There used to be a little feature in the Reader's Digest magazine (there perhaps still is) headed "Laughter, the Best Medicine". It always seemed a bit corny and folksy, but apparently it's true.

According to Dr Michael Miller, director of the Centre for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland , a good laugh causes the tissue of the inner lining of the blood vessels to dilate, increasing the blood flow in the same way as a bout of aerobic exercise - but without all that effort and the aching limbs that can follow.

Dr Miller suggests that for our health's sake we should pursue the feelgood factor by watching comedy films and television programmes.

I'm with him on that. The world is an irredeemably troubled place and most of the news emerging from it is aimed at getting us down - the latest cause for gloom being the forecast from the highly-respected environmental scientist James Lovelock, the man behind the Gaia theory of the planet as a self-regulating entity programmed to ensure its own survival, that global warming has already gone too far for us to do anything about it.

The human race is doomed, he reckons, and the time-scale isn't a long one. Only when we've gone can the planet begin its recovery. And this from a chap who reckons to be basically a cheerful, optimistic soul.

Lovelock might be able to keep smiling as he contemplates our proximity to the "final days", but what chance is there for those of the pessimistic persuasion to help our hearts by finding something to laugh about in the face of such speculation?

It's all well and good Dr Miller advising us to watch comedy films and sitcoms to safeguard our health. It might well help blood vessels to function better as well as lowering blood pressure, boosting our immune functions and triggering the release of endomorphins in the brain - all things which improve both physical and mental well-being.

But where, nowadays, are we able to find the films and particularly sitcoms that will give us that wonderful release of tension that comes from a really good, uncontrollable, laugh?

Where are the modern Del Boys to fall through the bar, the Eric Morecambes to come staggering through the curtains carrying a huge ventriloquist's doll called Oggie, the Terry Colliers to leap into the road so that Bob Ferris can practise his Likely Lad scooter-test emergency stop only to realise at the very last second that he's picked the wrong scooter?

The mean-spirited, catchphrase-obsessed Little Britain and other shows of that ilk can raise a sneer but health-giving guffaws are beyond them. Sneering has never been the best medicine.

All the more important, then, for a Campaign for Real Comedy to seek out and nurture those who have an instinct for finding the chuckle muscle and can provide us with an escape route from horrid reality. If we're going down the slippery slope, as James Lovelock says we are, at least let's go down laughing!

Stamp out this vermin

A gang of evil yobs, including a 14-year-old girl, set out to have an evening's fun in London by giving a succession of innocent passers-by a good kicking while recording it on a mobile phone. One of the men they attack, stamping on his head, breaking his ribs and rupturing his spleen, later dies in hospital as a direct result of the assault.

Yet an Old Bailey jury, for reasons I fail to understand, finds the gang innocent of murder but guilty of manslaughter and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm. The youths are jailed for 12 years (they'll be out in eight) and the girl for eight. Time and again people who attack victims who later die are cleared of murder, or even not even charged with it. This is patently nonsense. It's time the legal definition of murder was reviewed to include wilful attacks which, while not necessarily carried out with murder in mind, lead to death.

The law should hammer the vermin who take their pleasure in inflicting violence on others. And while we're on the crime-and-punishment theme, surely only the death penalty would be a proper sentence for perverts like the man and his girlfriend who raped a 12-week-old baby and have got away with a few years in prison.

Their crime was too horrible even to think about, and yet they'll be freed to rape again before that child is going to upper school. It beggars belief, doesn't it?

NICE nonsense

The suggestion from medication watchdog NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Excellence) that Alzheimers treatments like Aricept should be made available only when the disease has become moderately severe makes no sense at all, either in practical or humane terms.

It's generally accepted that these drugs are of little use once the disease has reached its severe stage, but they can (and frequently do) have benefits in mild-to-moderate cases, delaying the progress of the dementia sometimes for many months and in some cases bringing about a temporary improvement in symptoms.

In effect, if prescribed early enough they buy time in which Alzheimers victims can continue to be more or less themselves and manage to live independently.

So what on earth is the point in waiting until that stage has passed before the NHS will pay for the drugs? It will save the service money, certainly. Although Aricept and the rest aren't expensive, a lot of people need them so the cumulative cost of prescribing them to all who might benefit from them is substantial.

But it will cost families and local authorities dearly in paying for nursing-home care earlier than would otherwise have been necessary.

The address for those who want to protest to NICE is: Alana Miller, Project Manager, National Institute for Clinical Excellence, MidCity Place, 71 High Holborn, London WC1V 6NA (e-mail: Alana.Miller@nice. nhs. uk). The "consultation period" ends on February 13.