Our unique sense of humour relieves stress, keeps us fit and helps us to enjoy a long, happy life.

SCIENTISTS, normally a solemn group, are beginning to take humor seriously and discovering that it is no laughing matter. Margery Hutter Silver, a neuropsychologist at the Harvard Medical School, studied longevity and found one clear theme emerged from the contrasting lifestyles of those who live past 100 – a good sense of humor.

One of her 102-year-old subjects is a good example of this. When a television news team interviewed the old lady on the secret of a long life, a long line of cars formed outside her home. Asked what her neighbours would think, she replied with a laugh: “They’ll think I’ve died.”

Dr Hutter Silver speculates that a sense of humor contributes to aging well because smiling and laughing provide the same benefits as physical exercise – she refers to laughing as “internal jogging”. Laughter raises blood pressure just long enough to increase oxygen and blood supply to tissues. It alters the breathing cycle so that more oxygen is inhaled and toxic carbon dioxide exhaled. Muscles throughout the body tense and relax during laughter in exactly the same way as with stress reduction techniques such as yoga.

Herbert Lefcourt and colleagues at Waterloo University in Ontario recently established that exposure to humor improves immune system functioning, producing significant rises in the body’s natural defences, such as antibodies in the bloodstream. Low antibody levels predict greater likelihood of future disease, yet what was particularly intriguing about Dr Lefcourt’s study was that, given something to laugh at, those with a good sense of humor experienced the highest rises in antibody levels.

Part 2 is coming!

Contributed by UCLICT.