Informative Speech

Hi my name is Jenn and today I'd like to let you all in on a little secret. How would you like to improve your health without having to go to the doctor, take a pill, or even alter your daily activities in any way? While it may seem impossible, the answer to a healthier you lies within.

Over the past few decades, doctors and other researchers have found evidence that laughter improves health. Laughter is like 'internal jogging,' a form of exercise that keeps the body and the mind fit. In an article I recently came across, Dr. Donald Black explains how simple everyday laughter can give the heart muscles a good workout, improve circulation, increase your pulse rate, fill the lungs with oxygen-rich air, decrease tension, and perhaps even relieve pain.

You may be thinking "Of course. Laughter means your happy and when your happy you tend to be healthier" While the benefits of laughter on the mind and spirit may be obvious, there is an enormous amount of medical evidence behind how laughter really in fact physically leads to a healthier life.

What is laughter? Laughter, as described by Lee Berk, a lead researcher for the University of California Irvin College of Medicine is a form of good stress that releases those bad and distressful emotions that cause harmful chemical effects on the body.

Medical evidence lies in the fact that laughter gives you an aerobic and internal workout. When you laugh, you inhale more oxygen and therefore you feel refreshed. Researchers have found that one minute of laughter is equal to 10 minutes on the rowing machine. The diaphragm gets a great workout when we laugh really hard. Our respiration is enhanced, blood pressure is lowered and the amount of oxygen in the lungs and blood stream increases. For this reason, it has been proven to help people suffering from bronchitis and asthma.

Many humor and laughter studies from Duke University, UCLA, and even from other countries such as Great Britain have recognized the positive outcomes of laughter. Laughter strengthens the immune system. University studies show laughter increases T-cell production which fight infections, and increases the number of disease-fighting cells. Laughter is also said to increase immunoglobin A and B which have protective qualities against virus and bacteria and provides antibodies with the strength to attack dysfunctional cells. These are all natural hormones that send pain-killing chemicals through the body and help in reducing the intensity of pain. So while you laugh, and for a short time afterward, you don't feel pain. This has proven to be true

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