Laughter Does Have Medicinal Value

Our happy hour fact to amaze your drinking buddies with.

Viewing humorous material improves the overall health of those with diabetes.

Researchers had half of a group of high-risk diabetes patients watch 30 minutes of comedy when they received their regular medication. After a year, those who got the humor injection had lower levels of both stress hormones and cardiovascular inflammation -- and higher levels of good cholesterol -- than the control group.

"The best clinicians understand that there is an intrinsic physiological intervention brought about by positive emotions such as mirthful laughter, optimism and hope," said the study's author.

While this is great news, we're quite fearful it may lead to a "Patch Adams" sequel.

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