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Laughter's good for the soul, and is beneficial health-wise.

Doctor Madan Kataria, from Mumbai, asserts that a good giggle in conjunction with the power of yoga has a remarkably positive effect on well-being.

Believing in the health-enhancing gains that laughter brings, Dr Kataria has founded a "laughter yoga" practice, an approach blending laughter's energising force with the discipline of yogic breathing, or "pranayama".

At the "Bali Happidemic" - a colossal laughing yoga event on the eponymous Indonesian island - over 11,000 participants laughed their socks off in unison.

In line with many foreign devotees, Elke Seesing deems the long trip from Germany worth making for the uplift.

Evidence from clinical research in India and the US has confirmed that a hearty giggle or guffaw lowers blood pressure and also levels of stress hormones like epinephrine and cortisol.

What's unique about Kataria's practice is that a user isn't dependent on hearing a corny joke to set them off!

By regulating breathing and focusing on laughter, it's feasible to exploit the technique, for example during stressful periods.

A mere 10-15 minutes of regular practice per day is sufficient to arm users with the tools to counter tension, as Lilis Wardani, a fraught homemaker can vouch.

One interviewer who spoke to Ms Seesing was curious about the challenges of laughing on cue, however.

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