Is Laughing Good For You? Know Its Benefits

April Fools’ Day is good for your health and well-being, as it encourages jokes, pranks, and, of course, laughter. It’s the day you can let your mischievous side come out to play and get away with it. The annual celebration means pranksters and practical jokers can roam free. Although the jokes stop after that day, the laughter should continue. Keep reading to find out how laughing is good for you any day of the year.

• Laughter is the Best Medicine: 6 Health Benefits
  1. Supports Your Immune System
  2. Relieves Pain
  3. Relieves Stress Naturally
  4. Boosts Your Mood
  5. Improves Well-Being
  6. Benefits Society
• How to Laugh More Every Day
• Is Laughing Good For You?

Laughter is the Best Medicine: 6 Benefits

It’s fun to share a laugh with your friends, but those laughs can do more than just make you smile. The saying “laughter is the best medicine” is true. Laughter brings people together, but it also triggers positive physical and emotional changes. 

Have you ever had a deep-rooted belly laugh? When you’re laughing so much, it hurts. That really is one of the best feelings in the world. It can bring people together, form connections, and even boost your overall health and well-being. 

If you needed another reason to laugh more, here are six ways that laughing is good for you.  

1. Supports Your Immune System

Laughing increases your immune cells and antibodies. These are immune responses that help combat infection. So, the more you laugh, the better your resistance to illness and disease will be. When thinking about how to strengthen your immune system, laughter isn’t usually the first thing that comes to mind. But if you can harness the power of laughter and humor, you can support your immune system.

Research shows that laughing increases blood flow and helps blood vessels to function better. This helps to speed up wound healing and can also help protect you against cardiovascular disease.

2. Relieves Pain

When you laugh, it triggers the release of endorphins. Endorphins are chemicals that your body produces. As your brain interacts with these endorphins, it can reduce your perception of pain. So, a good chuckle produces these natural painkillers that can make you feel good, can promote well-being, and may even temporarily relieve pain.

3. Relieves Stress Naturally

Laughter may be the stress reduction technique you didn’t know you need. When you laugh, it not only lightens your mood a little, but physical changes start to occur throughout your body. Laughing can do wonders for stress, both in the short term and long term.

Even a small laugh can activate and relieve your stress response and help you feel a bit more relaxed. In the long term, laughing can be good for you by improving your mood, boosting your immune system, and allowing you to connect with people more easily.  

4. Boosts Your Mood

Laughter can be an excellent mood booster. Firstly, it releases endorphins, which are great for making you feel better. But research shows that laughing can alter dopamine and serotonin activity, too. It can decrease stress levels and even release the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine serves as a reward for your brain, helping to elevate your mood.

5. Improves Well-Being

A study in Norway found that women with a good sense of humor lived longer in spite of illness, especially cardiovascular disease and infection. Interestingly, the difference was particularly noticeable in people battling cancer.

Doctors have found that people who laugh more have a more positive outlook on life. This helps to increase their overall sense of well-being and gives them the ability to fight off disease more effectively. So laughing is good for what ails you, and it appears to go hand in hand with living longer.

6. Benefits Society

It turns out you’re not just happier together, but healthier. Laughter benefits social interactions and helps you build relationships and connections. When you laugh with someone, it improves empathy and cooperation between different people. It also fosters a good level of communication, which can result in a less-aggressive approach during a tense situation.

Laughter can do wonders for romance and bonding in general. A good sense of humor and laughter can be a very attractive quality in a partner. One study shows that laughter increases people’s willingness to talk about a sensitive subject. The ability to be able to speak about sensitive issues may allow you to seek help more quickly as well as improve your relationships. 

How to Laugh More Every Day 

Although sometimes it can feel like laughter is hard to come by, it really can offer a ton of benefits. In the same way getting plenty of sleep, eating well, and drinking water is on the to-do list for healthy living, laughing every day should be a priority. While it’s easy to feel down with the chaos around, you must find ways to be positive and get your chuckles on.

One way to laugh more is to try laughter yoga. The idea behind it is that you force laughter through specific exercises, and eventually you end up laughing for real. Studies show that laughter yoga effectively reduces stress and anxiety and allows you to focus on the present.

Other ways to laugh more every day include:

• Watch funny movies and TV shows.
• Make an intention to laugh more. 
• Smile more.
• Play games with your friends.
• Read a funny book.

Is Laughing Good For You? 

The answer is a big belly-full yes. You can lighten up your health by laughing more each day. It sounds too simple to say that laughing can benefit so many areas of your health, but it really can. There is scientific evidence that laughing is good for you.

Even on the days that you don’t feel like you can even muster a smile, you can harness the power of laughter to turn your day around. In the long term, laughing helps to ease stress levels and may even improve anxiety. Nothing works faster than a chuckle to bring your mind and body back into balance. 

Laughing stimulates chemical changes in the brain that make you feel happier and improve your overall sense of well-being. Whether it’s joining a laughing yoga class, catching up with a funny friend, or watching your favorite comedy, find a way to bring more laughter into your day and feel the benefits.