Dr. Michael Miller of the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore showed two movies, one humorous, one stressful, to 20 healthy volunteers and tested the function of their blood vessels.

The researchers looked at the endothelium, the lining of the vessels, and found that blood flow was reduced in 14 of the 20 volunteers after stressful movie clips. But blood flowed more freely in 19 of the 20 when they laughed at funny movie segments. Laughter alone won't keep you fit and they recommend that you try to laugh on a regular basis. Thirty minutes of exercise three times a week, and 15 minutes of laughter on a daily basis is good for the vascular system.

Each time we laugh we increase our flow of blood by 22% and lessen our stress levels by 35%. Laughing may be important to maintain a healthy endothelium, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and it's great exercise.

Depression, on the other hand, can raise the risk of dying from heart failure. The level of change they saw in the endothelium when people were laughing was equivalent to the benefit we might see with aerobic activity, but without the pain.

Dr Wei Jiang and colleagues at Duke University in North Carolina in another study, followed 1,005 heart failure patients and also tested them for depression. They found event those with mild depression had a 44 percent greater risk of dying. Patients with depression tend not to exercise or take medications properly; it is unclear why. They also made more unhealthy lifestyle choices in regard to diet and smoking.

So keep laughing, its doing you more good than you realise, have you heard the one about........!

Patients entered the study with LDL-cholesterol levels between 130 mg/dL and 250 mg/dL. More than half of the patients taking Lipitor at 10 mg doses achieved LDL-cholesterol levels of 100 mg/dL or lower.

TNT is an investigator-led trial coordinated by an independent steering committee and was funded by Pfizer. The study enrolled men and women between 35 and 75 years of age in 14 countries.

"In addition to providing outstanding benefits at the lowest and highest doses of Lipitor in the TNT study, it's important to note that patients achieved these benefits safely," Dr. Feczko said. "This is critical new information that potentially could have a significant impact on how physicians approach the treatment of heart disease."

Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and the majority of Americans with elevated cholesterol, a leading risk factor for heart attacks, are not at their recommended goal levels. Updated guidelines issued by the National Cholesterol Education Program confirm the added benefit of prescribing cholesterol-lowering medication like Lipitor, along with diet modification and exercise, to patients at risk for cardiovascular disease. In addition, the NCEP panel has recommended an LDL- cholesterol level of less than 100 mg/dL as the goal of therapy for patients at high risk of coronary heart disease.

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