Laughter Is The Best Medicine
Did you know it’s International Day of Happiness on March 20? And we’ve discovered that laughter is a serious business – but in a positive way! Laughter is good for your health and is a sure sign of happiness. It can help boost mood and wellbeing, among other health-giving properties.
Building on over 25 years of clinical experience each, Brian and Hephzibah Kaplan use proven techniques to offer new and entertaining ways to create positive change. Their new book “Almost Happy: Pushing Your Buttons With Reverse Psychology”, provides tools to help you look on the bright side of life.
Dr Brian Kaplan.
Laughter Is The Best Medicine
Brian says, “There’s some truth in the old cliché ‘laughter is the best medicine’. There is considerable scientific evidence showing that laughter is excellent for us both physically and psychologically. And in many different ways.
“One expert in the science of laughter is Professor Bill Fry of Stanford University. He devoted most of his professional life to ‘gelotology’ the study of laughter and how it helps us physically and psychologically. Here is an aide memoire showing some of the benefits he demonstrated for laughter in his 25 years of research on the subject.”
S Stress Reduction:
M Muscular relaxation
I Immunity enhanced
L Lungs expel older air allowing more fresh air to enter.
E Belly laughing exercises both heart and lungs.
E Endorphins, the natural high-making chemicals of the body can be shown to increase after laughter.
Benefits Of A Good Belly Laugh
Stress Reduction:
People definitely look less stressed when they are laughing. And scientists have confirmed that laughter reduces our levels of stress hormones: adrenalin, noradrenalin and cortisol.
Muscular Relaxation:
We feel less tense when we laugh. It’s been shown that our muscles are actually more relaxed after a good belly laugh.
Immunity Enhanced:
Our levels of antibodies and killer cells, the natural soldiers of the body, are raised immediately when we laugh.
Lung Health:
In everyday life when we breathe out, we expel approximately 80% of the air in our lungs leaving a residual volume of 20% in the lungs. However, a good laugh tends to clear the lungs of all the old air, allowing more fresh air with each breath.
Endorphins:
Endorphins are one of our natural feel-good chemicals. Laughter has long been shown to increase the levels of endorphins in the blood.
Exercise:
A good belly laugh is actually a good form of exercise!
Bill Fry has documented all the these benefits of laughter in his work as a professor at Stanford University.
“Almost Happy: Pushing Your Buttons With Reverse Psychology” by Brian Kaplan and Hephzibah Kaplan is out now.
Want to know the 10 top things that make people happy? Have a guess then click here to find out.
Click here if you want to discover what actually happens when we laugh in this great BBC article.
