Laughter is Good Medicine

Laughter is Good for your Health

Hopefully, one of things on your list for the year is to have more laughter in your life. Yes, life is challenging, that won’t ever change. How you manage those challenges will be telling. Another of my favorite sayings from Dr. Phil is  ”Life isn’t cured, it’s managed.”

So, managing to add a regular dose of laughter into your days will truly make a world of difference in your health.

Here are some of the effects that laughter can have on your life:

• Laughter triggers healthy physical changes in the body. Humor and laughter strengthen your immune system, boost your energy, diminish pain, and protect you from the damaging effects of stress
• Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after.
• Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease.
• Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.
• Laughter protects the heart. Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.

Here’s how I add a dose of laughter into my Wednesday’s. I watch the show Modern Family. It comes on on ABC at 9pm, and I can regular watch episodes of the show for free on my iPad anytime.

This show is hilarious. It’s not the stupid mindless canned-laughter unfunny routines you experience on other comedy shows. Although, they do get silly, Modern Family has a lot of thought behind it; a thinking persons comedy.

And, if TV doesn’t suit you, go to a live comedy show. If you ever get the chance to see comedian Sinbad in person, you are in for a treat. He will have you rolling in the aisles. His comedy shows are purposefully rated PG, but are funnier than any I’ve ever experienced.

Either way, find yourself a hearty dose of laughter, sniff it out.

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This entry was posted on January 18, 2012 at 1:03 am and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.