Want to lower your blood pressure? Watch a comedy tonight. In this Health Smarts video, Robin Miller, MD, reveals how laughter helps fight hypertension, lowers cholesterol, soothes stress, and boosts your immune system in just 20 minutes.
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Hi, Dr. Miller here with a way to lower your blood pressure without a finger. Are you trying to choose between watching a comedy or drama tonight? For better blood pressure pick the comedy. Research shows that laughter and humor can lower your systolic blood pressure, the top number, by about 10 points, in just 20 minutes. In a small study, volunteers chose a 20 minute humorous video clip to watch. They also watched 20 minutes of a serious war movie. Then researchers measured their blood pressure, watching funny videos, lowered people's blood pressure and cholesterol levels too.
The serious war movie? No effect. How does laughter lower your blood pressure? Tickling your funny bone reduces levels of stress hormones related to climbing blood pressure. Laughter is good for your immune system too. Want to discover more simple ways to be healthy? Watch and share all our smart health tips, right here.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, boosts your risk for cardiovascular disease, stroke, Alzheimer's disease and other conditions. Our experts share smart nutrition, exercise and lifestyle tips to help prevent and treat hypertension.
