Laughter Improves Health Essay example Power Of Laughter Therapies Of Laughter The Physiology of Laughter Essay

1. Laughter Improves Health Essay example
Laughter is an essential human phenomenon. Smiling in response to pleasant physical conditions
occurs in early development, usually in the first month of life. As a motor reflex, laughter is
usually present by the time a child is 4 months old. By the age of eighteen months, a child smiles
once every six minutes, and by four years of age, the rate increases to one smile every one and
one–third minutes. The ratio of laughs to smiles increases from one laugh to every ten smiles as
eighteen months to one every three smile at four years. The individual differences in the rate of both
laughing and smiling become greater as the children grow older. (Stearns, 1972) The instinctual
development of smiling and laughing occurs very...show more content...
The causes of laughter can be divided into three main groups. One manifestation is laughter as a
reflex, such as due to ticking. Another is as a psychosomatic response prompted by a specific
stimulus. This is an informative stimulus such as a word, sentence, gesture, action, recollection,
situation, etc. This requires the involvement of perception, learning, and memory. This reaction may
or may not be terminated voluntarily. The third is again a psychosomatic response, but is
differentiated because it is not caused by an adequate informative stimulus and can be terminated
voluntarily.
Within this categorization, there are different types of laughter: mirthful laughter, pathological
laughter, etc. Mirthful laughter, a lesser studied, but highly interesting type will be the focus of this
discussion. A commonly held belief is that mirthful laughter and humor result in positive physical,
psychological, and social fitness. With such a expansive area of influence, it is difficult to
understand how such laughter influences the body.
Laughter in healing
Studies of the physiology of mirthful laughter, scientifically known as gelotology, are a fairly recent
phenomenon. Descriptions of convalescence through positive emotional states have renewed interest
in the healing potential of mirthful laughter. Norman Cousins' accounts of the therapeutic effects of
laughter during his treatment and recovery from ankylosing spondylitis
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2. Power Of Laughter
The Power of Laughter
Charlie Chaplin once said "A day without laughter is a day wasted." The world is full of people
who suffer from anxiety, depression, and live an unhappy life. It is sad to think that many of
people struggle with these problems. It does not help that their individuals who are willing to tear
others down. There are many negative people in this world, and sometimes it is hard to surround
yourself with those who can help build everyone up. Laughing is scientifically proven to be
beneficial to your health. Laughter can reduce stress, elevates mood, and can allow people to live
longer.
People have the tendency to build up stress and anger. They keep it inside and they are filled with
hatred. Like most people they do not want to talk about what is wrong. They will keep to themselves
until they find a way to de–stress. This is where laughing comes in. Laughter can be caused by
thinking of a funny moment or a funny person. For example; there is a girl in on the softball team
who struggles with depression. From everybody's knowledge she has always struggled with herself
confidence. This girl has many friends and family who care for her, but sometimes she cannot see
that. As her roommate we all want to be there for her, and she never opens up. Her response to
everything is laughing, so much that she gets to the point that she cries while she laughs. This
softball player is allowing herself to release the built–up tension.
This lends into the next point laughter elevates your mood. After stressed out people laugh they
go into a relaxed state.During that short time of you laughing we are not thinking about all the
tension happening around us. People can spend hours laughing about a single thing.Laughing
helps put a smile on our face, even though it might be for a short period of time. When Charlie
Chaplin said his famous quotes about laughter "A day without laughter is a day wasted." says it
all. People are willing to be grumpy and sad all day. When at the end of the day it doesn't matter. A
close friend once said "If it won't matter in five years, do not spend more than 5 minutes thinking
about it."We can all live by this quote because why would someone want to go through life thinking
about all
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3. Therapies Of Laughter
Laughter tends to spread effortlessly among people and chimps when we see it happening around
us. So why do the people around us affect our behavior? When someone laughs it's almost
impossible not to join in. There are laughing therapies that people attend because humans love to
laugh. De Waals chimps laugh during games and he can't help but expresses a laugh of his own.
Chimps join each other into the same behavior as easily as humans do. Shared laughter is one
example of primate sensitivity. The same thing happens when a person yawns, it's contagious. This
is because our bodies can't resist the urge to yawn. It's easy to catch on to someone else's behavior
such as, synchronization: running when others run, crying when others cry or yawning
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4. The Physiology of Laughter Essay
Laughter is part of everyday life for every human. Although we do it daily, most people do not know
how it works, nor how it helps us with our health. Something that we do all the time is something
that we do not even think about. We, as humans, take laughter for granted. It might come easy to us,
but laughing is actually very complex. It also helps us physically, mentally, and socially. Although,
many people do not agree on humor, we can all agree on one thing: laughter is important.
Laughter is unique movements of the face and body that are expressed due to amusement and
sometimes contempt or derision. (Websters) But do we not need more than that? Do we not deserve
to know more? Of course. Although laughter is something that we...show more content...
Whenever the voice box is closed, air cannot travel. However, when the larynx is just barely open,
it produces sound. When we hear the sweet music of laughter, is it because we breathed out while
our vocal cords were not open and with the help of our respiratory muscles, we produce the steady
sound of laughter. But, what goes on in the brain whenever we laugh?
Of course, we all know that the brain is one of our major organs and our brains are always in use,
but what goes on in the brain when we laugh? The study of laughter and the affects it has on the
body is called gelotology. Although laughter may come easy and natural to us, our body has to go
through a rather complex process. We don't know much, but researchers have done studies that have
shown that laughter is caused by many parts of the brain. These researchers have done many tests by
hooking subjects up to an electroencephalograph (EEG). An EEG is a record of the our brain's
electrical activity. (2013, Babylon) When doing these tests, researchers realized that the brain made
the same continuous electrical pattern. The subjects were then shown something that was funny. Not
even five–tenths of a second after the subject saw the joke, an electrical waved moved through the
cerebral cortex. This part of the brain, the cerebral cortex, determines intelligence, determines
personality, motor functions, planning and organization, and touch sensation. Laughter would result
after the wave
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