"Laughter is the best medicine!" That phrase has been in play for as long as anyone can remember, but does laughter really have an effect on the way you feel? Research shows that laughter is truly a form of medicine because it decreases stress, and can be a great pain reliever. Among other physical things laughter also helps to strengthen the immune system.

Laughter as a form of expression can decrease stress in a few different ways, this is not to say that a good belly laugh will solve all your problems, but it might make things a little bit easier to deal with. When you are stressed out there are hormones that suppress parts of our immune systems. One of these hormones is cortisol, also commonly known as the stress hormone. Cortisol like this, it is fine for your body in relatively small doses, but when the release of this hormone doesn’t stop it can cause problems. Experts believe too much cortisol can not only suppress the immune system, making it easier for you to get sick, but it also can increase your blood pressure and sugar, decrease libido, produce acne, and contribute to obesity. Studies have shown that these hormones show a trend of decreasing during or after fits of laughter. After a burst of laughter, there is a decrease in the level of stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine which are immunosuppressive and become elevated in the response to stress. This is the physical way of decreasing stress, but mentally laughter helps decrease stress as well.

Laughter is a coping method in some stressful situations. The Cancer Treatment Centers of America use laughter to help their patients. Laughter therapy, is the used of humor to promote overall health and wellness. It aims to use the natural physiological process of laughter to help relieve physical or emotional stresses or discomfort. If you can get yourself together for a minute and allow yourself to laugh you have taught yourself a good way to cope. Laughing for ten minutes can make you feel better for the rest of the day.

Along these lines, laughter can also help to lower levels of aggression. In a study done by Ohio State University in 2007, some students in classrooms were shown a video meant to be funny. Later they put all the students in a stressful and aggravating situation and surveyed them on how they felt. The ones that had seen the video has lower scores on the survey for aggression.

Have you ever fallen or hurt yourself and started to laugh uncontrollably? In some cases, it's a natural reaction. When we laugh there is a chemical released in our brains that is a stress and pain reliever. As you laugh these things called endorphins are released into our systems. Endorphins can be broken down like this; chemicals in the brain that are released to help lower our perception of pain, similar to drugs like morphine, the only difference is that endorphins do not have possible addictive qualities.

Laughing has also been proven to have a good physical effect on our bodies. During a study conducted at the University of Maryland it was discovered that laughter can help balance blood pressure. In the study, volunteers were split into two groups, after having their blood pressure taken they were show clips of movies. One group was shown clips from “Saving Private Ryan”, the other group was shown funny clips. The group that was shown the funny clips showed a thirty-five percent decrease in mental stress and an increase of twenty-two percent in their blood flow. The volunteers that were shown “Saving Private Ryan” were shown to have a decrease in their blood flow.

A commonly used phrase in medicine is an apple a day keeps the doctor away however, an even better phrase would be laughter every day keeps the doctor away. Laughter helps our bodies in so many ways, but it all really boils down to one thing, our immune system. Laughter has been proven to boost the levels of immunoglobulin A, which is a vital antibody that helps to fight sickness. Antibodies are proteins produced by our bodies to help fight off the bad things that can get into our bodies. These bad substances are called antigens, they can take the form of things like bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses. White blood cells have also been shown to respond positively to laughter.

Laughing is one of the easiest ways to better yourself. There are so many benefits to laughing daily. Happier people who tend to laugh more are healthier on so many levels, their physical and mental wellbeing is at its peak. Every time you laugh it’s impacting your day in a positive way, boosting your energy, lowering your blood pressure, and decreasing your stress. The effects of laughter on mental and physical wellbeing help to equip everyday people to keep themselves healthy just by laughing.