Laughter Is Healthy – This Is How Happiness Affects Health

 

Laughter not only makes you happy, it also promotes health! 

Scientific studies have proven that happiness and well-being have a positive effect on physical and mental health. Eat smarter  explains why laughter is healthy.

1.Laughter Promotes A Healthy Lifestyle 

 Happy people often live healthily (1). A scientific study with more than 7,000 test subjects has found that psychological well-being leads to eating healthier. Subjects classified as happy tended to eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains than subjects classified as less happy (2). A diet rich in fruit and vegetables promotes good health and also reduces the risk of diabetes and heart disease, for example (3,4). The same study also found that the happier subjects doing 10 or more hours of physical activity per week were 33 percent more active than the comparison group (5). Regular exercise is good for your body. Physical activity increases energy, strengthens bones, reduces body fat, and lowers blood pressure (6,7,8). In addition, it has been scientifically proven that happiness and well-being lead to better sleep. A study of over 700 people found that people who said they were dissatisfied were 43 percent more likely to have sleep problems, such as frequent waking up during the night, than happy people. Healthy sleep is fundamental to focus, productivity, physical activity, and a healthy body weight (9,10,11).

2. Laughter Strengthens The Immune System  

A strong immune system keeps you healthy and fit. Scientific research shows that positive and happy people have stronger immune systems. Heavily stressed and negative people are therefore more susceptible to contracting the flu virus, for example, than happy people (12,13). Exactly why well-being strengthens the immune system has not yet been clarified. It could be due to the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, also called the stress axis. It regulates the immune system, hormones, stress, emotions, and digestion (14). Which certainly also plays a role: happy people, as described above, tend to have a healthy lifestyle, eat healthily and exercise regularly (15).

 3. Laughter Reduces Stress

If you laugh a lot and are happy, you feel less stressed. Excessive stress causes the levels of the hormone cortisol to rise in the body. Elevated cortisol levels can have a negative impact on health and is a risk factor for high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, sleep disorders and weight gain. Various studies show that happier people have lower levels of cortisol in their bodies (16,17,18). For one study, 200 test subjects had to solve tasks in the laboratory that caused them stress. It turned out that the cortisol concentration in the body after the stress test was 32 percent lower in the positive and balanced test persons than in the dissatisfied test persons (19).

4. Laughter Protects The Heart

Elevated blood pressure is the main risk factor for heart disease. Research has found that laughter and happiness can have blood pressure-lowering effects, thereby reducing the risk of heart disease ( 20Trusted Source ). A study with more than 6,500 test persons over the age of 65 showed that a positive sense of well-being reduces the risk of high blood pressure by as much as nine percent (21). Several other scientific studies also link well-being and happiness to a reduced risk of heart disease (22,23). It could be that the reduced risk of high blood pressure is also related to the fact that happy people often lead healthy lives. More research is needed to explain the blood pressure-lowering effect of happiness.

5. Laughter Can Increase Life Expectancy

 Laughter is healthy and can even prolong life. A long-term study with 32,000 test subjects examined the effect of happiness on lifespan over a period of 30 years. The study found that unhappy people have a 14 percent higher risk of dying than happy people ( 24Trusted Source ). Well-being can not only prolong the life of healthy people, but also of people who have pre-existing conditions. A review of 70 researches found an association between increased life expectancy and well-being in both healthy and ill people (25). However, there is still no explanation as to why happier people live longer. The nutrition expert Professor Dr. Eberhardt Windler recommends: "Staying mobile is part of staying young. We should move a lot, play sports, not carry too much around with us. Those who live healthy and keep a happy heart, who sleep enough and keep stress at bay have the best Opportunities to stay young on the inside."

Would you like to know how you can increase your feeling of happiness and thus do something good for your health? In the next section you will find tips for more happiness and well-being