April Fool's Day is coming up! It's time to start thinking about pranks to play and jokes to tell.

If you feel a little guilty about deceiving someone else, here's something to clear your conscience: laughing is extremely healthy. If you make a person laugh, you're actually doing a good deed.

How can something so normal as laughter be helpful? For one, it makes you happier.

This isn't just a warm feeling in your heart, either. Laughter speeds up the production of serontin, a natural anti-depressant. It alleviates some of the negative effects of depression, anxiety and psychosomatic disorders.

Stress is linked to more than 70 percent of diseases like peptic ulcers, depression, tension headaches, stomach upsets and cancer. But when you laugh, you removing the strain of stress from your body and making yourself healthier.

Plus, laughter makes you more attractive. It makes your face glow and your eyes shine.

Have you ever heard the saying "I laughed until I cried"? Here's the logic behind it: laughter squeezes water from the lachrymal sacs, coating your eyes with a thin film of "happy" tears.

Another positive effect of laughing is that you will continue to feel better for some time afterward. Laughter enriches the blood with extra oxygen and builds your stamina, so you won't feel as tired. It also increases your endorphin supply, which numbs pain and makes you more content.

Make sure you get the chance to laugh a lot. At the end of the day, not only will you sleep better -- everyone else will, too! Since laughing is good for the soft palate and throat, it will diminish snoring.

As for your organs, laughter's ability to reduce stress helps control high blood pressure and heart disease. It also boosts the immune system and soothes your digestive tract while enhancing blood flow to organs like the liver, spleen, pancreas, kidneys and adrenal glands.

Laughter is an effective route to better health, a fact that is recognized by the medical community. One doctor has even launched "laughter yoga" as a new way to calm yourself and increase stamina.

There is such a thing as too much laughter, though. Laughing for more than 30 minutes at once can distress your body and cause negative effects. If your sides hurt, it's a good indicator that it's time to stop laughing -- at least for a while.

On April 1, make it your goal to bring laughter to everyone around you. They may not know or appreciate it at the time, but you're actually showing that you care by making them laugh and helping their health.

And don't forget yourself! Let yourself laugh, not just on April Fool's Day, but every day.

For more information on the benefits of laughter, visit laughteryoga.org or laughterforhealth.com.