Showing posts with label Laughter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laughter. Show all posts

Oct 21, 2016

Laughter and Exercise

According to researchers at Georgia State University, forced laughter incorporated into an exercise program increases the health benefits and makes older adults more likely to exercise more. Simulated laughter techniques added to a strength, balance, and flexibility workout improved older adults' performance in an exercise program and significantly improved their enjoyment.
Laughter has physical benefits, and in many cases has an effect on the muscles used during exercise programs. Forced laughter, or choosing to laugh, rather than as a response to something funny gave way to actual laughter and enjoyment for most participants in classes with laughing incorporated into physical exercises.

Laughter is an enjoyable activity and has many health benefits. In a recent study, participants experienced improvement in mental health, aerobic endurance, and outcome expectation for exercise, with 96.2 percent of participants saying laughter made exercise more enjoyable, 88.9 percent saying it made exercise more accessible and 89.9 percent saying it would motivate them to participate in more exercise classes or activities. We all need a good laugh for better mental health and to clear out the cobwebs of our mind.

Mar 25, 2016

Benefits of Laughter

Laughter reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, dopamine, and growth hormone. It also increases the level of health-enhancing hormones like endorphins. Laughter increases the number of antibody-producing cells and enhances the effectiveness of T cells. All this means a stronger immune system, as well as fewer physical effects of stress.
Laughter provides distraction and brings focus away from anger, guilt, stress, and negative emotions in a more beneficial way than other distractions.

Jun 12, 2015

Six Benefits of Laughter

Laughter increases a sense of well being and doctors find that people who have a positive outlook on life tend to fight diseases better than negative people. Laugh a little or laugh a lot, it is all good.

1. Laughing lowers blood pressure, which reduces risk of strokes and heart attacks.
2. It reduces stress hormone levels and cuts the anxiety and stress impacting your body.
3. It tones your abs by expanding and contracting stomach muscles.
4. It improves cardiac health and burns a similar amount of calories per hour as walking at a slow to moderate pace.
5. It boosts T cells to help you fight off sickness.
6. Laughing triggers the release of endorphins, which can help ease chronic pain and make you feel good all over.

May 30, 2014

Laughter Studies

We all know laughing is good for you, and now, here are some studies that prove it. Laughing in the face of tragedy seems to shield a person from its effects. A 2013 review of studies found that among elderly patients, laughter significantly alleviated the symptoms of depression. Another study, published early this year, found that firefighters who used humor as a coping strategy were somewhat protected from PTSD. Laughing also seems to ease more-quotidian anxieties. One group of researchers found that watching an episode of Friends was as effective at improving a person’s mood as listening to music or exercising, and more effective than resting.

Laughter even seems to have a buffering effect against physical pain. A 2012 study found that subjects who were shown a funny video displayed higher pain thresholds than those who saw a serious documentary. In another study, postsurgical patients requested less pain medication after watching a funny movie.

Other literature identifies even more specific health benefits: laughing reduced arterial-wall stiffness, which is associated with cardiovascular disease. Women undergoing in-vitro fertilization were sixteen percent more likely to get pregnant when entertained by a clown. A clown improved lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A study of Norwegians found that having a sense of humor correlated with a high probability of surviving into retirement. Not new news, but always good to get reinforcement.

Jan 10, 2014

Ten Different Types of Laughter












Jan 1, 2014

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Proverbs 17:22, "a merrie heart doth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones," has transformed into the popular saying, "Laughter is the best medicine."

More About Laughter

Here is more good news to smile about this year. A recent study found that groups that either watched or participated in comedy felt less pain than their peers, who watched a documentary. People who laughed more had an even higher pain threshold than those who only had a few giggles. Chuckling with others also increased laughter's positive impact. People are 30 times more likely to laugh in a group than alone.

Laughing triggers endorphins, neurotransmitters produced by the pituitary gland and hypothalamus, which spark a feeling of comfort similar to what occurs when someone takes an opiate. Love, excitement, spicy foods, orgasms, exercise, and pain all cause the brain to produce endorphins, which also provide an analgesic effect.

Wordology, Duchenne Smile

While conducting research on the physiology of facial expressions in the mid-19th century, Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne (de Boulogne) identified two distinct types of smiles. The eponymous Duchenne smile involves contraction of both the zygomatic major muscle, which raises the corners of the mouth and the orbicularis oculi muscle, which raises the cheeks and forms crow's feet around the eyes.

A non-Duchenne, or politician smile involves only the zygomatic major muscle. Research with adults initially indicated that joy was indexed by generic smiling, involving just the raising of the lip corners by the zygomatic major. More recent research suggests that smiling in which the muscle around the eye contracts, raising the cheeks high (Duchenne smiling), is uniquely associated with positive emotion.

There are also two types of laughter, Duchenne and non-Duchenne. Duchenne laughter is the type of natural chuckle that people experience when they see or hear something funny, which is often contagious. This giggling involves the contractions of the orbicularis oculi muscle and adds more pain relief than non-Duchenne laughter, which is emotionless and context-driven. Duchenne laughter might be so effective because it involves muscle activity much like exercise, which releases endorphins. The capacity to sustain laughter for periods of several minutes at a time may exaggerate the opioid effects.

May 14, 2013

More About Laughter

Every time someone laughs around us, our brains must interpret what it means. As German scientists have discovered, it is more complex than we thought.

A joyful belly laugh is interpreted by the brain in a completely different way from a scornful titter or the giggle from someone being tickled, a group of scientists from Tübingen in south west Germany have found.

In experiments designed to help patients with chronic anxiety disorders, they found that positive non-verbal communication, such as a joyful laugh was processed by a different part of the brain from a negative, scornful snicker.

Laughing is one of the oldest forms of non-verbal communication and is also seen in rats and apes. It could be key to helping patients with psychiatric disorders, who often are unable to correctly interpret non-verbal communication.

Humans have developed several different forms of laughter, each of which can have a complex series of meanings and intentions behind them. “Laughing is a very strong signal in social interaction. If you are laughed at with joy you feel accepted. If you are the victim of scornful laughter, you feel shut out of the group,“ said Dr. Dirk Wildgruber.

In their experiments, Wildgruber and his team played various types of recorded laughter and measured how the sounds were interpreted in the brain. They found that giggles generated when someone is being tickled stimulates areas of the brain responsible for interpreting complex acoustic signals. Happy or scornful laughter, on the other hand, stimulates completely separate brain regions usually tasked with guessing the intentions of others. From there, the laughter kick-starts connections with different parts of the brain depending on the tone - negative or positive.

The next step will be to look into how people with psychological disturbances react to different laughter signals to find out which areas of the brain could be artificially stimulated to help them, said Wildgruber.

Feb 15, 2013

Laughter is Natural

Laughing is extremely difficult to control consciously. Most people cannot laugh on command.

Laughter almost always occurs during pauses at the end of phrases. It requires the coordination of many muscles throughout the body. A good hardy laugh is like a full body workout. It gives your diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles a workout.

If you want an easy way to trim a few pounds, watch a funny movie or share a good joke with friends. If you need some new material, try some of my humor books.

Here is another good way to burn calories. When you kiss someone for a minute, you both burn about 2.6 calories. According to that math, that is about 156 calories an hour. I am available for testing the theory.

Sep 9, 2011

Laughter and Chocolate




Apr 1, 2011


What a better way to start April Fools day than with a discussion of laughter. It's true - laughter has many healthy benefits for us and that's no joke. For instance, Laughing for just 15 minutes a day burns enough calories to lose up to 5lbs of fat over a year. A big belly laugh uses about the same energy as walking more than half a mile, according to the US study in the International Journal of Obesity.

Laughing makes the heart beat faster and works many different muscles.

Researchers measured the number of calories expended by 45 adults as they watched different TV programs, including nature and comedy shows. Bouts of laughter when watching a funny show used up to 20% more energy than at rest.

Work already suggests that laughter is good for the heart and immune system, and appears to help ease pain. Dr Shevach Friedler, even found humor increased the chance that fertility treatment would be a success in patients seeking IVF. He said, "Laughter has a physiological effect as well as a psychological one. It is an intuitive human trait. We do not learn it. It's in our genes. If we retain this in our genes then probably it has beneficial effects." OK, go play a prank today and have a good belly laugh, it is good for your heart and soul. Be careful about that fertility thing. .

Mar 26, 2011

Laughter as Medicine

The old adage "laughter is the best medicine" has proved its worth among children coping with pain, according medical experts in the US, who found laughter helped children relax, which had a major impact on how they dealt with and accepted pain.

They believe the healing power of humor can reduce pain and stimulate immune function in children with cancer, Aids, or diabetes and in children receiving organ transplants and bone marrow treatments. Their study reinforces practices adopted by UK hospitals, where laughter is used as a tool to make hospital wards a friendlier place.


They asked 21 children aged eight to 14 to put their hand into cold water and found the whole group tolerated the temperature longer while watching a funny video.

Those who laughed most remembered less of the pain and hormone tests on their saliva showed their stress levels were lower after laughing.

Dr Stuber said: "Rx Laughter's goal is to ease ill children through some of these medical procedures and minimize the traumatic effects that children experience. The US study, Rx Laughter, is a collaboration between the entertainment industry, pediatrics, and psychiatry.

"In some instances laughter may even reduce the amount of anesthesia necessary."

Distraction therapy

Hospitals in the UK have recognized the power of laughter and some use "clown doctors" to go into children's wards and inject a bit of fun. The team of 10 clown doctors visit about 30,000 children and their families every year at hospitals in London, Manchester and Cambridge.

Humorous videos, especially cartoons, are already used in anesthetic rooms at Manchester Children's Hospital. They have found the videos help the children relax before going into the operating room. Go ahead and have a great laugh today. it's good for you.

Oct 1, 2010









Sep 23, 2009

Laughter is Truly the Best Medicine













Apr 25, 2009

Something to Laugh About


