higher -- after 25 years. After 35 years, it was 20 percent higher.

The reasons for the mortality are unclear because the data do not give the details.

The authors speculate there could be a link with alcohol abuse among bereaved parents, and suicide, too, may be a factor.

Alternatively, stillbirth and infant deaths could be more common among parents who themselves are in poor health.

The research, headed by Mairi Harper of the University of York in northern England, appears in the specialist journal BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care.

- AFP/cc



Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Parents who lose a baby can die of a broken heart

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