Laughter Healthy for Diabetes Patients
April 17, 2009 -- Laughter could have serious heart benefits for people with diabetes, a new study shows.
The study comes from Lee Berk, DrPH, MPH, of Loma Linda University and Stanley Tan, MD, PhD, of Oak Crest Health Research Institute in Loma Linda, Calif.
They studied 20 high-risk type 2 diabetes patients who also had high blood pressure (hypertension) and high cholesterol levels (hyperlipidemia).
All of the patients got routine medical care. In addition, the researchers asked half of the patients to choose a funny video to watch for at least 30 minutes a day. "They could watch more if they wanted to," Berk tells WebMD via email. He adds that the patients chose from TV shows and movies, picking whatever they thought would make them laugh. "We could/should not determine what was 'funny' for them," Burk says.
Those patients made up the laughter group; the other patients served as a comparison group.
During the yearlong study, the patients got blood tests every two months.
After only two months, the patients in the laughter group had a better HDL ("good") cholesterol level than the patients in the comparison group. Four months into the study, the laughter group had lower blood levels of certain inflammatory chemicals.
Those patterns could mean a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, note Berk and Tan, who are presenting their results in New Orleans at the American Physiological Society's annual meeting, which is part of Experimental Biology 2009.
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Answer:
0-69
70-130
131+
Your level is currently
If the level is below 70 and you are experiencing symptoms such as shaking, sweating or difficulty thinking, you will need to raise the number immediately. A quick solution is to eat a few pieces of hard candy or 1 tablespoon of sugar or honey. Recheck your numbers again in 15 minutes to see if the number has gone up. If not, repeat the steps above or call your doctor.
People who experience hypoglycemia several times in a week should call their health care provider. It's important to monitor your levels each day so you can make sure your numbers are within the range. If you are pregnant always consult with your health care provider.
Congratulations on taking steps to manage your health.
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One of the first steps is to monitor your levels each day. If you are pregnant always consult with your physician.
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