THE BEANBAG PSYCHOLOGIST 10
The Funny Work-Out
Why is laughter the best medicine? Why do
we attempt humour as a way to distract our minds from distress every day? A new
field called Psychoneuroimmunology, which is a multi-disciplinary area of study
that uses the principles of psychology, neuroscience and immunology has
explored the causes, function and brain areas responsible for laughter. Doesn’t
sound like much of a laughing matter now, does it!
It appears that heart-felt laughter,
which is usually elicited at something funny, releases endorphins into our
blood-stream, making us experience a general feeling of well-being. These endorphins also act as analgesic and hence reduce our perception of pain!
In an interesting
study by Dr. Dunbar and colleagues at Oxford University, two groups of people
were first tested on their pain threshold, that is, an indication of how much
pain they can normally withstand. These two groups were then shown either comical
videos, or serious, fact-filled documentaries. The group of people who watched the
funny videos were observed to laugh from their bellies, (which the researchers
say is equal to physical exercise since it leads to muscle exertion, increased
blood pressure and heart rate!) thereby releasing endorphins into their
bloodstream. As a result, their pain threshold increased, i.e., they could withstand more pain! But the second group
of people who watched serious documentaries felt as much pain as they did
before. In the same study, it was also noticed that people laughed more readily
and intensely when in a group and their pain threshold increased even more in a
group viewing of the videos than individual viewing.
There is a type of laughter which occurs
in polite social company, when we laugh to accompany someone else out of
courtesy or to pleasant information which may not particularly be funny. Such
kind of laughter does not elicit the kind of repeated, exerted exhalations of breath
that belly laughs involve, and hence do not qualify as “exercise”. Nonetheless, any kind of laughter
acts as a great emotional coping mechanism as it reduces the level of stress
hormones in the body and promotes relaxation. The positive state of mind that
follows offers us more creative problem solving abilities.
SANGEETHA MADHU & JYOTHI RAVICHANDRAN, THE HINDU IN SCHOOL
