Submitted on Saturday July 20th, 2013
Don’t you just somehow feel better when you laugh? It turns out, that’s not just fantasy.
Laughter has physical and emotional health benefits.
Studies show that laughter
- supports the heart. If we’re laughing, we’re not stressing. The stress hormones are the root cause of heart attacks because they damage the circulatory system;
- relaxes muscles. Good, deep breathing is part of laughing. It stimulates oxygen flow to the muscles and triggers muscle relaxation;
- lessens pain. The body’s natural pain-relieving hormones, the endorphins, are released when we laugh;
- boosts immunity. Laughter helps combat infections and other diseases by triggering better antibody response at the cellular level;