Laughter
Laughter
“The more you find out about the world, the more opportunities there are to laugh at it.”
- Bill Nye, US TV host and Science Guy; Interview with Wired.com April 2005
People love to laugh. It feels good! We all know the popular saying: laughter is the best medicine.” Thinking about this, I was curious as to what exactly is happening in our bodies while we have a good time. As it turns out, there is strong evidence that laughing can improve health and the strengthen immune system.
What is laughter? It works something like this. Facial muscles contract, upper lip goes up, air intake becomes irregular, tear ducks are activated, and repeated noises of “ha-ha-ha” or “ho-ho-ho” come every 210 milliseconds, varying from sedate giggles to all-out side-splitting laughing. Wow!
Why do we laugh? Laughter strengthens human connections. We laugh when we are comfrotable, with bonding occuring with the people with whom we laugh, in turn creating more reasons to laugh together. Laughter can also deflect anger. It can act as a conciliatory gesture in embarrasing situations and lessen confrontations.
Benefits to laughter are many:
- It reduces levels of certain stress hormones;
- It increases:
- natural killer cells that destroy tumors and viruses
- T-cells, a major part of our immune system
- B-cells, which make disease-destroying antibodies
- vascular blood flow and oxygenation of the blood, thus assisting healing.
- Hiccupping and coughing while laughing clears the respiratory tract;
- blood pressure is lowered.
Could it get any better than this? Well yes, it does! Listen to this. Researchers estimate that laughing 100 times is equal to 10 minutes on the rowing machine or 15 minutes on an exercise bike. Laughter also gives your diaphram and abdominal, respiratory, facial, lag and back muscles a workout. Laughing can be a total body workout!
Lest we forget, there are also numerous psychological benefits: Poeple tend to store negative emotions, such as anger, sadness and fear, rather than expressing them. This creates harmful biochemical changes in the body. Laughter provides an avenue for release. It is cathartic. If you are upset or stressed out, go see a funny movie or go visit a comedy club.
What should we conclude from all this? Bring more laughter into your life!
- Figure out what makes you laugh and do it (or read it or watch it) more ofter
- Surround yourself with funny people
- Develop your own sense of humor. Become a better joke-teller. Be funny every chance you get -as long as it’s not at someone else’s expense.
Do you know the best part? Humans have a mental detector that respondes to laughter, generating more laughter when exposed to it.
Laughter really IS contagious!
To celebrate Laughter, check out these travel jokes compliments of online Travel Lady Magazine. I guarantee some of them will lower you blood pressure.
One of my favorites:
Heard on XYZ Airlines just after a very hard landing in Salt Lake City The flight attendant came on the intercom and said, “That was quite a bump and I know what ya’ll are thinking. I’m here to tell you it wasn’t the airline’s fault, it wasn’t the pilot’s fault, it wasn’t the flight attendants’ fault…..it was the asphalt!”
Part of this feature article information has been compiled from “How Laughter Works,” by Marshall Brain, founder of HowStuffWorks.com
In Peace & Health,
Christine Pointeau
