Having a good laugh makes you feel good. More importantly, studies have shown that it can actually be good for your health as well.

By Daphne Ong

The famous doctor Patch Adams got it right – laughing is good for you. Enjoying a good chuckle is your body’s way of telling you that it’s good for you. However, laughter does more for you than just improve your mood. Your health, social life and even your career stand to benefit from this simple, instinctive and thoroughly enjoyable act.

A happy heart
When you laugh from the heart, you’re also laughing for your heart. A team of cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, USA, found that laughter may help prevent heart disease. Their study indicated that, given a variety of situations, people suffering from heart disease were 40% less likely to laugh than other people of the same age without heart disease.

A more recent study at the university revealed that laughter benefits the heart by improving blood flow through the blood vessels. In fact, laughing has the same effect in the blood vessels that aerobic activity does. In other words, when you laugh, you’re exercising! This is not to say you should give up exercising and just laugh, but laughter can certainly act as an additional booster for your cardiovascular system. Dr Michael Miller from the university even offers a prescription: “Thirty minutes of exercise three times a week, and 15 minutes of laughter on a daily basis is probably good for the vascular system.”

Chuckles may also help to keep diabetes under control by lowering blood sugar levels after meals. This effect can benefit diabetics and non-diabetics alike. So go ahead and tell jokes or watch that funny movie after dinner.

Laugh off stress
When you laugh, you relieve mental stress, making humour the most fun way to improve your heart’s health. Why is it so important to combat stress?

Mental stress has the opposite effect on the blood vessels. It is linked with the impairment of the blood vessel lining, which may contribute to clogging in the arteries. Stress affects more than just your arteries. It also suppresses your immune system, and you may find yourself getting ill more often in times of high and prolonged stress. Chortle away your anxiety today!

Just ‘cause it feels good
Ever noticed how a good laugh leaves you with a blissful afterglow? Laughing feels so good because your body releases good hormones while you’re chuckling, including endorphins, which are also released when you exercise. At the same time, stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are decreased while laughing.

Laughter also enables you better tolerate discomfort and pain since it releases endorphins, your body’s natural painkiller. Besides, when you’re busy with having a good time laughing, you’re less likely to notice that you’re uncomfortable!

Faking it works too! At the Lima Linda University Center at California, USA, a research team found that your body will still respond to fake laughter as it would to real laughter, and your mood can also improve. So even if you’re faking it, you still get the same benefits.

A funny quality of life
Apart from reducing stress, laughter can also improve your quality of life in many ways. If you laugh frequently, you’ll find yourself less angry and anxious, more optimistic and generally a happier person.

You may find yourself more popular too! Laughter is wonderful for connecting positively with others around you, and it is the most common denominator in all cultures. If you are a person who has good humour in social situations, people will find you likeable and forming bonds with them will be easier. You are also far more likely to laugh when you’re with other people than when you’re alone. In fact, some of laughter’s health benefits may come from the positive social interaction that laughter generates.

Humour can also be a coping mechanism for unfortunate circumstances, such as losing a job, separation or illness. Some people find it easier to come to terms with the various circumstances they suffer when they infuse a little humour and remember to use laughter to keep sunshine in their lives.

Workplace chuckles
The fact that laughing has so many physical and emotional benefits means that you will be a more productive and positive person in the workplace. Not only are you better able to cope with stressful work environments so common in Singapore, you will be able to find pleasure in your work day just by infusing humour into it. Needless to say, this will endear you to your colleagues and, even better, your boss.

Humour is useful in reducing tensions in disagreeable situations and can help the persons involved get into a frame of mind that is more conducive to constructive communication. This helps in fast-paced environments where you have to deal with many parties, such as clients and suppliers. Being able to keep situations light-hearted will definitely make working with people more efficient and pleasurable.

One example where humour comes in very handy in a work situation is in hospitals and hospices. Healthcare workers face many stressful and grim situations in their daily work. Those who introduce tactful humour not only benefit from reduced stress, but they also have greater empathy and are better able to relate to their patients’ emotions.

While laughter is a wonderful tool in social and work situations, take care to maintain sensitivity. For example, it would be counter-productive to laugh at someone’s ideas during a business meeting and cause the person embarrassment or make them feel insulted. When using humour, keep your intentions positive and don’t offend people by making insensitive puns. Being annoying won’t endear you to many people.

Create those laughs
Adults laugh about 15 times a day on average. Children laugh about 400 times a day. In the course of growing up, your funny bone becomes less sensitive. Get proactive and create those laughs! Here are some creative suggestions.

• Do one silly thing each day
• Start a mailing list with some friends and send jokes to each other.
• Organise “laughter gatherings” with friends, e.g. watch a comedy together, play games
• Create a list of funny quotes and use them in everyday situations