Laughter’s Magic

Can we trick and change our brain chemicals to our wish?? The answer is yes.

Social laughing or even faking a smile can make this happen! Laughter can change the brain chemicals in a desired manner, which will be great for our mood enhancement and health.

“Even a Fake laughter brings amazing changes in your body” 

In order to use this boon that we have got, there are lot of research on the laughter are going on! As an alternative to various therapies to relive stress, boosting immunity, enhancing the overall mental and physical health for the old as well as the young population, laughter therapies are advised.

Two types of laughter that we are going see here are

• Spontaneous (Genuine)
• Simulated/self-induced laughter.

Spontaneous laughter also called as Duchenne laughter is triggered by a stimulus for example, by a joke or any humor. However, the stimulated laughter also called as Non-Duchenne laughter is defined as a laughter induced by oneself consciously without any stimuli, in a controlled environment.

 Do Spontaneous (Duchenne laughter) and self-induced laughter (Non-Duchenne laughter) bring different effects on the body?

Yes. According to the neuroimaging study, these two laughter uses two different neuronal pathways ^[1]

Distinction between spontaneous versus self-induced/simulated laughter remains an important area for exploring in the research field ^[3,5]

Boosting immunity, Pain tolerance level and reliving stress:

A study suggest that spontaneous laughter increases natural killer cell activity, IgM, IgG and other leukocytes which obviously have a positive effect on immunity. ^[1]

Spontaneous laughter increases the endorphin levels, high levels of CNS endorphins will be associated with an elevated pain threshold. Endorphins are a class of endogenous opioid peptides produced in the central nervous system (CNS) that functions as neurotransmitters and it also has analgesic properties. It also play a central role in social bonding. Especially Beta-endorphins helps in cushioning the human against physiological and psychological stress ^[3].

Social laughter (Duchenne):

 Spontaneous or Duchenne laughter is intensely social and contagious. The effects of social laughter are enormous than we imagine.

A study published in Journal of Neuroscience (2017), says social laughter helps in maintaining social bonding between human. Social laughter increases pleasurable sensations and triggered endogenous opioid release in thalamus, caudate nucleus, and anterior insula of the brain. ^[7]

Faking a laugh

Now we wonder what happens when we are faking a laughter and what their benefits are.

Even a physical act of laughing gives a positive physiological and chemical response to the body as in the case of Stimulated/self-induced laughter even without humor, which helps to combat the depression as effectively as spontaneous laughter. ^[3,5]

In 2018 a small study was conducted on the effect of laughter therapy in older people. It shows that laughter therapy intervention significantly reduced the systolic blood pressure and heart rate. There was also a significant increase in plasma concentration of serotonin and a significant decrease in salivary concentration of chromogranin A. So laughter therapy proves to subside the depression and improve the quality of life ^[4]

Benefits of laughing  1. Increase immunity 2. Increases Pain tolerance level 3. Reduces the psychological and physiological stress 4. Increases social bonding in human 5. Increase the sense of well being 6. Combat depression 7. Help to improve the overall health and quality of life (QOL) especially in the old age population tremendously where heavy exercises are difficult to increase endorphins

Laughter as a therapy

When we see on laughter therapy, the methods used other than humor are clapping, vocalizing laughter like sounds, dancing.

Laughter yoga is an important form of Laughter inducing therapy without using humor which are usually done in groups. They used to do clapping, laughter exercises, yoga exercises, breathing and relaxation exercises in general. ^[5]

To conclude, “Laughter is a best medicine” either if it is a Genuine or a fake, It creates a good positive effect on our body.

Reference:

1. Dexter Louie, BA, Karolina Brook, MD, and Elizabeth Frates, MD. The Laughter Prescription: A Tool for Lifestyle Medicine. Am J Lifestyle Med. 2016 Jul-Aug; 10(4): 262–267.
2. JongEun Yim, Therapeutic Benefits of Laughter in Mental Health: A Theoretical Review. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2016, 239, 243-249.
3. R. I. M. Dunbar et al. Social laughter is correlated with an elevated pain threshold. Proc. R. Soc. B (2012) 279, 1161–1167. doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.1373.
4. Yoshikawa Y, Ohmaki E, Kawahata H, et al. Beneficial effect of laughter therapy on physiological and psychological function in elders. Nursing Open. 2019; 6:93–99.
5. C. Natalie van der Wal, Robin N. Kok, et al. Laughter-inducing therapies: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Social Science & Medicine 232 (2019) 473–488.
6. Mary Payne Bennett and Cecile Lengacher. Humor and Laughter May Influence Health: III. Laughter and Health Outcomes. eCAM 2008;5(1)37–40.
7. Manninen, Lauri Tuominen, et al. Social Laughter Triggers Endogenous Opioid Release in Humans. The Journal of Neuroscience, June 21, 2017 • 37(25):6125– 6131.