While it is normally only considered cliché that “laughter is the best medicine,” specific medical theories attribute improved health, increased life expectancy, and overall improved well-being, to laughter.

A study demonstrated neuroendocrine and stress-related hormones decreased during episodes of laughter, which provides support for the claim that humour can relieve stress. In 1989, the Journal of the American Medical Association published an article, wherein the author wrote that “a humor therapy program can increase the quality of life for patients with chronic problems and that laughter has an immediate symptom-relieving effect for these patients, an effect that is potentiated when laughter is induced regularly over a period”.

So that’s the modern science take on laughter. There is lots of evidence that laughter helps relieve stress, sharpen intellectual acumen and retention of information, and increase cardiovascular flexibility.

Although it is no substitute for chanting Hare Krishna, imagine a world without laughter.

Horrible thought isn’t it?

Now watch this video and see if you can stop yourself from laughing. Good therapy.