Are you feeling run down? You could try laughing more! Some researchers think laughter could be the best medicine, helping you feel better and bringing that spring back into your step.

It makes sense that if people can get more laughter in their lives, they are happier and healthier too.

Laughter is a wonderful thing - that's why we have all heard the saying "laughter is the best medicine". There is strong evidence that laughter can actually improve health and help fight disease.

Test the theory and see for yourself!

First id like you to think of some really funny things, situations you have been in or pictures you have seen, as long as it's really funny!

Now I want you to smile, come on! Let the corners of your mouth turn up. Giggle, chortle, chuckle. And slowly build up into a loud laugh.

How do you feel now? Refreshed? Exhilarated? According to recent studies done by neuroscientists and psychologists, as well as the newest fads in holistic medicine, laughter is the greatest panacea yet discovered.

It has been credited with everything from lowering blood pressure and reducing chances of heart attacks and strokes to increasing your intelligence and capabilities to retain process information.

Humour and laughter are regularly being used in a variety of therapeutic situations.

Research into the use of therapeutic humour tells us it has the power to motivate, alleviate stress and pain and improve one's sense of well being.

When really funny things make us laugh, natural killer cells which destroy tumours and viruses increase, along with Gamma-interferon (a disease fighting protein), T- cells (important for the immune system) and B - cells (which make disease -fighting antibodies).

As well as lowering blood pressure, laughter increases oxygen in the blood, which also encourages healing.

What is laughter?

Believe it of not laughter is not the same as humour. It is the physiological response to humour and is made of two parts - the production of a sound and a set of gestures.

Laughing causes our brain to conduct both the production of a sound and a set of gestures simultaneously.

Why do we laugh?

Some researchers believe that strengthening human connections is related to why we laugh because laughter occurs more often when people are comfortable around one another.

Have you noticed in an office everyone in the office laughs when the boss laughs? This is because dominant people use laughter more often than their subordinates.

Laughing and Humour is like a medicine and a very powerful one.

It can bring together families in troubled times, reduce anger and frustration and lower your stress levels.

If you can laugh at yourself or a situation you are in that seem overwhelming it will help to diffuse the stress.

Laughter and really funny things serve a great purpose in our life not only from a medical point of view we discussed earlier but it will make you feel better about yourself and the world around you. It will make a bad situation seem a little less daunting.

A hearty laugh a day may well keep the doctor away, so keep looking at really funny things!