One of the best feelings in the world is the deep-rooted belly laugh. It can bring people together and establish amazing connections. Everything from a slight giggle to a side-splitting guffaw can change the temperature of a room from chilly unfamiliarity to a warm family-like atmosphere.
1: It Boosts the Immune System
One of the best reasons to start laughing has to do with your immune system. Perhaps laughter will one day join the ranks of immune-boosting staples like multivitamins and antibacterial hand soap. Decreasing stress hormones, improving circulation and oxygen intake, and releasing negative emotions can boost your immunological responses and keep you healthy.
For example, laughter has been shown to increase levels of salivary immunoglobulin A (IgA), an important antibody that fights bacteria and infections, especially those in the respiratory system [sources: Brain, Pattillo and Itano].
2: It Energizes Organs
As we mentioned earlier, laughter improves blood flow, suppresses stress hormones and gives you a burst of exercise. In other words, laughter sends a wake-up call to the heart, brain and lungs and stimulates these organs into action.
For example, let's take the lungs. Remember when you watched "The Aristocrats" for the first time? You could barely catch your breath because of all your chuckling (and eventual snorting). This change in normal breathing patterns eventually can lead to coughing or hiccupping, which helps to loosen mucus and clear airways [source: Brain].
3: It Reduces Aggression
Your friends Mark and Mandy just ended their relationship, and all three of you are going to dinner for the first time since the big breakup. The tension at the table is undeniable, so you do the first thing that pops into your mind: Tell a joke.
Laughter is the hypothetical knife that cuts tension from a room, allowing you to relax. You become calmer and less aggressive, which may help you form clearer perspectives about what's actually going on around you. In one study, students who watched a funny video in their classroom responded with lower levels of aggression in tense situations [source: Recker].
4: It Boosts Your Social Skills
There's a reason why when you laugh, the world laughs with you, but when you weep, you weep all by yourself. That's because no one wants to hang around with a Debbie Downer who has nothing positive to say. Finding the humor in life and being able to laugh at it will only improve your social skills.
Many scientists believe laughter allows humans to connect, bond and communicate with each other. The more comfortable you feel with someone else, the easier it becomes to laugh. In fact, leading researchers believe people are 30 times more likely to laugh in social settings than if they were alone [sources: Brain, Recker].
5: It Manages Pain
Laughter may be one of the best natural pain relievers around -- it's effective, free and available everywhere. You don't even need a prescription!
OK, so the idea of laughing hysterically might not pop into your head if you've just fallen off the roof or accidentally sliced your hand open, but it can help. Laughter eases fear and anger, allowing us to deal better with a bad situation. Also, it may increase our tolerance for pain by releasing endorphins (peptides that offer a feeling of well-being and help with pain management) [source: Pattillo and Itano].
6: It Impacts Blood Sugar Levels
When you get a case of the giggles, your doctor may thank you. That's because in a few small studies, researchers discovered that laughing may positively affect blood glucose (sugar) levels.
7: It Provides a Burst of Exercise
The next time you're at the gym, don't be afraid to chuckle at the person wearing a leotard circa 1983. After you've made sure the '80s exerciser can't hear you, release the giggles -- laughter can offer a burst of aerobic exercise.
According to researchers, laughing 100 times is equivalent to 10 minutes on a rowing machine or 15 minutes on the stationary bicycle [source: Godfrey]. And the best part is that you don't need to break a sweat in order to have really good laugh!
8: It Improves Blood Pressure and Flow
When it comes to cardiac health, seriousness may be, well, as serious as a heart attack. That's because laughter has been shown to lower or balance blood pressure and increasevascular blood flow [sources: Brain, Pattillo and Itano]. By reviving blood circulation and increasing oxygenation of the blood, laughter may be a powerful ally in the fight against heart disease.
9: It Helps Coping Skills
Life is out of our control, and that feeling of helplessness can be very scary and stressful. A negative prognosis, the loss of a job and even a breakdown on the highway are sudden, and usually unwelcome, events that we rarely can prepare for. Laughter is a good way to cope with life's unexpected curveballs and help us get over the shock.
Though we can't control what happens in life, we can control the way we react to these events. Responding with laughter can protect the mind, body and spirit and put other people at ease. A bleak situation, such as a death in the family, doesn't seem as daunting or hopeless when there's laughter in the room.
10: It Decreases Stress
It's hard to worry about that big test after seeing your cousin fall head first into the cream pie on your kitchen counter. While you roll on the floor in hysterics, the only thing you're stressed about is what's for dessert.
