What are the benefits of laughter for health? Laughter is a phenomenon that we do not quite understand. What we can say is that it is an involuntary act and that science guarantees that laughter improves health .
The localized area of laughter is in the prefrontal area of the cerebral cortex (the area where creativity is located, the ability to think about the future, etc.) and over the years we are losing the spontaneity of letting ourselves be carried away by laughter.
The fact of smiling has a very positive effect on yourself.
Even if you do not do it consciously, your brain receives this information from the muscles and understands that you are smiling.
This makes you react to these stimuli releasing substances capable of making you feel much happier.
Discover all the benefits of laughter for health.
Importance of Laughter for Health
When we laugh the brain activates the segregation of endorphins , natural brain sedatives similar to morphine.
Substances that help to soothe the pain, and send messages from the brain to lymphocytes and other cells to fight viruses and bacteria.
These segregations act as natural drugs that circulate in the body, are hundreds of times stronger than heroin and morphine.
They are also free and have no side effects. That's why five or six minutes of continuous laughter acts as a painkiller.
So laughter is more important than it seems, improves health.
That you smile not only makes you happy , but also makes others feel happy when they are with your company and see you as a social person , trustworthy and closer. In addition, everyone knows that the smile is contagious .
When someone on the street returns the smile , what you have done is to produce a positive change in the emotional state of that person.
This fact is very beneficial because unconsciously people will associate this good feeling with your presence and an authentic smile causes them to see us as trustworthy people.
Well, if instead of smiling what we do is a laugh , all these benefits of laughter are multiplied, moreover, it is considered an aerobic practice .
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Laughter makes you free from stress and distress and helps you get out of depression. In addition, among other benefits of laughter:
Benefits of Laughter in Health
- It decreases the presence of cholesterol in the blood.
- It promotes digestion because it increases the contractions of all abdominal muscles.
- It contributes to a change of mental attitude that favors the decrease of diseases.
- Each time we smile, the muscles we activate, which have a direct connection to the central nervous system, release the hormone beta-endorphin that send positive messages in the brain and create a sense of well-being and that things are going well; In addition to maintaining elasticity in the coronary arteries.
- Helps reduce blood glucose.
- It frees us from fear and anguish .
- Sigmund Freud said that the fact of laughing released psychic energy and that, therefore, had a function in the homeostasis or mental balance of the person.
- The level of blood stress hormones (catecholamines) and heart rate go down, reducing the level of stress .
When we laugh we are exercising , with each laugh we get up to about 400 muscles, including some of the stomach that can only be exercised with laughter.
It acts as a massage in the vertebral column and cervical that is where tensions usually accumulate.
Effects of Laughter for Health
In addition the spleen is stimulated and the toxins are eliminated.
With this movement the diaphragm gives an internal massage that facilitates the digestion and helps to reduce the fatty acids and toxic substances.
It cleans us , laughing it lubricates and wipe our eyes with tears.
In addition, it ventilates the lungs , warms and loosens muscles, silences the sympathetic system, increases heart rate and pulse, increases oxygen, exercises the muscles of the arms, abdominals, shoulders and diaphragm, reduces inflammation and speeds up the Healing .
It is, therefore, a very healthy practice.
But laughter is not only restricted to humans.
According to a study by Jaak Panksepp published in the journal Science, there is animal laughter , and not just in primates.
Also dogs and mice in their games, emit sounds very similar to the laughter of the babies.
In part it may be because the limbic system, which controls laughter, is one of the least evolved parts of the human brain .
The collective laughter
Laughter seems to have a social function of cohesion .
Since he laughs more in company than alone (that's why the laughs of the television programs have as their mission to provoke the laugh of the spectators by contagion).
"Laughter therapy" is to stimulate the production of different hormones generated by the body itself by doing exercises and group games to boost laughter.
Try to boost the immune system by causing laughter in a natural and healthy way .
When you laugh in the company of other people , the bonds of affection are strengthened .
It enhances creativity and imagination, improves self-esteem and eliminates negative thoughts and emotions.
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You can use this little game : stare at another person you have confidence and play the game "to see who laughs first".
It consists of the two of you stare staring into the eyes, face and in silence.
The first one who laughs loses. This way you will realize that it costs a lot not to laugh.