"The art of medicine consists of keeping the patient amused while nature heals the disease."
- Voltaire
“When we laugh, natural killer cells which destroy tumours and viruses increase, along with Gamma-interferon (a disease-fighting protein), T-cells (important for our immune system) and B-cells (which make disease-fighting antibodies). As well as lowering blood pressure, laughter increases oxygen in the blood, which also encourages healing.” "Science of Laughter” Discovery Health Website
“Without humor one's thought processes are likely to become stuck and narrowly focused leading to increased distress.” Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor
“Laughter is very powerful medicine. It can lower stress, dissolve anger and unite families in their resolve to overcome troubled times.” University of Nebraska
"Nothing is good or bad. It is thinking that makes it so." Shakespeare
“By the time a child reaches nursery school, he or she will laugh about 300 times a day. Adults laugh an average of 17 times a day.” “Science of Laughter” Discovery Health
What are the health benefits of humor and laughter?
The sound of roaring laughter is far more contagious than any cough, sniffle, or sneeze. Humor and laughter can cause a domino effect of joy and amusement, as well as set off a number of positive physical effects. A good hearty laugh can help:
- reduce stress,
- lower blood pressure,
- elevate mood,
- boost immune system ,
- improve brain functioning,
- protect the heart,
- connect you to others,
- foster instant relaxation, and
- make you feel good.
Laughter activates the chemistry of the will to live and increases our capacity to fight disease. Laughing relaxes the body and reduces problems associated with high blood pressure, strokes, arthritis, and ulcers. Some research suggests that laughter may also reduce the risk of heart disease. Historically, research has shown that distressing emotions (depression, anger, anxiety, and stress) are all related to heart disease. A study done at the University of Maryland Medical Center suggests that a good sense of humor and the ability to laugh at stressful situations helps mitigate the damaging physical effects of distressing emotions (see References and resources for more details). Some other specifics about laughter’s affect on the body are listed below.
Laughter lowers blood pressure. People who laugh heartily on a regular basis have lower standing blood pressure than the average person. When people have a good laugh, initially the blood pressure increases, but then it decreases to levels below normal. Breathing then becomes deeper which sends oxygen enriched blood and nutrients throughout the body.
Humor changes our biochemical state. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases infection fighting antibodies. It increases our attentiveness, heart rate, and pulse.
Laughter protects the heart. Laughter, along with an active sense of humor, may help protect you against a heart attack, according to the study at the University of Maryland Medical Center (cited above). The study, which is the first to indicate that laughter may help prevent heart disease, found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease.
Laughter gives our bodies a good workout. Laughter can be a great workout for your diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles. It massages abdominal organs, tones intestinal functioning, and strengthens the muscles that hold the abdominal organs in place. Not only does laughter give your midsection a workout, it can benefit digestion and absorption functioning as well. It is estimated that hearty laughter can burn calories equivalent to several minutes on the rowing machine or the exercise bike.
Humor improves brain function and relieves stress. Laughter stimulates both sides of the brain to enhance learning. It eases muscle tension and psychological stress, which keeps the brain alert and allows people to retain more information.
How does humor improve mental and emotional health?
Humor is a powerful emotional medicine that can lower stress, dissolve anger and unite families in troubled times. Mood is elevated by striving to find humor in difficult and frustrating situations. Laughing at ourselves and the situation helps reveal that small things are not the earth-shaking events they sometimes seem to be. Looking at a problem from a different perspective can make it seem less formidable and provide opportunities for greater objectivity and insight. Humor also helps us avoid loneliness by connecting with others who are attracted to genuine cheerfulness. And the good feeling that we get when we laugh can remain with us as an internal experience even after the laughter subsides.
Mental health professionals point out that humor can also teach perspective by helping patients to see reality rather than the distortion that supports their distress. Humor shifts the ways in which we think, and distress is greatly associated with the way we think. It is not situations that generate our stress, it is the meaning we place on the situations. Humor adjusts the meaning of an event so that it is not so overwhelming.
Here are some additional things we can do to improve our mood, enjoyment of life and mental health.
Attempt to laugh at situations rather than bemoan them – this helps improve our disposition and the disposition of those around us.
Use cathartic laughter to release pent-up feelings of anger and frustration in socially acceptable ways.
Laugh as a means of reducing tension because laughter is often followed by a state of relaxation.
Lower anxiety by visualizing a humorous situation to replace the view of an anxiety-producing situation.
Why do we need humor to stay healthy emotionally?
A healthy sense of humor is related to being able to laugh at oneself and one's life. Laughing at oneself can be a way of accepting and respecting oneself. Lack of a sense of humor is directly related to lower self esteem. (Note that laughing at oneself can also be unhealthy if one laughs as a way of self degradation.)
Humor is essential to mental health for a variety of reasons:
Humor enhances our ability to affiliate or connect with others.
Humor helps us replace distressing emotions with pleasurable feelings. You cannot feel angry, depressed, anxious, guilty, or resentful and experience humor at the same time.
Lacking humor will cause one's thought processes to stagnate leading to increased distress.
Humor changes behavior – when we experience humor we talk more, make more eye contact with others, touch others, etc.
Humor increases energy, and with increased energy we may perform activities that we might otherwise avoid.
Finally, humor is good for mental health because it makes us feel good!
What are the social benefits of humor and laughter?
Our work, marriage and family all need humor, celebrations, play and ritual as much as record-keeping and problem-solving. We should ask the questions "Do we laugh together?" as well as "Can we get through this hardship together?" Humor binds us together, lightens our burdens and helps us keep things in perspective. One of the things that saps our energy is the time, focus and effort we put into coping with life's problems including each other's limitations. Our families, our friends and our neighbors are not perfect and neither are our marriages, our kids or our in-laws. When we laugh together, it can bind us closer together instead of pulling us apart.
Remember that even in the most difficult of times, a laugh, or even simply a smile, can go a long way in helping us feel better
Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
Humor unites us, especially when we laugh together.
Laughter heals.
Laughs and smiles are enjoyed best when shared with others.
To laugh or not to laugh is your choice.
How do we bring more humor and laughter into our lives?
When we consider the inestimable benefits of humor, we want to bring as much laughter into our lives as possible. But for those who grew up in humor-deprived environments, where fun was discouraged or thought of as frivolous, finding opportunities to belly laugh at ourselves and with (not at ) others may be rare and experienced as awkward.
Fortunately, as individuals we are programmed to laugh. Think of times when others were laughing around you – and maybe you didn’t even know why – but you found yourself laughing uncontrollably with them. There are many kinds of humor and many opportunities for developing humor. We can learn to laugh more frequently by expanding our sense of humor and using it with others. Learning about the nature and variety of humorous experience helps us see that our lives abound with opportunities for finding humor and exercising laughter.
"The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because by then your body and your fat are really good friends." - Bob Hope
What characterizes humorous experience?
Humor can be described as a whole brain or whole person experience comprised of:
Wit , the cognitive experience;
Mirth, the feel good emotional experience enhanced when shared with others;
Laughter, the reflexive contagious physiological experience (though we don’t need to laugh to experience humor).
According to the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, humorous experience varies and includes the following possibilities:
Humor is an experience of surprise and incongruity. In one's environment the incongruity may be experienced when someone does something unexpected and out of the ordinary. It’s this unexpected twist that makes jokes and the captions of cartoons funny.
Humor is emotional chaos dampened down by an appreciation for the ridiculous. When life pulls the rug out from under us, we can calm and soothe and relax ourselves by focusing on ironical and absurd parts of our experience.
Humor can be experienced in the joy of "getting" it. Humor can be the understanding of something that we at first did not comprehend. For example, this type of humor occurs everyday when we laugh at misunderstandings. The joy of “getting it“ is also connected to the joy of sharing it with someone else.
Humor can be an experience of the "forbidden" (laughing in church), or "getting away with" something (often seen with children). Here, again, the element of surprise and the unexpected delight us.
Humor can help us cope with frightening, difficult, unpleasant and painful experiences. It can help buffer us from pain and fear and enable us to remain focused at difficult times.
Humor can also be a safe way to introduce ourselves to others. Shy people often use humor to connect to others and express thoughts, feelings and ideas they otherwise would keep to themselves.
What is the difference between hurtful and healthful humor?
In general, healthful humor stimulates wit, mirth, or laughter. It creates closeness and intimacy between people. Hurtful humor creates pain and distance. Often healthful humor pokes fun at oneself and situations while harmful humor pokes fun at other individuals or groups. Sarcasm, put downs, ethnic jokes, and anti jokes (anti men, women, religious groups, nationalities, ethnicity, etc) are all considered hurtful as opposed to therapeutic. "Laughing with others is an ice breaker while laughing at others is an ice maker."
How can you make sure that your humor won’t offend?
Because we want others to feel that we are laughing with and not at them, here are some suggestions for using humor safely with people. Use humor:
After another person uses humor with you.
When the situation is socially "appropriate”, humor at a party will be experienced differently than humor at a funeral.
Aimed at yourself (as opposed to humor aimed at another person.)
To poke fun at a situation rather at another person or group of persons.
How can you expand your sense of humor?
A sense of humor is developed by putting time, focus and energy into experiences that make us laugh and feel good. The tips below can help you add to your capacity for laughter.
Look for the everyday humor. Start looking for the absurd, silly, incongruous activities that go on around you each day.
Observe infants and young children to learn how to find delight and amusement in the most ordinary things.
Increase you exposure to comedies, comic sitcoms, joke books, comedy clubs, etc.
Hang around funny friends, or better yet, marry a funny partner.
Take a 5-10 minute humor break each day. Read jokes, add to a humor notebook, listen to a funny tape.
If you hear a joke you really like, write it down, or tell it to someone else to help you remember it.
Remind yourself to have fun.
Spend time with those who help you see the bright side, and, whenever possible, avoid people who are negative and dour.
Avoid conversation, news, entertainment, etc., that frightens, upsets and distresses you or makes you feel sad and unhappy.