The Real Reason Doctors Are Taking Laughter More Seriously

The adage that "laughter is the best medicine" has been around for ages, but, unlike other quirky medical concepts from the past, it's actually rooted in truth. Laughter, it appears, is no laughing matter from the standpoint of one's health. It can help with reducing stress levels, boosting energy levels, and pulling your mind away from distressing emotions like anxiety or anger. That's not just anecdotal evidence talking either, as research has backed these arguments up. A study published in PLOS One in 2023 had over 300 participants watch comedic videos and take part in laughter therapy, and found that a single bout of laughter could reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol by as much as 36%. What a relief!

More surprising is the profound effect of laughter on physical health. Humor aside, just the physical act of laughing is good for you. It relaxes your muscles and causes your blood vessels to dilate, increasing blood flow, which in turn boosts your immune system and helps to protect against heart disease. This is similar to the effect of physical exercise, albeit on a smaller scale. There's some evidence that laughing can even improve our pain tolerance, with a study published in the aptly-named journal, Pain, all the way back in 1998 indicating that people were more resilient to cold pressure pain when they had just watched a funny movie. All of this evidence points to a vital role of laughter in our lives, and that could be as old as humanity itself.

We tend to think of emotions as uniquely human traits, but just as we are not the only species that cries, we are not the only ones that laugh either. Dozens of other animals laugh, from our closest biological relative, the chimpanzee, to species as disparate as parrots and rats (which, it turns out, are quite ticklish). This suggests that laughter is a sound with ancient roots across several taxonomic families. Even the way in which we produce laughter, through rapid contractions of our lungs, is a very primitive means of making sound, distinct from the vocalizations that form the many different human languages. It is possible that our ancient ancestors were laughing before they even resembled what we now call human beings. The fact that laughter appears to be so primitive indicates an enduring purpose in our lives.

The physical and mental benefits of laughter have served humans and their ancestors, primarily through stress relief. However, laughter's most consequential aspect may be through the social interactions that lie at the core of the human identity. It connects us to others, helps to facilitate communication, and puts us at ease around others by reducing our cortisol levels and relaxing our muscles. It's no coincidence that laughter is one of the most attractive traits a person can have in many people's eyes. So deep down, even before we had studies to back it up, we've known that laughter is vital for our wellbeing.