Work On Your Funny Bone To Live Longer

Good dose of laughter has great benefits for your body.

- Shalan Savur

According to doctors, For every 5 minutes you laugh, you add 15 days to your lifetime.

Sharing a good laugh is fun, but did you know it can improve your health?

Laughter is a normal and natural physiological response to certain stimuli with widely accepted psychological benefits. Current research indicates that laughter has quantitative positive physiological benefits as well.

What is laughter, after all?

It is a reflex that sets your diaphragm going. It makes your respiratory muscles expand and contract rapidly, enhancing your breathing apparatus and revving up your circulation. The expansion and contraction increase the chest cavity and the lungs inhale more oxygen while expelling more carbon dioxide simultaneously.

As soon as this happens, a chain reaction is triggered off in your body, say fitness and health experts. It produces adrenalin, the 'arousal hormone' that awakens your senses. Simultaneously, your heartbeats quicken and your pupils dilate.

Due to this positive stress on your heart, the heart pumps a greater amount of blood through your arteries and draws in more of it through your veins. That is why your face gets flushed.

Moreover, the adrenalin thus activated causes your pituitary glands to release ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone) which, in turn, stimulates the adrenal cortex to secrete cortisol. This has anti-inflammatory properties and is especially useful for people suffering from arthritis.

Dr. Lee Burke and Dr. Stanley Tan at Loma Linda University in California researched the benefits of laughter.

Their research has shown that the health benefits of laughter are farreaching. Studies so far have shown that laughter can help relieve pain, bring more pleasure, and even boost immunity.