Smiling and Laughing, Funny or Not, Makes You Healthier

Monday 2 July 2012 @ 11:06 pm

Saying that laughter is the best medicine is not an empty promise. Studies on smiling, humor, laughter and happiness suggest that they bring about positive mental and physical health effects.

According to the British Dental Health Foundation, there is even a scientific study of the effects of laughter—it is called Gelotology. Although we could not find any articles in the US National Library of Medicine (PubMed.gov) for gelotology, we found nearly 200 studies when searching for “effects of laughter”.

An article published in the Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine journal in 2010, The therapeutic value of laughter in medicine, was the result of a comprehensive literature research on laughter. The review clearly distinguished between humor and laughter and covered a number of fields related to medicine and health care to find evidence of health related benefits of laughter.

Here’s what they found:

Laughter brings physiological, psychological, social, spiritual, and quality-of-life benefits to people. Here are just a few examples from other studies:

Laughter has helped breast cancer survivors by improving quality of life and resilience. (Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing, June 2011);
Laughter therapy has a positive effect on decreasing postpartum fatigue. (Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing, June 2011);
Combining laughter and exercise might bring physiological and psychological health benefits for the elderly and be used to motivate the elderly take part in physical activity. (Geriatrics & Gerontology International, June 2012);
Laughter therapy is a useful, cost-effective and easily-accessible intervention that has positive effects on depression, insomnia, and sleep quality in the elderly. (Geriatrics & Gerontology International, July 2011);
Mirthful laughter can induce beneficial impacts on vascular function. (American Journal of Cardiology, September 2010);
Both laughter and humor may be good complementary and alternative medicines for dementia patients if applied carefully and properly. (BioMedCentral Complementary and Alternative Medicine, June 2010);

There are few adverse effects to laughter. A different study shows that despite the benefits of positive psychological functioning and enhanced quality of life, laughing out loud can negatively affect lung function is patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

And the best part is, doctors cannot find any reasons to ask people to refrain from laughing. (You can go ahead and laugh at this conclusion, but someone really did study it. So it is really no laughing matter to them.)

Laughter is therapeutic mostly if it is spontaneous. Spontaneous laughter could be triggered by outside factors, positive emotions or self induced; and occur with or without humor. In other words, laughing matters, regardless of whether something is funny or not or what caused you to laugh. And your brain cannot tell the difference between the different types of laughter. So scientists are assuming that any means of laughter is fine and therapeutic.

A different review shows that simulated laughter may also bring potential health benefits.

You may also want to read Keep Smiling and You May Feel Healthier Too, an article from the British Dental Foundation that gave us the idea for this article.

So there you are, go on laugh, whether you or others think it is funny or not. Either way it is good for you.

Of course, to laugh and smile freely, you need to have healthy teeth and gums. The way to get a great smile or to prevent ruining your smile is to brush twice daily, floss at least once and to visit your dentist at least every six months.

You can find more about Dental Care Basics in the FreeDentistFinder.com article archive. If you don’t have a regular dentist, searching under General Dentistry with area zip code will help you find a dentist practicing at a location near you.

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