Studies show that there is a link between laughter and one’s well-being.  This sort of study always makes the Worried Worker laugh anyway, because it’s pretty much a blazing flash of the obvious.  Unless, of course, the laugher is an axe-murderer, or a lunatic playing an imaginary accordion on top of a telephone pole.

Scientists recently taught 33 of their own employees to “induce their own natural laughter.”  Would have been funnier, of course, if this had been done during a congressional hearing.  The induced laughter requires deep-breathing techniques that created sounds that resulted in laughter.

Where I grew up, this was called burping, but it’s always refreshing to hear that scientists can come up with new ways to explore what kids have done for centuries.  They argue that laughter is a physical activity that produces a physical effect and increases circulation and exercises skeletal muscles.

At the end of the study period, they found that the participants, who laughed for 15 minutes, had increased optimism and positive emotions.  And, they want on to say, that the effects lasted for several days.

Can’t wait to hear what they come up with on the positive effects of group-fart.