Why laughing is so healthy
Laughing until your belly aches or you get the hiccups: it feels good and it's great for your health. In this health tip we look at the positive effects of laughter and how to build more humour into our everyday lives.
20.03.2024 | 3 minutes reading time
Author:
Content-Team SWICA
Content-Team SWICA
Laughter is a full-body workout. Laughing out loud involves over 300 muscles. Because so many muscles contract at once, laughter works like a massage, especially for the face. But it's not just the muscles that get a good workout. Laughing stimulates your entire metabolism. Your lungs take in large volumes of air, enriching the blood with plenty of oxygen. Your heart pumps the blood through the body more quickly. While you're laughing your whole system is very active.
Good for the heart
A fit of laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body's own “painkillers”. They relieve pain and help to reduce stress. The more endorphins there are in your bloodstream, the better you feel. The heart also benefits, as the relaxation of the muscles after laughing increases the volume of your blood vessels and thus lowers blood pressure.
Laughter connects people and helps build personal relationships. Laughing together strengthens the bonds between friends, family and partners.
Laughter connects people and helps build personal relationships. Laughing together strengthens the bonds between friends, family and partners.
More humour in everyday life
So laughter is very healthy for body and soul. But how can we build more humour and occasions for laughter into our stressful, often humourless everyday lives?
- Try building more social contact into your everyday life. For example, you could meet a friend for lunch and forget all your stress and worries over a chat and a good laugh.
- Podcasts: You'll find comedy podcasts wherever you look. Whoever you are, there's sure to be something that makes you laugh.
- Social media are also a gold mine of humorous content. There are countless memes and funny videos everywhere.
- Keep a humour diary: Gratitude diaries are already very popular and valued. You can apply the same principle to funny moments in your everyday life. If you make a note of three moments a day when you laughed, you'll pay more attention to humorous situations in everyday life in the future and notice them more.
- Try laughter therapy. This is group therapy where participants bond by laughing together and get important tips for more humour in everyday life.
- By the way, the body can't really tell the difference between genuine and artificial laughter. So you'll benefit even if you simply pretend to laugh.
How much do Swiss people laugh?
The market and opinion research institute Marketagent Switzerland conducted an online survey to find out how the Swiss perceive humour. Evelyne Mauch, a neurologist and senior doctor at santé24, has summarised the survey findings here.Health-promoting courses and treatments
It's important to find a balance to the stresses and strains of everyday life and boost your own wellbeing. SWICA supports regular efforts in this regard with generous contributions to over 100 courses and treatments.Psychological/psychiatric counselling and online self-help training
Are you worried or anxious and struggling with mental stress? SWICA customers are entitled to psychological/psychiatric counselling. For some symptoms, the experts at the santé24 telemedicine service can offer online self-help training. These sessions provide support in coping with psychological symptoms such as stress and depressive symptoms.In the event of further health-related questions, SWICA customers can contact the santé24 telemedicine service free of charge on +41 44 404 86 86. A telemedicine practice licence allows santé24 physicians to provide additional medical services in cases that are suited to a telemedicine approach. SWICA customers can also use the BENECURA medical app to carry out a digital SymptomCheck and receive recommendations about what to do next. During a subsequent phone call with santé24, customers can decide for themselves whether to release their information from SymptomCheck to santé24.
