HEALTH BENEFITS OF LAUGHTER

Aside from being entertaining, good-natured laughter does more than just brighten someone's day. According to some Japanese physicians, laughing naturally has numerous advantages

Laughter

1. restores balance to the endocrine, nervous, and immunological systems.

2. helps to keep the heartbeat and respiration in check.

3. may provide brief comfort to rheumatoid arthritis sufferers.

4 activates sympathetic nerves, which increases brain activity and increases blood supply to muscles.

5. Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after.

6. Laughter lightens anger’s heavy load. Nothing diffuses anger and conflict faster than a shared laugh. Looking at the funny side can put problems into perspective and enable you to move on from confrontations without holding onto bitterness or resentment. 

7. Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease.

We exercise our muscles when we laugh enthusiastically. One laughing subject's abdominal muscles "showed the same level of exertion as required by sit-ups," according to a test published in the IHT Asahi Shimbun newspaper. Michio Tanaka, an Osaka psychiatrist, highlighted the beneficial effects of laughter. "It's like an effective medicine with no adverse effects," Tanaka says.

'Do I laugh enough?' is a good question to ask yourself. 

Let me know how often you laugh.