English in a pill – Angielski w pigułce, Lesson 5

Laughter is the "Best Medicine" for Your Heart

Can a laugh every day keep the heart attack away? Maybe so. Laughter, along with an active sense of humour, may help protect you against a heart attack, according to a recent study by cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Centre in Baltimore. The study, which is the first to indicate that laughter may help prevent heart disease, found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease.

- The old saying that "laughter is the best medicine", definitely appears to be true when it comes to protecting your heart - says Michael Miller, M.D., director of the Centre for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland. - We don't know yet why laughing protects the heart, but we know that mental stress is associated with impairment of the endothelium, the protective barrier lining our blood vessels. This can cause a series of inflammatory reactions that lead to fat and cholesterol build-up in the coronary arteries and ultimately to a heart attack.

In the study, researchers compared the humour responses of 300 people. Half of the participants had either suffered a heart attack or undergone coronary artery bypass surgery. The other 150 did not have heart disease. One questionnaire had a series of multiple-choice answers to find out how much or how little people laughed in certain situations, and the second one used true or false answers to measure anger and hostility.

Miller said that the most significant study finding was that "people with heart disease responded less humorously to everyday life situations". They generally laughed less, even in positive situations, and they displayed more anger and hostility. - We know that exercising, not smoking and eating foods low in saturated fat will reduce the risk of heart disease. Perhaps regular, hearty laughter should be added to the list.

WORDS

• First-aid kit / Apteczka
• Laughter - śmiech
• to be less likely - być mniej prawdopodobnym
• impairment - pogorszenie
• endothelium - śródbłonek
• to line - wyściełać
• vessels - naczynia krwionośne
• coronary - wieńcowy
• to undergo - poddać się np. zabiegowi
• hostility - wrogość
• saturated fat - tłuszcz nasycony
• hearty - serdeczny, szczery

A joke

A middle-aged woman has a heart attack and is taken to the hospital. While on the operating table she has a near death experience. During that experience she sees God and asks if this is it. God says "no" and explains that she has another 30 years to live.

Upon her recovery she decides to just stay in the hospital and have a face lift, liposuction, breast augmentation, tummy tuck, etc. She even has someone come in and change her hair colour. She figures since she's got another 30 years she might as well make the most of it.

She walks out of the hospital after the last operation and is killed by an ambulance speeding by. She arrives in front of God and complains:

"I thought you said I had another 30 years." God replies: "Ups, sorry, I didn't recognize you".

1. breast augmentation - powiększenie piersi
2. tummy tuck - zmniejszenie brzucha
3. to make the most of sth.- wykorzystać coś w pełni
4. to recognize - rozpoznać

„Farmacja i ja”, luty 2008