3520: What A Laugh. Why A Dose Of Laughter Is Still The Best Medicine by Dr. Jenny Brockis on Mental Wellbeing

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[00:01:00] This is Optimal Health Daily. What a laugh. Why a dose of laughter is still the best medicine. By Dr. Jenny Brockis of drjennybrakus.com. And I'm Dr. Neil. Hey, happy Monday and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily, where I act as your narrator of the best health and fitness blogs all for free. And don't forget we have lots of shows covering a bunch of different topics. Just search for Optimal Living Daily in any podcast app to find all of them.

[00:01:27] And with that, let's get right to today's article and start optimizing your life. What a laugh. Why a dose of laughter is still the best medicine. By Dr. Jenny Brockis of drjennybrakus.com. Laughing is good for your brain. As Woody Allen said, quote, End quote.

[00:01:56] When did you last have a good laugh? You know, one of those really good deep belly laughs where you temporarily become engulfed in an uncontrollable fit of the giggles. The one where your body is shaking helplessly in uncontrollable spasm with tears pouring down your face. Where you become helpless to think, move, or do anything until the moment is gone. And our outpouring of guffaws, snorts, or hoots has passed.

[00:02:23] And how did you feel afterwards? Relaxed? Exhausted? You are likely to be feeling happy and to have a more positive outlook on life. Laughing allows our problems and worries to not seem so big or scary anymore. Our resilience to life's challenges improves. And that's why laughter is so good for our brain. We think better, have increased memory capacity, improved focus and attentiveness,

[00:02:50] and are more positive when we include laughter in our lives. When we laugh, a variety of different areas in our brain light up in activity. In less than half a second, our logical left brain analyzes the words or situation we're exposed to. Our frontal lobes then look to organize and plan and deal with our emotional response. Then our big picture right hemisphere gets it. And finally, our sensory and motor areas become involved,

[00:03:19] processing the visual cues, and providing the outward physical response. Do you remember, or have you noticed, in school, it's those teachers who are able to engage their students with fun and excitement in their lessons that the whole learning experience becomes so much more memorable. If we are studying or working really hard, taking even a short break or time out with friends to share a laugh or joke will help us make a huge difference to our learning ability.

[00:03:46] We can focus and concentrate better, both essential prerequisites for memory. Children laugh so much more than we do as adults. Kids laugh up to 300 times a day. Adults are lucky if we manage 17 laughs a day. Where did all that fun go? What is one of the first social cues we look for in our newborn babies? That's right, their first smile. That first toothless grin is such a magic moment.

[00:04:14] And bonding infant with parent. When we hear babies and children laughing, we are more likely to laugh too. If you are feeling down or in need of cheering up, have you ever decided to find a comedy show on TV or gone to watch a funny film? Why do we choose to do this? Because we know from experience that if we do, it provides us with a temporary escape from all the other stuff in our lives that may be overwhelming us, making us sad, depressed, or anxious, and makes us feel better overall.

[00:04:45] Remember, laughter is infectious. Catch one person laughing, and the mood in the whole room will lift, and others will join in as well. It bonds people sharing the experience and improves the group's ability to communicate better with each other afterwards. Even if we don't share the same language, a shared laugh crosses all barriers. How can you bring more joy and laughter into your own life? First up, choose to do so.

[00:05:13] Look for opportunities to lighten up, maybe not take yourself so seriously, and let go. Relax. Practice smiling. Make a conscious effort to smile and acknowledge people, even if, and especially if, you're not feeling like it. Smile to the cashier at the checkout stand in the supermarket. They are sometimes in serious need of a smile. Smile at random strangers. So what if they think you're nuts? They may just think you're a happy person, and they may even smile back.

[00:05:42] And every smile you receive back will lift your mood. The next time you're up early, which will probably be tomorrow, right? Maybe taking the dog for a walk, or going to the gym, or a run. Practice smiling at people you pass. By the time you get to work, and have already exchanged smiles with half a dozen or more people, you are likely to be in a much better frame of mind to start your day. Smiles diffuse tension and anxiety. They provide support and show someone you care. It takes more muscles to smile,

[00:06:11] so give your face a workout, and smile and laugh often. Spend time with others who make you laugh, and who enjoy humor in their own lives. Sharing a joke with friends builds connections, and allows us to express our true feelings more often. There are even laughter classes now. The medical and social benefits of laughter have been recognized as being so beneficial that trained laughologists, no, really, that term exists, run classes with the purpose of reducing stress,

[00:06:41] raising energy levels, making you more positive in outlook, and strengthening your immune system. Laughter triggers the brain to release endorphins, the feel-good chemicals that help us to achieve a sense of well-being. Our levels of dopamine and serotonin increase, and our levels of cortisol decrease. The study of laughter is gelatology. Sounds to me like ice cream. I'd like two scoops of that, please, with an extra squirt of dopamine. Dr. Patch Adams in the U.S.

[00:07:10] is well-known for his use of humor and laughter as a way of helping people heal when they've been sick. Humor has been shown to reduce the amount of pain experienced by patients when recovering. Which would you rather have? A couple of painkillers or a shot of humor? Studies have shown that watching a comedy program, rather than a drama, allows our blood vessel walls to relax, increasing blood flow and oxygen flow to our brain and reducing blood pressure. And don't forget,

[00:07:39] we tend to be more attracted to people we perceive as having a good sense of humor. So, what's a simple way to be perceived as an attractive person that others would want to be with? You got it. Let go and have a good laugh. You just listened to the post titled, What a Laugh! Why a Dose of Laughter is Still the Best Medicine by Dr. Jenny Brockes of drjennybrockes.com And I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:08:08] Right now, when you buy more carpet at the Home Depot, you save more. During our Buy More, Save More event going on now, upgrade your carpeting with the top brands and save up to 15% off installed carpet projects. Installation starting at just 49 cents per square foot. Select from a wide assortment of carpet to fit your room, lifestyle and budget during the Buy More, Save More event at the Home Depot. Offer valid August 27th through September 13th, 2026. Base price for standard installations only. Excludes Traffic Master and stock carpet. For licenses, see homedepot.com slash license numbers.

[00:08:39] This episode is brought to you by Palmolive. Family time isn't just the big moments. It's weeknight dinners. Sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palmolive Ultra. Palmolive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9% of grease, leaving your dishes sparkling clean. And the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier. So you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at palmolive.com.

[00:09:09] Dr. Neil here for my commentary. When I was in graduate school, I was lucky enough to have a laughologist as one of my mentors. His research centered around how positive emotions and behaviors, like laughter, changed our immune system's response. Through his research, he actually found that laughter improved the strength of the immune system. He specifically found that laughter improved the ability of natural killer cells. These natural killer cells

[00:09:38] are believed to be important in the protection against chronic diseases, like cancer. Not only that, but as Dr. Brockis has mentioned, other studies have found that those deep belly laughs can benefit the heart. For example, one study found that those deep belly laughs can have the same effect on the heart as if you had just performed 20 minutes of cardio exercise. So it's as if laughing out loud works your heart in such a way that it's like you just went for a 20-minute walk.

[00:10:08] So today's author, Dr. Brockes, was right. Laughter is still one of the best medicines. All right, that'll do it for today. I hope you have a great start to your week. I hope you get to laugh a little today and I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits. I hope you are here today. Let's see.