A health story to smile about... :-)

Here's a healthcare-related story to smile about:

"Researchers at Osaka University in Japan set out to determine whether music and laughter interventions would reduce blood pressure in one of two situations: immediately after listening to music or laughing and after three months of one-hour interventions that took place once every two weeks.

The scientists signed up 79 people between 40 and 74, who were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Thirty-two listened to music, 30 were assigned to a laughter group, and 17 neither listened to music nor participated in laughter sessions.

After three months, researchers say blood pressure significantly decreased, by nearly 6 mmHg, among those who listened to music. It decreased by 5 mmHg among those who took part in sessions designed to make them laugh."

When put in the context of ~10 mmHg blood pressure reductions observed with pharmaceutical monotherapies, shouldn't we perhaps be prescribing music and laughter for those with mild to moderate hypertension?

Including these 'therapies' would at least make new Phase III hypertension clinical trials more fun wouldn't they...? ;-)