Top 10 Benefits of Laughter

Treat Your Laughter Deficiency Every Day   

Short burst of hysterical laughter is as important as short burst of high intensity exercise.  

• Feeling down?  
• Stressed?  
• Anxious?  
• Low energy? 
• Overwhelmed? 
• Worried? 
• Or just blah?

You probably haven’t laughed hard enough recently. 

If you try to eat right and exercise regularly, then you should also be making sure you spend enough time laughing.

Laughing so hard that you can’t catch your breath provides unique benefits that superfoods, vitamins, exercise, and good quality sleep can’t provide.

The benefits of laughter…

It decreases stress.  Laughter reduces stress hormones which accelerate aging, make you fat, and drain your energy.  Stress is the number one thing that makes people feel bad.

Rebalances “feel good” brain chemicals.  Laughter releases endorphins and dopamine which can make your day much more enjoyable regardless of what is going on.  After laughing hard your body experiences a surge of these feel good chemicals creating a high in some people.

Humor improves memory recall, topic understanding, increases attention and stimulates creative thinking.  A reduction in stress hormones allows for the brain to work significantly better.  Scientist have proven that being highly stressed makes it much more difficult to learn new material.  Laughter reduces tension and helps bring synchronicity to the two hemispheres of the brain enabling it to remember ideas better.  Both of these help bring about the ideal, relaxed learning state.  If teachers used humor and relaxation as teaching methods students would learn exponentially more information. 

Dramatically boost immune function.  Laughter stimulates a major component of the immune system known as natural killer cells.  These cells kill cancer cells and infectious organisms like the common cold and flu.  Laughing also boosts IgA antibodies which attack organisms responsible for upper respiratory tract infections.  If you ever start to feel sick, laughter can help boost your immune system and make you feel better. 

Eases tension and relaxes your muscles.   Laughing temporarily contracts your abdominal muscles and once you are finished laughing your body relaxes deeper than had you not laughed at all.  Muscle contractions stimulate lymph glands to help eliminate toxins out of the body.  So laughing regularly assists in detoxification.  This is one explanation for how continuously watching funny movies has cured some people from disease.   

Laughing can help you stay lean.  Laughing reduces the stress hormone cortisol, which can cause you to gain bodyfat.  High amounts of cortisol cause fat accumulation, especially around the abdominal area.  Laughing itself is a workout and it has been said that 10 minutes of laughing is equivalent to 30 minutes of exercise. 

Laughter makes you more attractive to the opposite sex.  Laughing makes you feel good and when you feel good people are more attracted to you. 

Eases fear and anger, providing a sense of hope.  A study with terminally ill cancer patients demonstrated that laughter was extremely beneficial for those facing death.  Humor can help improve coping skills, whether it is finals coming up, a bad break up, or a death in the family.  Laughing can comfort emotional pain from any source.    

Reduces inflammation.   Inflammation accelerates aging, causes brain fog and sets up the conditions for diseases of every kind.  Laughter is a strong, natural anti-inflammatory similar to superfoods like cherries, pineapple and ginger.

Balances blood sugar.  A research study demonstrated that laughter after eating prevented the rise in blood glucose in diabetics.  This is important because higher levels of blood sugar in anyone is associated with accelerated aging and the onset of a variety of diseases. 

In order to reap the benefits it’s important to laugh hard.  The harder you laugh the better it is for your body.  Hysterical laughter is best and probably has hundreds of health benefits that scientist have yet to discover.  Hang out with some ridiculous friends, watch TV shows, movies, YouTube videos, Twitter feeds, or whatever it is that makes you laugh.  

Don't just watch one funny show a week.  Make sure you find humor throughout the day, everyday.

Don’t take life too serious….