A new form of exercising which includes 10 minutes of vigorous laughter. Trend Description Everybody knows the saying about laughter being the best medicine. Now it is official: Two studies of the Maryland School of medicine (released at the American College of Cardiology) show that laughing on a regular basis is good for your heart. The reason is simple: Laughter improves the blood flow. Laughter is also believed to help reducing stress and restoring psychological wellbeing; strengthening the immune system; alleviating bronchitis and asthma; and controlling blood pressure. Innovative new exercise programs are being developed based on these findings. Cases: Betty Hoeffner’s Laughtercising™ The co-founder of Hey U.G.L.Y., a nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower teens with self-esteem building tools to be comfortable with their changing body, accounts herself as the creator of Laughtercising™. She developed and produced the CD “Laugh it off” to help others to incorporate Laughtercising™ into their exercise routine. “Laughing’s not as easy as it may sound,” she explains in a press release. “First you have to put your ego aside because you can feel kind of silly just breaking out into raucous laughter. (…) Once you become proficient, you’ll be able to break out into hysterical laughter instantaneously. You’ll keep laughing and laughing which will work up such a sweat and gets your abs aching.” The CD with instructions sells for $10 at Hey U.G.L.Y. and is also supposed to relieve stress while played quietly in the background. Laughter Yoga Laughter Yoga is the official website of Dr Kataria’s school of Laughter Yoga and the online meeting place for the “global movement for health, joy & world peace”. The websites offers explanations of the various healing powers of laughter as well as trainings, yoga meditation retreats, and spiritual retreats. Based on the paper of Dr Madan Kataria, an Indian doctor and student of Yoga titled ‘Laughter is the best medicine’, laughter clubs are now spreading all over the world. According to the website there are now more than 5000 laughter clubs and studios in more than 50 countries. Laughing Yoga Stephanie Urdang and George Goen developed a laughter yoga class to specifically help New Yorkers relax and relieve their stress in a time of heightened anxiety and fear. Their Hasya Yoga class is based on a set of techniques developed by an Indian physician named Madan Kataria in the mid-1990’s and can be viewed on the website of Channel Thirteen. Trend Impact: Laughter is beginning to be taken seriously. So far most laughing exercises are combined with yoga practice and breathing. But as health clubs are always looking for new forms of exercise, Laughtercising is bound to find its place as a new wellness trend. Laughtercising™ CD on Hey U.G.L.Y. Laughter Yoga Laughing Yoga