A Good Laugh May Help Shed Extra Weight

Sure, I'm a few pounds more than I should be and at least a half -foot shorter than the norm but I've lived that way for quite a few years, thank you very much.

And most pholks think I have a pretty good sense of humor. And those who can't take a joke probably have been told lots of times what they should try and do—even though it generally is considered impossible. The result is that basically I'm a short, semi-pudgy jolly older man We've all heard the phrase, "laughter is good medicine." I do have some minor medical problems but everything considered I consider myself in good health. I feel good and my mental health probably is as good as its ever going to be—a subject which some of you might question. But, like I said, if you can't take a joke…..

Which brings me to my point: That "laughter is good medicine," adage. I had to laugh, at last a little, when I happened upon a story on the Internet. It was an Associated Press story about results of a Vanderbilt University study presented at the annual European Congress on Obesity in Athens, Greece.

The story's headline reads "A good Laugh May Help Shed Extra Weight."

There were no jokes or any real puns in the story but it did make me smile—but only because a major university went to so much expense and time to study something everyone with half or even a quarter of a brain should know. Laughter is good for you. I think it's been good for me, despite the extra pounds which has sorta become part of my persona.

I'm pretty sure that the phrase "almost died laughing'' has no real truth but can you imagine conducting a research project on that premise? How many people would have to die in such a project to come to prove the point?

Okay pholks, here are some of the research results:
--Ten to fifteen minutes of genuine giggling can burn off the number of calories found in a medium square of chocolate.
--Volunteers burned 20 per cent more calories when laughing compared to not laughing.
--The 10 to 15 minutes per day spent laughing totaled about 50 calories.
--Over a year's time a person, depending of course on body size and intensity of laughter, could lose up to 4.4 pounds per year.

And just how did those seriously minded researchers conduct this project. Well, it went something like this:

They took 45 pairs of friends, shut them in a room decorated like a cheap hotel—scientifically known as a metabolic chamber—and played comedy clips on a TV. They measured the calories burned when laughing. (Remember pholks, this was serious research.) There were several pairs of male friends, 17 pairs of female friends and 21 mixed couples.

And to reduce the chances of "fake laughter" volunteers were not told their laughter was being measure only that their emotional reaction to various comedy clips was being tested.

Remember this is serious stuff. The room was specially designed so scientists could measure how much oxygen the volunteers inhaled and how much carbon dioxide they exhaled—the recognized means of measuring energy burning.

These dedicated researchers recorded the differences in the oxygen and carbon dioxide patterns before and during laughter to calculate whether laughter used more energy and how big the difference was.

As a back up, the heart rates of the volunteers were measured. Microphones were fitted to record the laughter. . And the volunteers were told not to talk or move and to just "kick back" in the reclining chairs and watch the TV screen.

To get a standard, the first half-hour of clips featured an English landscape. This set the baseline, the scientists explained.

This was serious stuff, remember.

Five different comedy clips, starting with take-outs of the Cosby Show, minus the laughter, were shown for 10 minutes intersperses with five minute segments of sheep wandering around fields in England.

There was no mention on whether any of the volunteers laughed at the English landscape segment of if any of them had faster heartbeats when a cute sheep was shown, but perhaps that was part of another research project.

Anyhow, if anything I've noted makes you laugh I've done my good deed for the day. If nothing produced a chuckle, you'd better hit the treadmill, throw away the ice cream, and skip the pizza.

And if you can't take a joke--well you know.

Miles can be reached at mshuper@valleyvoicenewspaper.com

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