Having a good laugh is one of the best feelings in the world. Laughter helps you fight stress, build immunity and forget your worries even for a while. You also look younger when you smile and laugh often. After all, it takes 65 muscles to frown and only 15 to smile. Your face will not only radiate happiness but make your more approachable to people too.
It is no joke that laughter is considered as the best medicine by many. Laughter has worked positively among people who are confined in hospitals or diagnosed with an illness. Although it does not cure or treat the underlying medical condition per se but laughing makes people feel good, and in a way, it helps them cope better with their sickness and promote faster recovery. Laughing is also innate in humans, as natural as breathing goes. And it is easy for us to smile and laugh whenever we find something amusing or funny.
The saying goes that laughter is the best medicine and there’s no denying the fact that our spirits lift when we smile or laugh. But why exactly is it so therapeutic and what can we do to make sure humour remains a constant component of our everyday lives?
National Humour Month kicked off on 1st April. Also known as April Fool’s Day, 1st April is a day when it’s culturally OK to laugh, joke and prank our friends and family. The sentiment behind National Humour Month is more serious – it’s about raising awareness of the therapeutic value of humor; what happens to our bodies, our mental wellbeing and our quality of life when we laugh and joke.
While many of us find jokes funny, it is actually its delivery that makes people laugh even more, so surrounded yourself with happy people because their sunny disposition will likely rub off on you too. After all, the saying goes that “tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are,” couldn’t be any truer.
The question of whether laughter is truly the best medicine for physical and psychological ailments has floated around the public for years. People have wondered if humor is a valid remedy when enduring trauma — and they may have reason to believe in its effectiveness.
According to a 2014 study conducted by Barbara Butler, a science librarian for the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Oregon, a positive emotional state may increase pain tolerance, enhance immunity and undo cardiovascular consequences of negative emotions.
Butler also concluded that using humor as a coping strategy may benefit physical health indirectly by moderating adverse effects of stress. William Fry, a psychology professor at Stanford University and one of the first scientists to suggest studying the effects of laughter, revealed in Butler’s study that humor and mirth contribute positively to maintaining health from a physiological standpoint.
In terms of cardiovascular benefits, Megan Robbins, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of California Riverside, said laughter reduces arterial stiffness while also providing exercise to ab muscles and others. Butler confirmed Robbins’ assertion of contributions to exercise by revealing that laughing out loud 20 times produces a cardiovascular workout similar to three minutes of work on a rowing machine.
Experts discovered a positive correlation between laughter and positive physical, mental and emotional well-being. Laughter promotes balance and renews the human mind and body, which in a way hastens recovery when one is sick or build immunity so one does not get sick often.
Humor is a powerful healing agent, and not only for depression and anxiety. Here are just a few of the health benefits packed in laughter.
Laughter Decreases Pain
Laughter Boosts Immunity
Laughter Reduces Stress
Laughter Helps Prevent Heart Disease
Laughter Burns Calories
Laughing is a great way for you to help deal with stress especially when you get sick all the time. It stimulates the production and release of endorphins known as the body’s happy hormones, which generally makes you feel good. You don’t always need expensive pills to boost your health. Sometimes, the simple act of laughing is all you need to combat sickness and leave you with a happy disposition in life.
But laughter may not always be the answer to your health issues. There are certain medical conditions where laughter is not enough to cure you and requires appropriate medical treatment to address it. At times it may involve having to take certain medications or undergoing specific procedures but still, you can benefit from the world’s natural stress reliever and painkiller as clinical studies have proven that the body recovers from illness faster when you are happy. So, I guess you have nothing to lose if your laugh often especially at times when nothing seems to go right because only then can you see the finer points in life.