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Laughter, like exercise, can boost blood flow to the heart and enhance vascular health, which is beneficial for controlling heart rate and blood pressure. Humor is beneficial to the heart. Laughter has been related to improved blood vessel function and improved cardiovascular health. Laughter stimulates the endothelium (the inner lining of blood vessels) to expand and enhance blood flow, whereas stress causes blood vessels to tighten and reduce blood flow. Laughing regularly can help you avoid heart attacks and other cardiovascular disorders.
Endorphins and serotonin are neurotransmitters that stimulate sensations of happiness and improve your mood. Studies have discovered that laughing in groups triggers the release of endorphins in brain regions involved in arousal and emotion. Human social relationships are formed, reinforced, and maintained with the help of social laughter. Laughter stimulates the release of dopamine, which has relaxing properties as well as provides us with pleasure and reward.
Humans produce many forms of endorphins. Endorphins can provide pain alleviation in addition to providing pleasure. Cousins reported laughter as having an analgesic effect for pain induced by his long-term disease of spinal arthritis in his book Anatomy of an Illness (ankylosing spondylitis). Cousins discovered that 10 minutes of laughter allowed him to sleep pain-free for two hours. When we laugh, endorphins inhibit pain messengers from signaling to the brain. As a result, we experience less discomfort and the negative effects of stress are reduced.
Stress reduction has been demonstrated to improve treatment outcomes for a variety of health issues. Cortisol, a stress hormone, is involved in sadness, anxiety, and stress, as well as chronic pain. Studies on spontaneous laughter that looked at stress hormone levels before and after laughter found that laughter reduced cortisol production. Even when laughter is forced, it can have a pleasant effect. According to another study, the immediate psychological effects of comedy are comparable to the mental benefits of aerobic exercise.
Laughter increases lung capacity, making your respiratory system more efficient. It engages the trunk, stomach, back, and intercostals (rib-supporting muscles), as well as other muscles in the neck and face. The activation level of internal oblique muscles was higher than conventional workouts and equaled the activities for the activation of the external oblique muscles in one study that compared laughter to crunch and back raising exercises in terms of core muscle engagement.
Studies have shown that laughter improves immune system function. People who laugh more frequently have more T-cells, or white blood cells, in their blood, which are beneficial to the immune system and disease resistance. What's more intriguing is that NK (natural killer) lymphocyte cells are created in larger quantities, lowering infection risk. In cancer patients, an increase in NK cells is connected to increased disease resistance and lower morbidity.
People who laugh more frequently have a more positive mindset. People who have a cheerful outlook live longer and are better at fighting diseases. Researchers from Yeshiva University in the United States identified numerous factors centenarians (100-year-olds) shared in a 2012 study published in the journal Aging. One was a fondness for laughing. They believed that laughing was an important aspect of living a longer life.
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