The Guadalajara Reporter

Fact: laughing is good for your health

Smiling and laughing are permitted, encouraged and celebrated on Thursday, January 24 – World Belly Laugh Day.

People everywhere are asked to pause at 1:24 p.m. (their local time) to smile, throw their arms in the air and laugh out loud in a “Belly Laugh Bounce ’Round the World.”

Actually, laughing may offer you more than just psychological therapy.  More than a decade ago  researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore concluded that laughter is linked to the healthy function of blood vessels, after using amusing movies to gauge the effect of emotions on cardiovascular health.  Laughter appears to cause the tissue that forms the inner lining of blood vessels, the endothelium, to dilate or expand in order to increase blood flow, the study showed.

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