Laughter improves your immune system and more
LAUGHTER is another important activity to combat aging. A happy person looks younger and much more attractive. Our general attitude to life will have a direct effect on every cell in our body. It will have a direct effect on every aspect of our lives. Make laughter a bigger part of your life and try to make other people around you laugh. Laughter is a true gift, no other living creature on this earth is so lucky, even the laughing hyena really doesn’t laugh.
What does the research reveal about laughing –
Laughter reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine and adrenaline. All of these hormones, when they reach chronic levels, are destructive and will increase anxiety, pain, irritability, speed up the ageing process, and slow down healing and repair. At the same time laughter will increase levels of health-enhancing hormones like endorphins, and neurotransmitters. This means generally that you will feel better, look better, look younger, be in a better mood, and this speeds up healing and repair, and slows down aging. Also you will be a person other people want to be around. Being lonely is also aging.
Laughter increases the number of antibody-producing cells and enhances the effectiveness of T-cells. All this means a stronger immune system, and is a really pleasant way of protecting ourselves from the viruses and ‘bugs’ that are around us all the time. The safety valve – I am sure there have been times when you didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Though, they both provide physical and emotional release its more fun to laugh. A good ‘belly laugh’ exercises the diaphragm, contracts the abs and even works out the shoulders, leaving muscles more relaxed afterward. This means less aches and pains in the neck and shoulder areas that are so common today. When a person is in pain, it is draining and makes one look older. Laughter even provides a good workout for the heart – known as a ‘hearty laugh’.
Laughter connects us with others, it is a very sociable thing to do and it’s wonderfully contagious. That’s why parties can be so much fun as people are generally chatting and laughing. Bring more laughter into your life and you can help others around you to laugh more so everyone’s a winner. By elevating the mood of those around you, you can reduce their stress levels, and perhaps improve the quality of the social interaction you experience with them, reducing your stress level even more!
Laughter moves the focus away from anger, worry, guilt, stress and negative emotions. Studies show our response to stressful events can be altered by whether we view something as a ‘threat’ or a ‘challenge’. Humor can give us a more light hearted perspective and help us view events as ‘challenges’, thereby making them less threatening so we are able to deal with them more effectively. If we feel better we are able to deal with situations much better.
I wonder how and why we lose the ability to laugh so much? A recent study showed that pre-school-aged children laugh up to 400 times a day!!!! That is enviable. Wouldn’t you love some of that? How many times a day do you laugh now you are a sensible ‘grown-up’? Especially if you are in pain, you are probably thinking there is not much to laugh about. You do need to break this viscous cycle.
Make a conscious effort to
1) Buy or rent funny DVDs – you will have laughter on tap.
2) Socialize more, it’s a great way to laugh and it’s contagious. Dump the miserable friends. Have friends over for a meal, or a funny movie or a friendly card game for a laugh.
3) Try to find the funny side of situations that frustrate you. Often these situations when retold to friends later are amusing, so try to see this amusing story in your mind at the time.
4) Pretend at first. Until laughter becomes second nature. This may sound silly but really, practice laughing and certainly smile more. It works but it also has to be genuine.
5) Spend more time with your children or grandchildren, they say the funniest things, and ask some very amusing questions.
Laughter Decreases “Stress” Hormones Other research indicates a general decrease in stress hormones that constrict blood vessels and suppress immune activity. Many negative affects were shown to decrease in the study group exposed to humor. For example, levels of epinephrine were lower in both the anticipation of humor and after exposure to humor. Epinephrine levels remained down throughout the experiment. In addition, dopamine levels were also lower. Dopamine is involved in the “fight or flight response” and is associated with elevated blood pressure. Laughing is aerobic, providing a workout for the diaphragm and increasing the body’s ability to use oxygen. Laughter no doubt brings about positive emotions that can enhance our quality of life in so many ways hence it is another tool in the anti-aging ‘tool kit’. Yet most of us would rather have a moan than a good laugh! So remember you need more smiles, more laughter, and much more of a positive outlook in general. Not only will you be a better person to be with, you will have a much improved quality of life. Everyone’s a winner. Remember laughing also exercises the face muscle, laughing and smiling also disguises those wrinkles, they don’t look like wrinkles they look like laughter lines! You look just like anyone who is screwing up their face with smiles and laughter.