Laughing at people or even watching 20 minutes of humor on television every day can help improve short term memory.

The study was conducted at Loma Linda University in Southern California (USA) on a group of healthy older adults. They are comfortable watching a funny entertainment video for 20 minutes. Meanwhile another group sat quietly and did not watch the video. They then perform memory tests and stress hormone analyzes in saliva samples.

The results showed that people who laughed a lot when watching comedies had higher scores in short-term memory tests. And the amount of cortisol (stress hormone) in the saliva also decreased significantly in the group watching comedy.

When there is less stress, memory will work effectively. Laughing action or simply enjoying some humorous story will increase the amount of endorphins, help bring feelings of joy, comfort, improve mood. Also when you laugh, the immune system will also work better.

"Being able to perceive and remember things will deteriorate as we age. Smiling at people or even watching just 20 minutes of humor on television every day will help the elderly significantly reduce the "Dr. Gurinder S. Bains, the author of the study, advises.