World Health Day 2022: Amazing Health Benefits Of Laughter Yoga And How To Perform It

Every year on 7 April, World Health Day is celebrated. The day commemorates the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the year 1948 and increasing awareness about the importance of global health.

Laughter yoga has a great therapeutic value; Laughter is a basic emotion that involves the contraction of various muscles, repetitive vocal sounds and facial expressions.

Among five different types of laughter (genuine, stimulated, self-induced, induced and pathological), laughter yoga is considered to be a simulated or self-induced type that is done voluntarily. Laughter yoga helps trick the brain and helps provide benefits similar to genuine laughter. [1]

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According to a study, laughter has many psychological, physiological, spiritual and social benefits that help human beings in many ways and improve their quality of life. [2]

In this article, we will discuss the benefits of laughter yoga. Take a look.

How To Perform Laughter Yoga?

• Start by clapping as a warm-up exercise.
• Continue clapping and rotating the hands in all directions like up, down and to the sides.
• Now take a deep breath by placing hands on the diaphragm area.
• Then slowly start with a smile, then giggle and then laugh, gradually increasing the intensity of the laugh.
• Now lift the arms and laugh heartily, followed by moving the hands down and stopping.
• Repeat the process for a minimum of 30 minutes.

Health Benefits Of Laughter Yoga

1. Increase intake of oxygen

According to a study, laughter yoga is one of the various strategies suggested by experts for good health in older adults. This is because it may help increase the respiratory rate while lowering the blood pressure simultaneously. Laughter yoga allows us to take deep breaths and hence, increases oxygen intake. [3]

2. Makes us happy

Laughter yoga helps decrease the release of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, thus indicating to the brain that the stress is resolved. On the other hand, it helps increase the levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin that helps regulate the mood, makes us calm and makes us happy. [4]

3. Helps improve gastrointestinal symptoms

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common and chronic stomach-related disorder, often leading people to depression and anxiety. According to a study, laughter yoga is more effective compared to anti-anxiety drugs. It helps reduce gastrointestinal symptoms such as stomach pain, excess gas and diarrhoea in patients with IBS, along with common treatment methods and thus, improve the condition. [5]

4. May benefit mental health

Depression is one of the common and serious mental health disorders that highly affects the quality of life. A study has shown that laughter yoga can help improve depressive symptoms in a short period when carried out regularly. [6] Another study says that humorous or comic movies can help schizophrenia patients in improving their levels of anxiety, mood, anger, depression and social competence. [7]

5. Lowers blood pressure

Self-induced laughter can significantly cause a greater drop in systolic blood pressure, says a study. Laughter helps relax a person by lowering their stress hormones, which in turn, lower the blood pressure to a great extent. However, it is suggested to not laugh during blood pressure measurement as the results shown may seem to be high. [8]

6. Good for heart

Laughter yoga has a great role in improving heart functions. A study has shown that This says that laughter may help prevent the risk of heart diseases like stroke. It also says that people diagnosed with heart diseases were those who seem to laugh less. They also do not have a history of heart diseases. The mechanism between heart diseases and laughter needs further study. [9]

7. Reduces the risk of dementia

Laughter yoga can be a good complementary and alternative medicine for patients with dementia, a study highlights. It says that laughter and humour therapy can positively affect people with dementia and may improve their quality of life in the long run. Dementia is characterised as a loss of cognitive functions like memory and thinking abilities. [10]

8. Treats insomnia

Laughter yoga has a great effect on sleep quality. A study has shown that laughter therapy can help improve the quality of sleep in the elderly and treat related problems like insomnia. It is also considered to be a cost-effective, useful and easily-accessible form of treatment in the management of the condition. [11]

9. May lower blood glucose levels

Laughter yoga is approached for the treatment of many chronic diseases, preferably as a complementary treatment. This is because it is considered to be a low-intensity and safe physical activity. A study talks about the inhibitory effect of laughter yoga. It says that laughing can help lower the post-meal glucose hike in patients with type 2 diabetes and thus, improve their condition. [12]

10. Relieves pain

Though the link between laughter yoga and pain relief is not much established, many studies do say that laughing has a promising effect on the pain emotion and may help relieve it. This could be because laughing helps release endorphins in the body which acts as a natural pain killer. [13]

11. Boost immunity

A study talks about the immunological improvement in patients undergoing cancer treatment due to laughter therapy. According to the study, patients with cancer or those undergoing cancer treatment such as chemotherapy have lower immunity, and laughter can help these patients in the treatment by improving their immunity levels. Laughing is considered to be a natural treatment with no side effects. [14]

To Conclude

People often say "Laughter is the best medicine". Practise laughter yoga daily or make habits of laughing daily to get its many health benefits.