Can Laughter Boost Hgh Production?

Laughter Has a Healing Power All Its Own

Laughter has always been considered something somewhat mystical. It is deeply ingrained in our evolutionary psychology, and humans have spent centuries, or even millennia, attempting to understand it fully.

Many have believed in the healing power of laughter. Audrey Hepburn said I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most is laughing. It cures a multitude of ills. It's probably the most crucial thing in a person.

Are the Benefits of Laughter Simply a Placebo?

Although it may be easy to believe that the positive benefits of laughter are the result of a significant placebo effect, in recent decades, scientists have discovered several physiological and psychological benefits that prove that laughter is more than just a sugar pill for the brain.

Hale Dwoskin: Unlocking the Power of Laughter

One path to unlocking the ultimate benefits of laughter was designed by a man named Hale Dwoskin, inventor of what is known as The Sedona Method.

Dwoskin wrote the best-selling book, The Sedona Method, and was featured in the movie Letting Go, educating the protagonist about the powers of freeing the mind. One of the primary features of The Sedona Method revolves around unlocking the power of laughter to maximize both mental and physical health.

Hale Dwoskin explains that laughter can offer these powerful benefits without costing you a dime. A life full of laughter is a happy and relaxing way to boost well-being and health.

Many in the past have believed that laughter was simply a placebo: It is simply an expression of joy that reinforces itself through its expression. Research has provided reams of evidence to the contrary.

Laughter Produces Real Benefits

There is a compelling indication that the physical process of laughing elicits actual physiological benefits to both mind and body (and to the soul, but no study could prove that benefit!).

Although there is still so much that we don't understand about what it is to laugh, we have been able to record and monitor the physical changes in the body resulting from laughter.

Laughter and the Heart

Many of the benefits of laughter are for the cardiovascular system. Laughter has been shown to induce healthy blood pressure, actually causing the heart rate to increase.

Although this increase is not as high as achieved during physical exercise, these brief bursts of intensity are physiologically beneficial to cardiovascular health, encouraging healthier blood pressure throughout the day.

Laughter also speeds up the rate of breathing to compensate for increased energy consumption. This increase in air flow helps oxygen reach more deep tissues, feeding the body and promoting excellent health by providing disparate tissues with one of the key ingredients to support their normal daily function.

Laughter also provides certain benefits that have also been associated with the process of yoga. Laughter is a physiological reaction that encourages relaxation. The process of laughter causes numerous muscles to release their energy, so much so that they can relieve tension in the neck and shoulder muscles. This form of relaxation further encourages blood to flow freely through the body.

Emotional health feeds on these various physical changes as well.

Total oxygenation and physical feelings of relaxation play a vital role in maintaining a positive mental state that broadens your point of view and

suppresses feelings associated with negative attitudes. It simply leads to a more easy-going state of mind.

Laughter is an Evolutionary Health Adaptation

Dwoskin goes on to explain that laughter produces these fantastic benefits because of the way that we are designed as human beings. In social interaction, laughter is a form of release.

It relieves the tensions in social situations. It's the best Ice Breaker around. Scientific evidence shows that the physiological benefits of laughter actually mirror the social and interpersonal benefits of the action. Laughter is a sign to the people around you that everything is okay and there is no reason to be worried.

Inside of our bodies, the process of laughter actually changes our internal chemistry, removing from our bodies the anxiety and intensity of the Fight-or-Flight state of mind. Laughter is a social code processed by the body, putting it at ease.

Laughter is a natural relief valve, both socially and physiologically, that loosens us up in every sense of the word.

University of Maryland Laughter Study

The physical action of laughing is one of the simplest and most basic ways to let go of our worries and simply put our bodies at ease. Health scientists have discovered that laughter actually shares many benefits with exercise! In one clinical study initiated by the U. Maryland Med School of Baltimore, laughter was shown to impact the body's physical ability to relax all the way down to the blood vessels.

The physical act of laughing encourages the blood vessels to dilate easier and more often.

Vasoconstriction is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular complications such as stroke and heart attack because tightened blood vessels exacerbate the adverse effects of plaque within the arteries and can block blood flow to the body in severe circumstances.

In addition, increased blood pressure and decreased blood vessel volume make it more likely that chunks of plaque break off and clog vital blood pathways in the brain, heart, or anywhere else in the body.

In the U. Maryland study, participants monitored their circulation while watching a comedic movie. Researchers discovered that blood circulation increased significantly at a rate of twenty-two percent in all but one of the twenty subjects!

This level of increase is no small feat, and researchers explained that the increase in blood flow encouraged by laughter in this situation produced a benefit that would be the veritable equivalent of fifteen to thirty minutes of exercise!

American Heart Association Laughter Study

These aren't the only ways that laughter encourages better health. As a result of research funded by the American Heart Association, it was discovered that men and women suffering from heart disease were significantly less likely to turn to laughter as a form of physiological release.

Participants were displayed several amusing situations which were intended to encourage them to laugh. Individuals with heart disease laughed forty percent less often than their healthier counterparts.

Laughter and Endorphins

In addition to this additional benefit associated with the cardiovascular system, laughter has been shown to encourage the release of beneficial hormones within the brain. When we laugh, our bodies pump out endorphins at high rates. Endorphins serve two primary functions. Endorphins are chemicals that induce feelings of pleasure but also function as potent painkillers.

Endorphins usually fire off rapidly when we experience pain to dull pain and preserve our ability to make decisions and take action.

It has long been hypothesized that laughter naturally can help us forget about pain, but the research of this kind actually shows that laughter cures both physical and emotional pain as a result of chemical processes within our brain!

This rush of endorphins is one of the reasons why it is believed that laughter helps us feel better, inducing a state of elevated well-being.

Endorphins are also associated with other physiologically beneficial acts in our lives. Endorphins are what make the Runners High of exercise encourage us to take care of our sexual health. Also, when we have an orgasm, a cocktail of endorphins explodes within our minds.

In all three of these cases, sex, exercise, and laughter stress levels have evaporated as a result.

Laughter and Human Growth Hormone

Laughing has also been shown to have a beneficial effect on Human Growth Hormone Production. It has long been believed that people who can laugh live longer lives than those who have stern mannerisms and outlooks.

Human Growth Hormone is one of the primary hormones associated with youth and vitality, and as HGH levels decline, we begin to age more rapidly.

As a result of this correlation between laughter and HGH, the physical act of laughing may actually be one of the most potent and natural ways to maintain physical and mental youth.

We primarily produce Human Growth Hormone during two periods. HGH is released at its highest levels while we are in deep sleep, and HGH pulses into the bloodstream directly due to physical exertion. As we explained earlier, laughter can imitate the physical changes that occur during exercise, including how our body utilizes natural Human Growth Hormone.

In a way, laughter and exercise are functionally equivalent as our pituitary gland is concerned, and the pituitary gland is the organ responsible for the healthy release of HGH into the bloodstream. Laughter really is a fantastic thing. A recent study even revealed that imagining laughter can boost the body's production of both HGH and powerful endorphins.

Loma Linda HGH Study

A study funded by Loma Linda University and by Lee S. Berk showed that simply priming an individual for laughter could boost the release of both endorphins and Growth Hormone. Expecting to watch a comedic film, HGH levels increased by 87%, and beta-endorphins increased by 27%.

The sharp increase in Growth Hormone Production is a function of how the hormone works. HGH is released in sharp, bright pulses by the pituitary, and the researchers were actually able to catch one of these pulses as the Human Growth Hormone circulated through the body to the liver and other process points.

Laughter is Important to Health

The body of scientific research mirrors what we have known in our hearts for our entire lives. Everyone needs to experience laughter. Although we are scientifically capturing the benefits of laughter, we are also realizing that adults need to infuse far more laughter and amusement into their lives. Researchers have discovered that kids laugh as often as one hundred times a day.

Many grown-ups only laugh five or six times per day. As we discussed earlier, people who forget how to laugh pay for it with their hearts as they grow older, so we in America need to teach ourselves that it's okay to laugh. Laughter brings out the childish heart within each and every one of us, both figuratively and literally.

Although we recognize that this adult world that we live in often prohibits laughter, we encourage you to go out and seek it wherever it may hide. Your body and brain will thank you for it. The goal of Dwoskin's Sedona Method is to imitate the process of laughter to increase the benefits to the body associated with laughter, but Dwoskin also says that the actual process of amusement and laughing elicits the same benefits conferred by utilizing The Sedona Method.

If laughter is just as good as The Sedona Method, why not just laugh?

The Sedona Method is excellent for those periods where you just can't laugh. The Method is actually a process of powerful introspection. This introspection aims not to dwell upon your inner concerns and thoughts but to recognize them and dissociate them from your psychological health to increase your peace of mind.

The Sedona Method is literally the method of letting go. It's taking all the things that make the seas within your mind tumultuous and casting them temporarily aside to focus on your sense of inner peace and well-being.

The Sedona Method aims to capture the benefits of laughter and condense them so that you can benefit from them even when you are circumstantially or emotionally incapable or not socially expected to laugh.

Laugh Often, Laugh Loudly

Laughter really is a beautiful and wonderful thing, and we encourage you to laugh as much and as often as possible. It will make you both happier and healthier. Laughter has been a part of our psyche and physiological response to the world for as long as mankind has existed.

There is even evidence that it existed long before man came to be. Numerous species emulate that same process of laughter that we engage in ourselves.

Laughter brings us together and helps us take down the borders that prevent us from engaging with ourselves and others in honesty and joy. Take time every day to remember how to laugh. Your body will thank you, and you'll be happier for it!

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