No joke, study shows laughter is best medicine

A hearty laugh may help avert heart disease.

Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine found that laughter helps relieve mental stress that can cause blood vessels to constrict. Constricted blood vessels increase the risk for heart attack and stroke by reducing blood flow to the heart and brain.

Michael Miller, the study's author and director of the university's center for preventive cardiology, recently presented his data at the European Society of Cardiology Congress. Subjects tested after watching the stressful movie "Saving Private Ryan" exhibited constricted blood vessels. But after watching the comedy "There's Something About Mary," the subjects' blood-vessel linings expanded.

Miller told attendees at the conference that laughing regularly, along with a healthy lifestyle, may prevent heart disease. "In other words," he said, "eat your veggies, exercise and get a good belly laugh every day."