Is it true that laughter prolongs life?

There is a common belief that laughter prolongs life or that laughter is the best medicine. We decided to check whether laughter really has such properties.

The opinion that laughter prolongs life can be found in medical, educational And popular science resources, in glossy magazines, in federal Media. No less popular is the statement that laughter is the best medicine. About this write medical institutions, Media, popular science publications, magazines about psychology. 

In 2016, Norwegian scientists published results of a long-term study on the connection between a sense of humor and death. They asked 56 thousand men and women three questions: “Do you consider yourself a funny person?”, “Do you understand jokes?” and “Do you think jokers are irresponsible people?” After 15 years, they compared the answers given by the subjects and the cause of death of those who had already passed away by that time. It turns out that laughter actually has a positive effect on health. Cheerful women had a 73% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than those who considered themselves sad, and an 83% lower risk of dying from infections. In men, a connection was found only with infections - 74% fewer merry men died from them.

So far, scientists have not established a direct cause-and-effect relationship between laughter and diseases. Perhaps the effect observed by Norwegian scientists is due to the fact that laughter helps reduce the level of stress hormones, which in turn oppress immunity and make a person more susceptible to infections. Also stress leads and other health problems such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, eczema and others. Accordingly, laughter, by reducing stress levels, helps to cope with them. It is no coincidence that in some children's hospitals in the USA and other Western countries you can meet clowns - proventhat they help children cope with fear of hospitalization or invasive procedures. Effective and the work of clowns in nursing homes and geriatric wards.

Positive effects of laughter on the immune system (again due to stress reduction) confirmed and Taiwan University studies on adolescents. 

American Society for Experimental Biology notesthat laughter can improve memory. So, they conducted memory tests among elderly subjects. The group that watched funny videos before the tests performed better, again due to a decrease in the stress hormone cortisol.

American cardiologists noticedthat people with vascular and heart diseases laugh 40% less than their healthy peers. They also linked this to the fact that stress leads to damage to the endothelium, the protective barrier lining our blood vessels. This leads to inflammation, accumulation of fat and cholesterol in the coronary arteries, and ultimately a heart attack. Laughter helps prevent these problems. Eat research, confirming that humor therapy and laughter have a positive effect on the blood pressure of patients on hemodialysis.

Anesthetic effect of laughter note and scientists from Switzerland: it can reduce pain and increase the pain threshold by releasing endorphins and relieving muscle tension. With them agree and Oxford researchers: they found that periods of intense laughter increase resistance to pain.

Positively influences "laughter therapy" and for patients with Parkinson's disease. A 12-week study conducted by the Parkinson's Foundation found that laughter improves concentration, reduces stress and helps patients with this diagnosis interact.

Study, conducted in Japan, revealed the therapeutic effect of laughter for patients with diabetes. Scientists associate it with muscle contractions caused by laughter, which help to utilize glucose faster. It may also be due to neuroendocrine processes that prevented an increase in blood glucose levels. 

Watching clown performances helped relieve symptoms and support respiratory function in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Laughter may even increase a woman's chances of becoming pregnant after IVF: a study showed that participants in a group who were shown clown performances after the procedure became pregnant 16% more often than those who immediately went home.

Some researchers suggestthat doctors will soon prescribe “laughter therapy” for 10–15 minutes to patients. per day to improve health, as physical exercise is now recommended.

However, laughter also has side effects, so scientists claimthat everything is good in moderation. Uncontrollable intense laughter can lead to fainting, involuntary inhalation of foreign objects, urinary incontinence and other unpleasant consequences. True, in most cases, this is due to some concomitant diseases. There is even one known case of death from laughter - a woman with heart problems and schizophrenia laughed so hard that she fainted and never woke up.

Thus, there is no reliable evidence that laughter in all cases prolongs life, but many medical studies confirm that laughter has a positive effect on health, the immune system, reduces stress levels, reduces the likelihood of developing cardiovascular and some other diseases, and relieves pain. And this can really increase the duration and improve the quality of life.

Mostly true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Is it true that hugging is good for your health?
2. Norman Cousins. Anatomy of the disease through the eyes of the patient