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| SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 07.05.2023 |
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| The health benefits of laughter (shortened) |
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| By Sasha Gonzales |
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According to Michael Titze, a German psychologist and pioneer of humour therapy, intensive laughter strongly stimulates breathing, floods the skin on the head and face with blood, dilates the blood vessels and activates the tear ducts.
The heart is also stimulated as if doing strenuous physical activity, such as jogging or rowing. At the same time, the lungs are supplied with oxygen-rich blood, the digestive glands are stimulated and the diaphragm is activated so strongly that it literally jumps.
“This corresponds to an intensive massage of our internal organs, which is why we sometimes have to bend over with laughter,” Titze adds.
When we laugh, hormones called endorphins are produced in the brain that block the perception of pain and increase feelings of well-being. A state of relaxation sets in, causing blood pressure to gradually fall below its standard value, the heartbeat to slow and the muscles to loosen.
Hearty, extensive laughing has also been found to help the immune system, Titze says. For instance, the number of cells that protect against cancer and cardiovascular diseases increases; the activity and quantity of natural killer cells rise; antibodies that inhibit germs in the respiratory tract proliferate; and a higher level of an immune-modulating agent known as cytokine interferon-gamma is increasingly detectable in the blood.
Laughter also has the power to protect us from the destructive effects of negative emotions such as anxiety, anger or depression. This is because laughter brings about a change in perspective that lets us take things less seriously, says Titze, who has written several books about humour and health.
“A mentally healthy child lives a life that is far more cheerful than that of an adult,” he adds. “A statistical survey determined that preschool children laugh up to 400 times a day – at least 10 times more than adults.
“The explanation is obvious: a child’s life mirrors a playful attitude that is little influenced by those normative obligations that determine an adult’s life.”
Titze also believes that we can laugh our stress away. When we experience chronic stress it has an impact on our central nervous system, negatively affecting our respiration, cardiovascular system and musculoskeletal functioning. Laughter, especially if it is extensive and intense, may help relieve this stress reaction.
Laughter also has the power to protect us from the destructive effects of negative emotions such as anxiety, anger or depression. This is because laughter brings about a change in perspective that lets us take things less seriously, says Titze, who has written several books about humour and health.
“A mentally healthy child lives a life that is far more cheerful than that of an adult,” he adds. “A statistical survey determined that preschool children laugh up to 400 times a day – at least 10 times more than adults.
“The explanation is obvious: a child’s life mirrors a playful attitude that is little influenced by those normative obligations that determine an adult’s life.”
Preschool children laugh up to 400 times a day – at least 10 times more than adults.
Studies support the idea that laughter may reduce our risk of, or improve, certain illnesses. For instance, research by the University of Maryland Medical Centre in the US found that laughing for about 15 minutes a day can reduce the chance of suffering a heart attack.
Laughter appears to cause the inner cellular lining of the blood vessels – known as the endothelium – to expand to increase blood flow.
A 2018 study by researchers in Lebanon and Egypt found that laughter therapy is effective in delaying cardiovascular complications of type 2 diabetes.
Yet another study, published in the journal Rheumatology, discovered that laughter decreases inflammation in people with rheumatoid arthritis.
Authentic laughter has the most impact, meaning that it happens spontaneously and then takes its own way that does not follow any rules, Titze says.
“Authentic laughter is triggered by an involuntary reflex and arises in the belly. This kind of laughter is usually long-lasting.”
How do we laugh more, and more heartily? Watching a comedy and getting together with people that make us laugh are good ways to start. Titze says that once emotional well-being sets in, an authentic laugh may not be long in coming.
He adds that laughter yoga is also effective as it allows you to be loud and boisterous and to laugh without restraint.
Titze explains that authentic laughter can be triggered by one of three different “potentials” or components of a person’s neural network.
First is the motor potential, which includes breathing capacities and the activity of the vocal cords. Second is the emotional potential, which relates to feelings of exhilaration and amusement. Third is the cognitive potential, which relates to the recognition of comical or funny phenomena.
As soon as one of these components is triggered for a certain period of time, it affects the other components of the network as well, he says. “This is why a slapstick comedy not only elicits laughter but after a while also lifts the spirits.”t |
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