by Xypher Pino

Laugher is the best medicine – this is a phrase which I am sure all of us have heard before, but how scientifically correct is this statement? Though laughing cannot cure any life-threatening diseases nor even ease the symptoms of a mere cold, there are many beneficial physical and neurological processes that occur within our body when we experience amusement. In this article, we will discuss what occurs in the body during laughter and how laughing, though it cannot directly save your life, can lead to many health benefits and improved overall wellness.  

To start off, what happens in our brain when we find something funny or amusing? When we laugh, the frontal lobe immediately goes to work. The frontal lobe does most of the cognitive, emotional, inhibitory and social processing for us – we are able to comprehend jokes, determine facial expressions and tone, determine the appropriateness of situations and recognize social cues because of the frontal lobe.   

In addition to the frontal lobe, the limbic system, specifically the amygdala and the hippocampus, also plays a significant role with laughter. The amygdala is responsible for evaluating the emotional significance of all stimuli and generating the appropriate response and the hippocampus is involved in memory formation and retrieval. In the context of laughter, we laugh at funny things because our amygdala tells us what is funny and what is not, while the hippocampus aids in laughter by recognizing patterns of humor and recalling funny experiences and jokes that we have encountered before.  

The brain is not the only part of the nervous system that is stimulated during laughter. There are many involuntary bodily actions that occur within our body when we laugh, and it involves a short-lived activation of the sympathetic nervous system, or the “fight-or-flight” system, followed by an immediate relieve of the system by its counterpart, the parasympathetic nervous system, or the “rest-and-digest” system. The sympathetic nervous system causes heart rate, blood pressure and respiration rate to increase during laughter. At first glance, it might seem like laughter can have many negative side effects, but thanks to the parasympathetic nervous system’s immediate release of endorphins, our body quickly experiences pleasure and relaxation right after laughing.  

Endorphins are neurotransmitters involved in reducing pain perception and creating positive moods. These “feel-good” neurotransmitters are released when performing pleasurable activities such as exercise, eating and of course, laughter. Endorphin release leads to relaxation and the decrease of stress hormone levels in the body. Because of this fact, we can actually credit laughter in being able to boost the immune system – studies have shown that higher endorphin levels and lower stress hormone levels enables the body to make more immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, increasing our resistance to disease.    

There is more to laughing than mental pleasure. As we covered in this article, there are many complex processes that occur within our bodies during laughter, and numerous health benefits may arise from the act of laughing. The next time you hear a funny joke, keep the physiological benefits of laughter in mind and make sure you laugh extra hard!