Laughter yoga is the latest trend to hit the UK and when a special laughter class came to Birmingham, Post journalist Helen Gabriel went along for a giggle...

My nickname in the office is Smiler. Not because I light up my colleagues' days by regularly flashing my pearly whites, but because I'm a self-confessed wasp-chewing, lemon-sucking, grumpy cow.

In short, I'm laughter leader Carol Thompson's worst nightmare - and I'm not alone.

According to Carol, few of us laugh enough, but a good giggle has been found by researchers to do us good, with one expert suggesting that 100 laughs a day are equivalent to ten minutes of rowing or jogging.

Laughter causes the body to release feel-good endorphins, helps boost the immune system, tones muscles, and improves circulation and respiration. It increases self esteem, reduces stress, and can even lower blood pressure.

It doesn't work for everyone - you have to be willing to give it a try, no matter how silly or self conscious you feel (especially if there's a photographer following you), but with so many promised benefits I felt compelled to join in at a public session in Edgbaston Street.

Laughter leaders grabbed a few unsuspecting members of the public who were, quite literally, game for a laugh, off the street and lured them to join in with the promise of a free White Maltesers ice cream from the event's sponsors.

Exercises are designed to induce bouts of side-splitting hilarity, and include chanting, clapping, breathing deeply and lots of eye contact with strangers. If nothing else this gave the crowd who had gathered to watch us a good laugh.

As one of my fellow laughter yoga disciples said: "I feel like I'm in a cult."

The idea is to start by pretending to laugh, until eventually you find yourself doing it for real. The yoga laughter motto is "Fake it, fake it till you make it". That sent my filthy mind into overdrive and subsequently got the first giggle of the session.

Before I knew it I'd had a fit of genuine giggles, if only because we all looked so silly, and once I'd started I had trouble stopping. And I immediately felt more relaxed and less self-conscious.

Carol, who has been teaching laughter yoga for a year, said: "I saw it on television and just had to find out more.

"So I went on the internet and booked a week-long course to become a laughter yoga leader, and I found it really exciting because it works.

"Even though you start out pretending to laugh, by the end you're really laughing and it feels good. We're doing these sessions so people will laugh for half an hour at lunchtime and take that positive frame of mind with them, and hopefully continue to laugh all afternoon."

I promised I'd do my best to encourage a few chuckles back at the office - and inadvertently kept my promise when colleagues saw the photos of my attempts at laughter yoga.

But there's something very un-British about dropping our renowned reserve and having a good giggle - in public - for no particular reason.