The old cliché “Laughter is the best medicine” seems to hold true, inspiring endless initiatives.
The old cliché “Laughter is the best medicine” seems to be true and has inspired countless initiatives to improve people’s lives, including laughter yoga or laughter therapy clubs!
Laughter yoga is based on the belief that purposeful laughter provides the same benefits to the body as spontaneous laughter. Laughter yoga, on the other hand, is done in groups, with eye contact and playfulness between participants, and purposeful laughter quickly turns into real and contagious laughter.
According to British yoga teacher Clive St James, laughter can change your life, even if it’s not spontaneous.
Laughter releases endorphins, hormones known as “happy hormones,” and reduces stress hormones, he says.
“It makes you stronger. Have fun while exercising. Once you master the basic skills, you can change someone’s life,” she says of laughter yoga, which of course includes all the traditional stretching exercises.
Although laughter therapy has been used for decades, laughter yoga was started in 1995 by Dr. Madan Kataria, a physician in Mumbai, India.
After a series of tests, he discovered that our brain cannot distinguish between fake and real laughter.
“The brain doesn’t actually know the difference between laughing or pretending to laugh,” says Mr St James.
“If someone tells you a joke, you have to decide if it’s funny, if you’ve heard it before, or if it makes you sad. “But if you laugh for no reason, you still get your daily dose of those wonderful endorphins,” she said.
A study presented at the 2023 Congress of the European Society of Cardiology and which Accepted by the British Heart Foundation (BHF).found that laughter therapy is good for the heart and circulation.
Their study showed that people with coronary heart disease who regularly watched comedy shows had advantages for the heart and circulatory system compared to those who watched serious documentaries. This was the first randomized clinical trial to study the effects of laughter in people with coronary heart disease, a leading cause of heart attack.
How laughter helps the heart and blood circulation
The results showed that laughter therapy led to improvements in heart and blood circulation: arteries became more dilated, oxygen flow to the body increased, and inflammatory markers in the blood, which help predict the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke, calmed down.
Although this is a relatively small study, other studies have shown the positive effects of laughter on the body. Laughter, as mentioned above, releases endorphins, helps you breathe more oxygen and reduces stress hormones, lowers heart rate and blood pressure, and causes muscle relaxation.
In addition, humor helps in difficult times
“When faced with absurdly difficult situations, we can see that our brain uses humor to process what seems implausible to it. Laughter in these situations connects people and is an example of how our brains digest and make sense of something that is really quite confusing and difficult through laughter,” says Carla Croft, Consultant Clinical Psychologist at Barts Health NHS Trust. If someone isn’t in the mood to laugh, saying that trying to force her to laugh might not be helpful, but trying to make her laugh can create warm feelings and a positive mood.
“We shouldn’t expect people with life-changing diagnoses or pain to laugh all the time,” she warns. “But it can reduce feelings of anger and frustration. It can reduce pain and evoke feelings of hope. Laughter is a universally positive experience. So if it feels right, it’s a really healthy thing.”