We all know that nobody has ever died from laughing. So you can say that laughing is healthy. But why is it healthy? Well let me tell you why it is healthy. For the answer you have to go and look at laughter itself and how it starts.

Laughter starts with: First the corners of the mouth will start to curl slowly, then the muscles around the eyes will participate and the eyes will twinkle. Next a noise, first a bit of growling, followed with spontaneous chuckle. This chuckle will start getting louder and will end in a roar of laughter. The chest and stomach muscles will be activated. Sometimes when the noise is getting louder the body will bend in a rocking motion, sometimes the person will smack their knees, stamp their feet or give the person next to them a poke in the ribs. When the laughter reaches its peak, tears will start rolling. All this will continue until the person laughing is so weak that they will have to sit down.

The physical side of laughter.

If you look at the physical side of laughter you will see that laughing involves the whole body: muscles, respiration, cardiovascular system, hormonal system and the immune system. Muscles are being put to use during a fit of laughter. This is evident and can impact on the jaw leading to sore jaw muscles and also the bladder muscle. Respiration speeds up and gets deeper, especially exhalation. This induces better lung ventilation and a higher oxygen blood level. Due to the deeper respiration the diaphragm pushes down on the bowels. These in turn are massaged and gives better peristalsis.

When laughing the heart frequency increases, as does the blood pressure, which can even temporarily double! Eventually the blood pressure will drop to below the starting pressure. This increased blood pressure stimulates the brain, especially the hypothalamus, affecting hormonal levels and releasing endorphins, which improves over-all well-being. This can last up to two hours after the induced burst of laughter. It is pain reducing, increases libido and has the same effect as anti-depressive medications. During laughter, immunoglobulin-A level rises improving immunity to diseases.

If you combine the above two things you see that laughing is healthy

So why don’t we laugh more in hospitals?