ZELIENOPLE — Health experts tout the benefits of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and exercise.

But Cathy Reid boasts another practice that can lower blood pressure, decrease stress and, as she says, "prevent the hardening of attitudes."

Reid, an activities specialist at Passavant Retirement Community, runs the World Laughter Club, a group that meets once a week at different location across the campus.

"It has a lot of health benefits," she told a group of about 50 seniors at a demonstration last week.

The club, with more than 1,000 chapters worldwide, was started in 1995 by Ohio psychologist Steve Wilson.

Based on the idea that laughter has therapeutic benefits, he created the organization after a visit to India, where gurus advocated laughing.

More than 10 years later, Reid and about 500 other certified laughing leaders head groups like the one at Passavant.

Last Friday, with the group seated in a circle, Reid led the crowd through a session meant to induce laughing.

Chanting "ho, ho, ha, ha, ha" while clapping, the group walked in circles while laughing at their gestures.

Later, they repeated the moves, but this time ended by whipping their arms into the air and yelling "yay!"

"That's a childlike gesture,"Reid said, referring to their chuckles. "But we need that."

Reid noted that children laugh upward of 300 times a day. Adults laugh about 15 times a day, she said.

Laughing, Reid told the group, is a light form of exercise and yoga.

"It helps you to stay young,"she said.

Other exercises had the group shaking their hands and saying " 'Ello, hahahaha" and pretending to walk barefoot on hot sand.

Some of Reid's other self-described "silly little exercises" included walking around like a penguin, a "hokey pokey laugh" — ho-hos in and ha-has out — and the Macarena.

The exercises got the crowd laughing, at their the movements and themselves.

"It energizes you, it really does,"Reid said.

According to studies from around the world, laughter truly can benefit one's health.

According to a 2003 study by researchers at the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki, Japan, laughter can lower blood pressure in people with Type 2 diabetes.

And a study by cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore concludes laughter can also benefit the heart. The study found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease.

According to Doris Scheidemantle, the exercises and laughing help ease her asthma.

Because of the group, Scheidemantle says she finds herself laughing more often.

"But it's my nature anyhow," she added.

Scheidemantle said Reid also plays an important role, helping her and everyone else in the group loosen up and laugh.

"She's so contagious," Scheidemantle said of Reid.

For Lois Waldkoenig, a self-described optimist, the club allows her to lose her inhibitions and be free.

The philosophy, she said, is excellent.

"You just act like an idiot,"Waldkoenig said."

Though at times she feels lonely, Waldkoenig said the group helps her to find jokes in daily life.

And after a half-hour meeting, Waldkoenig said she's left with a favorable feeling.

"I always feel good when I leave,"she said.

Reid said the group meets at 2 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at the Fitness Center at Passavant.

The group meets at 3 p.m. on the second and third Tuesdays of each month at Wittenberg Place.

Sessions are also held at 10 a.m. on the second and third Tuesday of each month at Passavant's assisted living building.

For more information on Passavant's club, call Reid at 724-452-5400, Ext. 3431. For more information on World Laughter Clubs, visit www.laughterclubs.com.