It is impossible to live a life without single laughter. Laughter makes people feel happy, and life enjoyable. For these reasons, we often hear people say “laughter is the best medicine”, but is it really a best medicine? If the answer is yes, then how does it cure and heals our body?
To begin with, many professionals in health department, such as psychologist, gelotologist and other health related researchers have continuously mentioned and emphasized that laughter is the best medicine. Laughter does not require any effort, time, or money, but it is free, easy and most people use it in their daily lives.
There has been a study found 2004 at Free University of Berlin, Germany by Julia and Deitmar Todt about average amount of laugh during conversations. According to Julia and dietmar, “there is an average of 5.8 bouts of laughter occurring in each 10-minute period of conversation, with a range of 0 to 15 bouts per 10-minute period (which translates to an average of about 35 bouts of laughter per hour). A bout of laughter was defined as the laughter occurring during a single exhalation. Thus, each time a person inhales and laughs again, this is counted as another bout.”
There are numerous benefits to our body when we laugh. First, it strengthens the immune system, because it lowers the stress hormones and increase immune cells in our body. Second, it not only lowers blood pressure, but also protects our organs. We take oxygen when we laugh, and the oxygen that we took accelerates the blood flow in our body and allows the blood circulations to work better. Third, it vanishes the stress hormones and physical pain away. The laughter naturally creates painkiller in our body that help us to forget the pain and stress we experience. And lastly, the long term result of laughter can make oneself to become a better well being. According to life.gaiam.com, doctors have found out that positive thoughts can fight the disease better.
The power of laughter is greater than I thought, because I believe that laughter is the most infectious and contagious of all. If I hear someone laughing, I’d laugh too without questioning him or her. Laughter does not cost you anything, it has no limits, and it gives you numerous health benefits. We need to laugh more and need to enjoy our lives!!!!
Laughter has always been something that calms me down and makes me feel better. No matter how bad a situation is, a long laugh can go a long way. It was great though reading your blog and learning that laughter can do more than just create a better mood. It is amazing how it can help with blood circulation and increase the amount of our immune cells. Such important factors can be helped from simply laughing. It just goes to show how important laughter is and how we should all hang out with friends who keep us laughing all the time! It is neat how simple things in life can still effect us in very important physical ways.
I completely agree that laughter is the best medicine. I thought that before reading your blog, but your blog shows the science behind it. There is nothing that gets me out of a bad mood faster than having a good laugh with my best friends. Its cool that there is legitimate science behind it! Here is a cool article talking about it! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/22/laughter-and-memory_n_5192086.html
I love this topic because I find it so interesting to learn that simply laughing can be beneficial. I enjoy having a good laugh everyday, it allows me to drop my worries and simply puts me in a better mood which relives stress. l definitely agree that laughing is good for one’s health by decreasing blood pressure, helping the immune system, and etc. I have to say that sometimes I forcefully laugh if someone said something that was intended on making one laugh, however I maybe did not find it amusing, I will project a sort of fake laugh. By this I feel as though those forced laughs don’t reduce blood pressure and all of the benefits to true laughter. However, overall everyone has had many real laughs that can contribute to a healthy life. Overall, I found this topic enjoyable to read because it relates to everyone and is something interesting to learn more about so here is another article to further explain this!
I love this topic because I find it so interesting to learn that simply laughing can be beneficial. I enjoy having a good laugh everyday, it allows me to drop my worries and simply puts me in a better mood which relives stress. l definitely agree that laughing is good for one’s health by decreasing blood pressure, helping the immune system, and etc. I have to say that sometimes I forcefully laugh if someone said something that was intended on making one laugh, however I maybe did not find it amusing, I will project a sort of fake laugh. By this I feel as though those forced laughs don’t reduce blood pressure and all of the benefits to true laughter. However, overall everyone has had many real laughs that can contribute to a healthy life. Overall, I found this topic enjoyable to read because it relates to everyone and is something interesting to learn more about so here is another article to further explain this!
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/8-health-benefits-of-laughter.html
I love this post because the concept behind it is so great. Laughing is not only free, but so easy. How many times a day do we laugh? Probably more than we realize. The fact that something that comes so naturally can be healthy too is really great. It is healthy in so many aspects, too. As you said in your post, it boosts our immune systems, reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, protects vital organs, and therefore can prevent diseases. We laugh anyway without even knowing about any of these benefits, and it is at no cost to us. I also wondered though, similar to what was mentioned in another comment, if the same benefits apply to “fake” laughter. Not all laughter is genuine, or the kind where you can’t stop and your stomach hurts. Some people may laugh a little to ease a conversation or force it at times. Does this kind of laughter benefit our health too, or does it have to be real and only when you mean it?
As Abigail said, there are different types of laughter and I did some more research about this. Interestingly, our brains can not notice the different laughters. Of course, it is best for all of us to laugh joyfully and joyful laughs have the greater benefits to our body than emotionless laughs; however, even when we force ourselves to laugh,it still send similar signals as the real laughter.
here’s the link where you can find more information about this 🙂
http://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/your-brain-on-laughter.aspx
I think that the concept of laughter as a health benefit is very interesting, but I have a few questions. I read the research report you mentioned, and I don’t think the researchers properly examined the variance of laughter sincerity. What I mean is, not every laugh is as genuine and intense as the next. Sometimes we laugh out of obligation when we don’t think something is that funny, sometimes we laugh a little at a joke or comment, and other times we laugh really hard at a joke or comment that surprised/was new to us. Since not all laughs are the same, I wonder if it’s fair to say that the effects of all types of laughter on one’s health are the same.
This is such an interesting blog post!! When I was in 7th grade my teacher always used to say that laughing is super beneficial for our bodies mentally and physically and now I am able to see why. Great post!!!
Laughter really is a great form of medicine! No matter how I feel before I laugh, I always feel better and happier after laughing. Did you know that smiling also has similar effects? Smiling lowers heart rate, reduces stress, increases productivity, encourages a better mood, reduces pain, ect. It is interesting how two different acts can produce similar reactions within our body. It is also proven that it takes less muscles to smile than frown. Therefore, frowning causes more wrinkles than smiling! Remember this next time you are mad or sad. Is it worth the wrinkles when you could be smiling and helping yourself feel physically and mentally better?
http://www.naturalnews.com/030393_smiling_aging.html
http://www.snopes.com/science/smile.asp
http://www.sunwarrior.com/news/15-health-benefits-of-smiling/
I love this concept! I agree completely that laughter is beneficial to one’s health. For me, laughing instantly relieves stress, lightens my mood, and actually calms me down. However, I never thought of laughter as a helpful tool in relieving physical pain or as an aid in blood circulation. The fact that such a simple, innate action can boost one’s immune heath system and overall health shocks me. I never thought that it could increase the number of immune cells we have. Overall, I enjoyed learning about this topic and I’ll definitely try to laugh more, for the sake of my health.
Here’s another source of information on the topic if you’re interested: Stress Relief from Laughter