開懷大笑有助于心臟健康

The old adage that “l(fā)aughter is the best medicine” may contain an element of truth when it comes to heart health.

A study has demonstrated that having a laugh causes the tissue inside the heart to expand and increases oxygen flow around the body.

Patients with coronary artery disease who engaged in a course of laughter therapy had reduced inflammation and better health， the research found.

“Our study found that laughter therapy increased the functional capacity of the cardiovascular system，” said the lead author， Prof Marco Saffi， of the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre in Brazil.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Amsterdam， the worlds largest heart conference.

In the trial， scientists carried out a first-of-its-kind study to examine if laughter therapy could improve symptoms of patients with heart disease.

It involved 26 adults with an average age of 64， all diagnosed with coronary artery disease， caused by plaque buildup in the walls of the arteries that supply blood to the heart.

老話說，笑是最好的“藥”，這句話在心臟健康方面也許是有道理的。

一項(xiàng)研究表明，笑能讓心臟內(nèi)部組織擴(kuò)張，從而增加在體內(nèi)四處流動(dòng)的氧氣。

研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，采用“大笑療法”的冠心病患者炎癥減輕了，身體變好了。

該研究的首席作者、巴西阿雷格里港醫(yī)院的馬克·薩菲教授表示：“我們的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，大笑療法能改善心血管系統(tǒng)的功能?！?/p>

這一研究結(jié)果在阿姆斯特丹舉行的世界最大型的心臟病學(xué)會(huì)議——?dú)W洲心臟病學(xué)會(huì)年會(huì)上公布。

科學(xué)家在這項(xiàng)研究中開展了一場史無前例的試驗(yàn)，看大笑療法能否改善心臟病患者的癥狀。

26名平均年齡為64歲的成人參與了這個(gè)試驗(yàn)，他們?nèi)即_診冠心病，這種病是由給心臟供血的冠狀動(dòng)脈內(nèi)壁的斑塊堆積導(dǎo)致的。

Over three months， half were asked to watch two different hour-long comedy programmes each week， including popular sitcoms. The other half watched two different serious documentaries， about topics such as politics or the Amazon rainforest.

At the end of the 12-week study period， the comedy group improved by 10% in a test measuring how much oxygen their heart could pump around the body.

The group also improved in a second measure that tested how well arteries can expand.

They also had blood tests to measure several inflammatory biomarkers， which indicate how much plaque has built up in the blood vessels， and whether people are at risk of heart attack or stroke. The results showed that these inflammatory biomarkers had significantly reduced compared with the control group.

“When patients with coronary artery disease arrive at hospital， they have a lot of inflammatory biomarkers，” said Saffi. “Inflammation is a huge part of the process of atherosclerosis， when plaque builds up in the arteries.”

This study found that laughter therapy is a good intervention that could help reduce that inflammation and decrease the risk of heart attack and stroke.

在三個(gè)月的時(shí)間內(nèi)，有一半的患者被要求每周觀看兩個(gè)不同的長達(dá)一小時(shí)的喜劇節(jié)目，包括受歡迎的情景喜劇。另外一半患者每周觀看兩部不同的嚴(yán)肅紀(jì)錄片，涉及政治或亞馬孫雨林這類題材。

在長達(dá)12周的研究結(jié)束時(shí)，科學(xué)家對他們的身體進(jìn)行檢查后發(fā)現(xiàn)，觀看喜劇的小組成員心臟供應(yīng)全身的氧氣流量增加了10%。

另一項(xiàng)檢查發(fā)現(xiàn)，該小組成員的冠狀動(dòng)脈擴(kuò)張功能也改善了。

這些人還抽血檢測了幾個(gè)炎癥生物指標(biāo)，這些指標(biāo)能顯示出血管中積聚了多少斑塊，以及是否有心臟病發(fā)作或中風(fēng)的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。結(jié)果顯示，相比對照組，這些人的炎癥生物指標(biāo)都顯著降低。

薩菲表示：“當(dāng)冠心病患者就醫(yī)時(shí)，他們的炎癥生物指標(biāo)都很高。炎癥是動(dòng)脈粥樣硬化過程中表明動(dòng)脈斑塊堆積的主要癥狀?！?/p>

這項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，大笑療法是很好的干預(yù)手段，有助于減輕炎癥并降低心臟病發(fā)作和中風(fēng)的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。

Word Bank

tissue /'t??u?/ n. （人、動(dòng)植物細(xì)胞的）組織

therapy /'θer?pi/ n. 治療；療法

symptom /'s?mpt?m/ n. 癥狀

diagnose /'da??ɡn??z/ v. 診斷（疾?。?/p>

The illness was diagnosed as cancer.