Why we laugh

Why we laugh

Let's Laugh Day, is a celebration of my favourite thing in the world.  I love it when people make me laugh!    

   Especially when it is one of those times it sets off some kind of trigger that goes to the next level, making it hilarious and tears start running down my cheeks and I can't speak for a couple of minutes.  You know those moments I am referring to, too right? ;-)

   Let’s Laugh Day is a 24-hour joke-fest where we celebrate the uniting force of laughter on the 19th of March.   According to some, laughter has many positive effects on health; It can stimulate many organs, enhance your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulate your heart, lungs and muscles, and increase the endorphins that are released by your brain.

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  Each year on Let’s Laugh Day, it's a fun reminder to keep things light added with a little humour. Laughter is, after all, the best medicine, and it is just what the doctor prescribed for today and every day. Studies have shown that laughter is a stress reliever, the unique brain chemistry that comes from laughter can also boost your immune system!

   Communities around the world practise comedy regularly to enhance wellness and general well-being.  ‘Laughter Yoga’ is now quite a popular activity, in which muscles of the face, abdomen, and lungs are engaged using laughter as the core exercise. 

   Where frowns cause wrinkles, laughing creates cute crinkles (I call them living life laugh lines), that are good for the muscles. Laughter also releases endorphins and lowers the stress hormone, cortisol, in the body. 

   Jokes have long been the best way to provide comic relief. The world’s oldest joke can be traced back to 1900 B.C. Laughing can also be contagious. This is why laugh tracks were added to television shows in 1950 to cue when the audience is supposed to laugh and to indicate when a comedic scene happens. 

Did you know…..
* The science and study of laughter and its effects is called Gelotology.

* Laughter is contagious, the likelihood of people laughing in a group is 30 times more. 

* Babies laugh 300 times a day, ages 5-6 is when we laugh the most.

* Laughing reduces the chances of getting sick, it releases a hormone called HGH, which strengthens the immune system and fights germs.

* Laughter is great exercise.  Laughing for just 10 minutes burns approximately 50 calories.

* Charles Darwin noted tickling and laughing as a form of bonding in the 19th Century. 

* You can’t tickle yourself, because there is no element of surprise. Your brain anticipates the tickling and therefore, you don’t feel ticklish when you tickle yourself.

* Fifteen percent of the population has Gelotophobia — the fear of laughter.

* In 1962 a laughter pandemic broke out in Tanzania. 

Now you know :-) 



Souce: National Today




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