5 remarkable health benefits of laughing
Why laughter could be just what the doctor ordered.
Laughing is seriously good for you! From triggering a release of dopamine to boosting beta-endorphins and decreasing stress hormones, a lot of great stuff goes on inside the body and mind whenever something makes you laugh.
Check out these 5 fantastic health benefits of laughing.
1. Help with anxiety and depression
There’s plenty of evidence that laughter triggers the brain's emotional and reward centers, prompting a release of dopamine and enhancing the experience of pleasure. And for someone suffering from anxiety, winter blues, or even depression, laughter provides an opportunity to boost low moods from the inside out.
Increasing serotonin levels is another positive bodily function that occurs from laughing. As a chemical messenger that impacts everything from your emotions to your motor skills, serotonin also helps stabilize your mood.
2. Stress relief
Internally, there are all sorts of things going on when we are stressed – including the production of stress hormones called catecholamine (say that three times fast!) and cortisol. They do their best to help regulate our body's response to stress. Still, carrying them around for too long can cause things like high blood pressure, anxiety, headaches, sweating, and heart pounding. Laughter has been proven to decrease levels of those neuroendocrine stress hormones, minimizing their long-term adverse effects.
3. Increased pain tolerance
Isn't it incredible that something as simple as laughing has the potential to improve our pain tolerance? A series of six experimental studies found that pain thresholds were increased after laughter, not just because of a change in mood but due to an endorphin-mediated opiate effect. In other words, when you laugh, your body releases feel-good endorphins, which help to deal with pain sensations.
4. Strengthened immunity
Research correlates laughter with building immunity – even just anticipating it! We all have a naturally occurring human growth hormone (HG) which is produced by the pituitary gland (a tiny gland at the base of the brain). It takes care of all sorts of important stuff – like maintaining our tissues and organs. Studies discovered that a group of people who were told they would be watching one of their favorite funny videos saw an increase in their HGH of 87%, which in turn helps to strengthen the immune system.
5. Better relationships
There's nothing quite like a good laugh with a friend - but why is that? Well, it just so happens there are studies about this. The primary outcome was that shared laughter communicates to others that you have a similar outlook on life. And this can even work with strangers, too, with perceived like-mindedness playing an essential part in building relationships.
So there you have it – 5 fantastic health benefits of laughter! So how can you make time for a belly laugh today?