I took a short break during lunch today, and came across this korean tv program "Mysteries of the Human Body" and it turned out be interesting & worthwhile to watch!
It first showed a pic of Mona Lisa, and how a slight tweak in the shape of the corners of her mouth can drastically change how we perceive her to be smiling or in sadness.. which means that it is the MOUTH, not the eyes that utimately define how happy / sad we appear to be to others! Hmm... The show also revealed that there are 3 main muscles that link from a common point at the corner of our mouth, and the position of that point determines whether we appear to smile/appear sad when we are expressionless. This location of this point is also different for different ppl. The korean researchers did a worldwide survey and found that the ang mohs have their corners of the mouth turned upwards (i.e. smiling) while the koreans have it downwards (i.e. appearing sad/stern). Haiiiz.. if only i was born an ang moh lah!!
They also found that laughter can be a great workout for your diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles. Not only does laughter give your midsection a workout, it can benefit digestion and absorption functioning as well. It is estimated that hearty laughter can burn calories equivalent to 9 mins of jogging of exercise!! hmm.. no wonder those ppl at east coast park are laughing out loud every week.
“When we laugh, natural killer cells which destroy tumours and viruses increase, along with Gamma-interferon (a disease-fighting protein), T-cells (important for our immune system) and B-cells (which make disease-fighting antibodies). As well as lowering blood pressure, laughter increases oxygen in the blood, which also encourages healing.” --"Science of Laughter” Discovery Health. Hence even if things don't go our way in life, we should force ourselves to laugh, so that the brain produces some kind of hormones, and make ourselves feel better. =)
“By the time a child reaches nursery school, he or she will laugh about 300 times a day. Adults laugh an average of 17 times a day.” -- “Science of Laughter” Discovery Health. Indeed, it was mentioned in the show that children who shed more tears grow up smarter! I wonder why mommy did not make me cry more!! Then I would have been a Prof Cyn by now! =P
The second segment of the show talked about tears. "Diana's Effect" occured when masses of ppl cried their hearts out after Princess Diana died, reducing the number of stress-sufferers by half! Shedding tears may be healthier than you thought, and the secret lies in the chemical composition of tears.. The koreans sampled tears of two types: the emotional ones (crying when emotionally upset and stressed) and the ones arising from irritants (such as crying from onions).
They found that emotional tears contained more of the protein-based hormones, prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and leucine enkephalin (natural painkiller), all of which are produced by our body when under stress. It seems as if the body is getting rid of these chemicals through tears. That explains why we usually feel better after a good cry. So, there you go. Cry as much as you want - it is probably good for you. But no cheating by inducing crying with onions. Your tear glands know the difference!
So in essence, we should all laugh and cry more.. that's life and that's how wonderful our human body is. =) back to setting exam questions! =(
"Nothing is good or bad. It is thinking that makes it so." -- Shakespeare
I took a short break during lunch today, and came across this korean tv program "Mysteries of the Human Body" and it turned out be interesting & worthwhile to watch!
It first showed a pic of Mona Lisa, and how a slight tweak in the shape of the corners of her mouth can drastically change how we perceive her to be smiling or in sadness.. which means that it is the MOUTH, not the eyes that utimately define how happy / sad we appear to be to others! Hmm... The show also revealed that there are 3 main muscles that link from a common point at the corner of our mouth, and the position of that point determines whether we appear to smile/appear sad when we are expressionless. This location of this point is also different for different ppl. The korean researchers did a worldwide survey and found that the ang mohs have their corners of the mouth turned upwards (i.e. smiling) while the koreans have it downwards (i.e. appearing sad/stern). Haiiiz.. if only i was born an ang moh lah!!
They also found that laughter can be a great workout for your diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles. Not only does laughter give your midsection a workout, it can benefit digestion and absorption functioning as well. It is estimated that hearty laughter can burn calories equivalent to 9 mins of jogging of exercise!! hmm.. no wonder those ppl at east coast park are laughing out loud every week.
“When we laugh, natural killer cells which destroy tumours and viruses increase, along with Gamma-interferon (a disease-fighting protein), T-cells (important for our immune system) and B-cells (which make disease-fighting antibodies). As well as lowering blood pressure, laughter increases oxygen in the blood, which also encourages healing.” --"Science of Laughter” Discovery Health. Hence even if things don't go our way in life, we should force ourselves to laugh, so that the brain produces some kind of hormones, and make ourselves feel better. =)
“By the time a child reaches nursery school, he or she will laugh about 300 times a day. Adults laugh an average of 17 times a day.” -- “Science of Laughter” Discovery Health. Indeed, it was mentioned in the show that children who shed more tears grow up smarter! I wonder why mommy did not make me cry more!! Then I would have been a Prof Cyn by now! =P
The second segment of the show talked about tears. "Diana's Effect" occured when masses of ppl cried their hearts out after Princess Diana died, reducing the number of stress-sufferers by half! Shedding tears may be healthier than you thought, and the secret lies in the chemical composition of tears.. The koreans sampled tears of two types: the emotional ones (crying when emotionally upset and stressed) and the ones arising from irritants (such as crying from onions).
They found that emotional tears contained more of the protein-based hormones, prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and leucine enkephalin (natural painkiller), all of which are produced by our body when under stress. It seems as if the body is getting rid of these chemicals through tears. That explains why we usually feel better after a good cry. So, there you go. Cry as much as you want - it is probably good for you. But no cheating by inducing crying with onions. Your tear glands know the difference!
So in essence, we should all laugh and cry more.. that's life and that's how wonderful our human body is. =) back to setting exam questions! =(
"Nothing is good or bad. It is thinking that makes it so." -- Shakespeare
more laughter & tears pls!
