Research says a funny flick is a healthy flick

Published 8/23/05

A cardiovascular study performed at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore and unveiled at the American College of Cardiology in Orlando has revealed a need for more movies starring Bill Murray and fewer flicks celebrating the dead, the living dead and the dead dead.

Okay, I’m giving my own spin to the research but I think Roger Ebert would give me 10 stars on this one.

The study, which was reported in medical journals but should have appeared in “Entertainment Weekly,” sent 20 healthy volunteers to the movies—that is, to the two movies that were showing at U of M’s School of Medicine. Apparently the one film was a real howler while the other was a stress-inducing thriller. While the flicks produced the expected laughter and nail biting from the test subjects, the study was more concerned with how the movies affected the viewers at a deeper level—say, the blood vessel level.

At that level, the research indicated, a movie like “Caddyshack” and the laughter it produces tends to increase blood flow in the body of the moviegoer while films such as “Night of the Living Dead” or “City of the Living Dead” or “Day of the Dead,” due to some killer scenes, tend to restrict blood flow in the viewer.

While test subjects watched the movies, doctors watched the endothelium, or the lining of the blood vessels, of the test subjects. In 19 of the 20 moviegoers, the research showed, blood gushed freely through their vessels while viewing a comedy but blood flow slowed in 14 of 20 volunteers as they watched a slasher-thriller-horror movie. In fact, the average blood flow increased 22 percent during the flick with yuks and decreased 35 percent during the stress-inducer.

At the College of Cardiology convention, doctors told attendees that the endothelium is the first step in the development of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. (But nary a word about the consequences of popcorn with extra butter.)

The study wasn’t so much about rating movies as it was demonstrating the importance of laughter in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, the inference was there: People who prefer Woody Allen and Charlie Chaplin movies can potentially receive the same health benefits as those sweating through their aerobic routines. (Unfortunately, this is news that video-rewinding couch potatoes have been waiting to hear for some time.)

The cardiologists qualified their conclusions, however, recommending that moviegoers not avoid exercise but supplement it with 15 minutes of laughter each day.

Although I’m an experienced print man, I am definitely a cinematic doofus. So I’ve gone to the American Film Institute Web site, which lists the top movies in categories such as comedies and thrillers. I have not screened all of these movies so don’t blame me if you have a heart attack while you watch them. But according to the AFI, the following movies are good for a few laughs and, thus, good for your endothelium:
• Blazing Saddles
• This Is Spinal Tap
• Raising Arizona
• The Jerk
• Airplane!
• Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein
• Good Morning, Vietnam

On the other hand and if the American College of Cardiology study is believable, the following movies, according to the AFI, can harden your arteries. Watch them at your own peril:
• Psycho
• Jaws
• The Exorcist
• The Silence of the Lambs
• The Birds
• Halloween
• Fatal Attraction

Of course, everyone gets their laughs and their frights differently. What opens my vessels is watching “The Pink Panther,” the 1963 version, that is, and hearing Peter Sellers say, “Do you have a lay-sawnse for the men-kee?”

My endothelium feels better already.