Have you ever wondered why people say ‘Laughter is the best medicine’?

Well there are some facts behind the belief for you to consider.

In the book ‘A Better Brain at Any Age: The Holistic Way to Improve Your Memory, Reduce Stress, and Sharpen Your Wits’ (Conari Press, 2009), author Sondra Kornblatt explores how laughter can truly make you feel better. She writes that the new field of gelotology is exploring the benefits of laughter. It was brought to the public’s awareness in Norman Cousins’ memoir ‘Anatomy of an Illness’. Cousins found that comedies, like those of the Marx Brothers, helped him feel better and get some pain-free sleep. That’s because laughter helps the pituitary gland release its own pain-suppressing opiates.

Laughter is produced in your body. When you laugh, your diaphragm contracts forcing stale air out of your lungs, you vibrate your voice box and glands around your neck, your abdominal muscles contract along with most of your facial muscles – in effect you get a good physical workout.

Not only that, the inside of your body gets a workout too:

• Blood circulates faster as your heart pumps at a faster rate and you get more oxygen delivered to your brain helping you think better.

• As you move the muscles around your face and neck, you stimulate the activities in your secretary glands that aid in metabolism.

• Digestion of foodstuffs is improved.

• Metabolic rate also increases which can help in weight maintenance. 

Your blood stream is where there is the greatest benefit of laughter. Scientific research is only beginning to uncover the secret of how some happy people become happy.

When we are happy, certain neurochemicals are produced such as beta-endorphin and serotonin. This is what happens when we laugh. Although it is not yet known precisely how, through science, we do know that the right balance of neurochemicals is what maintain our mood and sanity.

A large amount of literature is available on the benefits of laughter. We have independently reviewed information available from organisations promoting the health benefits of laughter for you to think about. This article independently looks at the latest recommendations and findings from five laughter organisations in Australia and overseas, and tries to provide some facts on why laughter is purported to be so good for us. The links this article is based on can be found at the end of this segment.

Health Benefits of Laughter Therapy

Laughter clubs and laughter therapy are gaining popularity Worldwide. One of the reasons is the benefit it brings to the participants. Laughter puts people in a positive frame of mind and gradually makes them positive thinkers and brings them relief from stress. 

Stress Relief: Laughter is one of the finest and economical stress relief methods. Laughter relaxes the muscles and sends more blood to the extremities all over the body. A good belly laugh reduces stress hormones such as noradrenaline and cortisol which, in large quantities, are toxic to the body. In conjunction, laughter releases "feel good" hormones such as beta-endorphin and serotonin and helps in mood maintenance.

Mind of Clarity: Since it is not possible to laugh and worry at the same time, laughter is an excellent way to short circuit disturbing thoughts. When we learn to detach from the cycle of non-productive worries, we are able to see our situation with more objectivity and clarity. Hence laughter not only bring instant relaxation, it can help us think better. Once we get a clear grasp of situations, we would be able to handle life in a more successful manner.

Strengthen the Immune System: Our immune system helps keep us in good health. An optimal immune system would not only keep infections at bay but also prevent malfunctioning of our body such as cancers, allergies, rheumatism, even retard the aging process. Recently, the link between psychology and immunity has been established. It has been shown that negative emotions such as anger, depression and pain weaken the immune system and thereby would adversely affect the body’s ability to fight infection and contribute to faster aging. In the laboratory, laughter was found capable of raising antibody levels such as immunoglobulin A and natural killer cells.

Depression, Anxiety and Addiction: Mind related afflictions such as depression, nervousness and addictive behaviors are on the rise as our lifestyle is getting more complicated. Laughter helps "lighten" up these serious approaches to life and helps to serve as a refuge. In addition,

laughter clubs function as a support group to people who needed social contact and helps them get out of themselves.

Natural PainKiller: Since laughter releases endorphins and other opioids, it is a natural pain killer. Laughter has a twofold action, it distracts the mind from preoccupation with pain and delivers the body’s natural pain killer. Many people who suffer frequent migraine, tension headaches, aches and pains, arthritis, spondylitis, muscular spasms have noticed relief.

Best Aerobic Exercise: Few would dispute that laughter is a form of exercise. After laughing heartily, we feel brighter. That is because we inhale more oxygen while laughing. In fact, Dr Stanford Fry from Stanford University showed that a one-minute of hearty laughter is equivalent to 10 minutes on the rowing machine!

Internal Jogging: When we talk about exercise, we tend to focus on working body muscles. We seldom think about taking our internal organs for a jog. Laughter does the latter as well as the former. It massages internal organs like magic fingers, which reach into the interior of the abdomen. The best massage it gives is to the intestines. Think of the last time you rolled over with laughter holding your stomach! By doing that, you improve the blood supply and helps the bowels to move and eliminate toxic materials from your body.

Good for Athletes: Since breathing capacity is one of the factors, which determines stamina in sports, laughter before any competitive sports activity will increase breath control. In addition, the increase endorphin level helps to hold off the pain of lactic build up during strenuous exercise. The increase relaxation level would help sharpen mental clarity essential for split second judgements in the sporting field.

Helps You Look Younger: People exercise for all the muscles in the body but seldom the facial muscles. Laughter is an excellent exerciser for the facial muscles and improves facial expression. When you laugh, your face becomes red due to an increase of blood supply which would help in delivery more nutrients to the cells and eliminate waste materials. This nourishes the skin and makes it glow. Laughing people look more cheerful and attractive. By squeezing the tear glands through laughter, it moistens the eyes adding a sparkle to them. Laughter helps tighten abdominal muscles and improve muscle tone of those with potbellies. Many laughter club members was delighted to find weight loss and more toned bodies.

High Blood Pressure and Heart Disease: A proportion of heart disease and high blood pressure is precipitated by stress. Laughter helps to control blood pressure by reducing the level of stress hormones and bringing relaxation. Experimentally, a drop of 10-20 mm pressure was found after participating for 10 minutes in a laughter session. It does not however mean that for those suffering from high blood pressure, they should discard medications. It takes years to develop high blood pressure, and cannot be reversed in the short period of a laughter session. What laughter could offer is improved circulation and blood supply to the muscle provided it is done under the supervision of a physician. Those who have had heart attacks or undergone bypass surgery should check with their doctor before participating in laughter therapy. 

Laughter Segment

Put a smile on someone's face by sending us your best lines!

Send us an amusing line of text, or positive thought of the day, or even a favourite joke ( clean please) and we will publish a selection here. Just go to Feedback or Contact us and fill in the form and press send.

Below are some of ours to get you thinking....

Laughter is the best medicine! Try these short lines...

Happiness is….

• Seeing the fine print ... without your glasses!

• Calling ... anyone and they answer first ring!

• Reinsuring... at a cheaper rate than last year!

• 'Pulling' ... without straining a muscle!

• Ironing... out an old problem!

• Filling... the cracks without putty.   

Links for this review 

Follow these links for more information and details on the sources of this review.

http://www.humourfoundation.com.au/

http://www.laughterclubs.com.au/

http://www.laughter-yoga.com.au/

http://www.helpguide.org/life/humor_laughter_health.htm

http://www.alzheimers.org.au/upload/ClownDoctors.pdf

We hope this article has been of interest to you. Please feel free to print a friendly copy, email to a friend or relative, or download the PDF article for your reference.

Download Free Adobe Acrobat Pdf Reader

If you don't already have Acrobat Reader, you can download it here for free:

Disclaimer: The information contained in this section should not be used for individual medical or professional advice. Please see your Doctor if you have concerns or specific questions relating to your health or seek professional advice as required.