Laughter: The Best Medicine to Protect the Heart

Posted by: Racquel C. Nicdao


Laughter is just like a medicine. A free, natural and always available medicine that is beneficial to the heart…

Actually, it is free, easy and available, utterly contagious…

We can exult and laugh about our own falls and blunders, at our friend’s mistakes and slip ups. We can heartily and wholly laugh about an acquaintance’s idiosyncrasies, about our relative’s queerness and habits…

Furthermore, we can always giggle about envious people devoured of their own indisposition, or chuckle about life itself, before its never ending contradictions and amazing and surprising possibilities.

After all, not one is known or recorded in history as having died of laughter!


Laughter Is Just Like A Medicine

Oh , yes, the more we laugh the better , because laughter, together with an active sense of humor, is just like a medicine. Laughter is a natural medicine which effects can do good not only to our body and mind, but also to our heart.

In fact, according to research conducted at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore and was made public on August 28 in Paris at the European Conference of Cardiology, laughter has actually the same beneficial effect as that of an anti-cholesterol pill, a heart healthy activities and fitness programs.

For the first time, the researchers from the University of Maryland were able to quantify the effects of laughter and good humor to an individual’s well being. The result is surprising and has rouse great interest from the 300,000 cardiologist who participated in the conference.

The study has taken into consideration the expansion of the endothelium, the protective barrier lining our blood vessels , in people who have just seen a humorous and funny video and a stern one, demonstrating that laughter can provoke the dilation of the vessels from up to 50%.

A beneficial effect to the heart since the impairment of the endothelium can set up a series of inflammatory reactions that can lead to fat and cholesterol build-up in the coronary arteries. And as a consequence, may provoke important heart ailments such as arteriosclerosis, heart attacks and strokes.


We Should Generously Concede to Laughter

As for me, laughter can tone down anger, violence, aggressiveness and hostilities. This can also make us feel better, can reduce stress and can act as an effective instrument to unite people.

We should generously concede our self to laughter, whenever and wherever it is possible. Because the most appalling and insignificant day is that in which we have not laughed…


Related Post:
. The Global Crisis Can Affect The Heart

Picture: The Carnival of Venice (Italy)

International Adoption: A Magnificent Passage Towards Parenthood

Updated:  March 6, 2012

International adoption requires a serious commitment. The long and bureaucratic procedure is bent to establish if aspiring adoptive parents are qualified and suitable to love and take care of a child born in another country.

An Empty Children's Park

Couples who choose this road to build a family are mostly discouraged by its long and bureaucratic procedure, but…

International adoption requires a serious commitment for aspiring parents. This is so because one should deal with children who usually have experiences of abandonment, poverty and hardships, even physical or mental violence.

The long and bureaucratic procedure is generally bent to establish or to determine if aspiring adoptive parents are qualified and suitable to take care of a child who has gone through a troubled past and, in some cases, who is in need of special attention, care and treatment.

A different kind of determination, energy, conviction and resources are needed to take care, follow and to love a child who was born in another country. This justifies the elongated and elaborated process which includes several contacts with a qualified adoption professional figure, who has the main responsibility to evaluate the couple and to decide if they meet certain standards for adoption, as defined by the government involved.

Individuals who are economically well off and with outstanding personal qualities, possibly capable candidates for parenthood, do not necessarily mean that they are suitable to take care of an internationally adopted child.


An Adoption Professional Figure is Needed to Assist Aspiring Parents

In the United States, a qualified adoption professional figure is needed to assist the aspiring parents in bringing up with the requirements. This can also help out in deciding what country program is fitted for the aspiring parents, generally the first important step to make in this important and magnificent passage towards parenthood.

Usually, international adoption is finalized in the country of origin of the child. This means that once you come home with your child, he/she is already legally a part of your family.

In Europe, Italy is the country which tends to adopt children born in another country. Year 2010 has been described as that with the highest number of adoptions realized by Italian couples. In fact, this is the first time that the country has exceeded 4,000 admissions for adoption purposes of minors.

International adoption can be a magnificent experience if aspiring adoptive parents are really prepared and equipped with the necessary love, courage and patience to go through the entire "journey." However, this should never be considered as a surrogate for those who do not have the possibility to have their own child.

If you are living in the U.S. and you wish to have more information about the international adoption process and how to adopt a child without spending a fortune, please CLICK HERE.


Related Post:
. International Adoption in Italy

When Love Ends: How To Start All Over Again

The end of love and, as a consequence, the end of marriage by means of a divorce or an annulment is just like a bomb that can shatter our lives…

Carnival of Venice (Italy)

When love ends, the next step is to choose what road to take…

Divorce and marriage annulment are bitter acknowledgments that an important project of our life has failed. These are evident and irrevocable signs that errors and miscalculations, even inadequacies on both parts, were made along the way.

These two procedures to render null or to officially conclude a community made of two individuals or more are just like a bomb that can shatter into pieces the idea we have constructed of our own self and what we have become. These can completely transform our present and our future, and how we see life.

In an instant, life can seem so insignificant, so black and void…

The End of Love Can Transform Our Life

If the end of love can transform our future, at the same time this can also alter our concept of the past. Suddenly images, objects, pictures, places and faces can become imperative symbols of valued moments shared with someone we once loved.

These common and familiar objects surrounding us can have the power to remind us what we have definitely lost. The blunders, errors and incorrect steps we have unconsciously and involuntarily committed. The sight of these familiar objects can have the power to emphasize the acute sting we feel in every single part of our body.

All of a sudden, anxieties, anguish, indecisions and fear will condition every move we make. We are devoured by our own sense of guilt and failure. The future seems so vague and uncertain.

Lots of questions will be brought up in our confused minds. Questions such as why did I allow it to happen? Am I just dreaming? Is it really happening? How can I start all over again?

Relatives and Friends Are Needed To Overcome the Pain

Close relatives and friends will surely be there to assist us to prevail over and to surpass this difficult phase. They will be close beside us with their precious advices, remarks and suggestions. They should all be welcomed…

We need the comforting presence of friends and relatives to “share” with them our feelings of deep sadness and lost. We are in need of their reassurances to relieve the pain. We need them to make us company, to hear from them that we are not alone.

The Truth is We Have to Be Alone

But the truth is we are alone. The truth is we have to be alone. At least, for a while…

We have to be alone to recognize, to absorb and to admit the fact that we have really lost that someone we once loved. We need to be alone to reflect on, to understand and to learn from the mistakes we have committed. And only after we have elaborated all that happened we can forget, get up and start all over again.

As we search and tread for another beginning, we should religiously bear in mind that the pain will slowly and eventually cease…

and life will always be there to guide us with its endless and amazing and surprising possibilities.

If you are planning to get a divorce and are in need of help and advise before taking the final step, please CLICK HERE.

Related Posts:

. Procedure For Marriage Annulment at The Roman Rota

. Marriage Annulment at The Tribunal of Roma Rota

. Divorce: How to Claim the Life you Deserve
. Love: How to Find Perfect Relationship Compatibility

Aggression: An Effective Instrument to Promote Survival

Posted by: Racquel C. Nicdao


Aggression between members of the same species has always represented negative sentiments and has always brought out moral conflicts which is persisting in humanity.

We have always associated the word “aggression” with injustice and vexations, but…

Aggression denotes all kinds of behavior between members of the same species which are bent to impose one’s concern and to provoke pain or damage. This can be done by means of long and repetitive intimidations, threats or even by means of physical force in a battle.

The word aggression came from the Latin verb aggredi which means to draw near or to attack. In the Italian language, the corresponding verb aggredi=re is also commonly employed in popular expressions such as aggredire un problema which means to tackle a problem, a difficult situation or a responsibility.

Different Forms of Aggression

Aggression can also be between one species towards members of another species. This does not actually represent a moral setback. Predators usually kill their victims for reasons related with survival. This also goes for human beings who slay, butcher and eat certain animals exclusively for nourishment.

On the other hand, aggression between the same species which is bent to cause pain or harm represents negative sentiments such as injustice, violence, arrogance, hostility and cruelty. And society do not certainly allow nor permit any justifications for this behavior.

An Effective Instrument in Numerous Functions

However, in human beings aggression may be employed as an effective instrument in numerous functions. This can be used to surpass an impediment or a hindrance and to enforce easy access to territories and inadequate resources.

Aggression can also be utilized to overpower or beat rivals in an effort to obtain a dominant position. This can also be a form of defense, an instrument to protect oneself, one’s children or family from vexations, abuse, oppressions or any possible threat.

Theories Concerning Origin of Aggressive Reactions

Researchers have brought up various theories concerning the origin of aggressive reactions in an individual. Some experts think that this tendency can be learned in childhood. An infant may make use of aggressive behavior in order to arrive at particular objectives.

Other psychologists have theorized that the capacity for aggression may be a result of experiences of deprivations and frustrations in early childhood. Before every obstacle, a child may have aggressive reactions which can eventually help him/her to surpass the difficulty.

Sigmund Freud believed that behind aggression lies the human beings’ innate drive for destruction. This should be the foundation that compels men at aggressive actions.

Aggression has always brought out moral conflicts that is persisting in humanity because this is considered as the origin for hostilities, conflicts, war, death and destruction.

Nevertheless, without aggression it would have been difficult for human beings to outdo difficulties of every kind, to achieve success in every field and to impose men’s supremacy over other species.

Most probably, even men’s survival would have been impossible if deprived of this primordial tendency to defend our own self and relative interests.

How about you? At what circumstances you tend or are constrained to make use of aggressive methods?


Picture: Siena, Italy