Posts Tagged ‘laugh’

Laughing Policemen: Laughing to Increase Fitness

Last year I wrote a blog post 5 Reasons You Need to Laugh More. Well it seems that the Government in Thailand also believe that laughter is a great medicine because they’ve treated their police force to 2 x 3-hour laughing sessions as you can see in this video.

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Posted in Exercise

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Health Tips for the Misguided

Yawn. Things are getting a bit boring round here don’t you think?! Eat your greens blah, blah, blah… Don’t worry, I try not to take myself too seriously so here are a few unconventional health quotes for you to enjoy:-

  1. Don’t eat me. I have a wife and kids. Eat them.

    2. – Homer Simpson

  2. My doctor told me to do something that made me slightly out of breath, so I started smoking again.

    3. – Jo Brand

  3. Never eat anything at one sitting that you can’t lift.

    4. – Miss Piggy

  4. The word aerobics comes from two Greek words: aero, meaning “ability to,” and bics, meaning “withstand tremendous boredom.”

    5. – Dave Barry

  5. I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy eating, and in fourteen days I lost two weeks.

    6. – Joe E. Lewis

  6. Muscles come and go; flab lasts.

    7. – Bill Vaughan

  7. All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening.

    8. – Alexander Wolcott

  8. To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.

    9. – Gustave Flaubert

  9. Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

    10. – Redd Foxx

  10. I don’t like food that’s too carefully arranged; it makes me think that the chef is spending too much time arranging and not enough time cooking. If I wanted a picture I’d buy a painting.

    11. – Andy Rooney

  11. If you ever have to support a flagging conversation, introduce the topic of eating.

    12. – Leigh Hunt

  12. Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances.

    13. – Department of Social Services, Greenville, South Carolina

  13. Canada has never been a melting pot; more like a tossed salad.

    14. – Arnold Edinborough

  14. Eating words has never given me indigestion.

    15. – Winston Churchill

  15. I do not like broccoli. And I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.

    16. – George Bush, US president, 1990

  16. Seafood brought in by customers will not be entertained.

    17. – Restaurant sign in Langkawi, Malaysia

  17. Eat whatever thou likest, but dress as others do.

    18. – Arab Proverb

  18. The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.

    19. – Lucille Ball

  19. Eat bread at pleasure, drink wine by measure.

    20. – Randle Cotgrave

  20. Avoid fruits and nuts. You are what you eat.

    21. – Jim Davis (Garfield the Cat)

  21. The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.

    22. – Mark Twain

  22. Never invest in anything that eats or needs repairing.

    23. – Billy Rose

  23. An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

    24. – Winston Churchill

  24. Mattie’s Restaurant and Yogurt Palace, “An alternative to Good Eating”

    25. – Restaurant Business Card from Decatur, Texas

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5 Reasons You Need to Laugh More

In my quest for a healthy lifestyle you may wonder why I’ve just ordered several comedy DVDs from sitcoms such as One Foot in the Grave, Rab C. Nesbitt and Black Adder. Well, it’s because I truly believe laughter is the best medicine.  People with a sense of humor are much happier.

I’ve been finding that TV has been pretty depressing lately, the news is full of reports of shootings, stabbings, beatings and people having limbs blown off. Rarely are there any news items to make us laugh, smile or generally feel good about society.

There’s loads of health benefits associated with laughter, here’s a list of just 5.

1. Stress-busting Tears

When’s the last time you laughed so hard you cried? If it’s been a while, now’s the time to start. When we cry, whether it’s through sorrow or joy, it helps us reduce stress.

2. Immune Fighting Saliva

Dr Lee Berk of California’s Loma Linda University tested the saliva of people after a laughing fit. It was found that after laughing, people had higher levels of immunoglobulins which help us fight off disease.

3. Oxygenate the Blood

When you laugh so hard your belly hurts, you’ll be interested to know that your lungs are having to work harder than normal, meaning your blood become enriched with oxygen.

4. Reduce Stress and Heart Disease

Michael Miller, cardiologist at University of Maryland had subjects watch a stressful scene from Saving Private Ryan one day and a funny scene from There’s Something About Mary the next.

Using an ultrasound machine to monitor blood vessel linings it was found that they narrowed after people watched Saving Private Ryan but expanded after There’s Something About Mary.

When the blood vessels narrow stress hormones like cortisol are released causing blood clots and potentially heart disease. When the vessels expand the opposite happens, healthy chemicals such as nitric oxide are released and blood clots reduce.

5. Increased Tolerance to Pain

Are you a bit of a woose? A study carried out in 1987 by Rosemary Cogan at Texas Tech found that people who watched 20 minutes of comedy could tolerate more pain than those who watched an informational tape or no tape at all.

Question: What makes you laugh?

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Posted in Misc

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