National Tell A Joke Day!

Yesterday was National Tell A Joke Day!

All joking aside, get out there and laugh a little and tell some funny ones. This day will be filled with smiles and laughter from morning till night. The more jokes you tell, the more fun you will have and so will those around you.

Joking is also good for your health! The old saying that ‘laughter is the best medicine’ is no joke!Health benefits of telling jokes and laughing:

It helps relieve stress!

-Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain.

-Laughter can also stimulate circulation and aid muscle relaxation, both of which can help reduce some of the physical symptoms of stress.

-Joke telling and laughing activate and relieve your stress response. A good laugh fires up and then cools down your stress response, and it can increase and then decrease your heart rate and blood pressure. The result? A good, relaxed feeling.

Lessens Pain

-Laughing can cause your body to produce natural painkillers! A study conducted by researchers from Oxford University showed that the more subjects laughed, the less pain they felt. The study also suggests that it’s laughter itself, not just positive emotions, that aids in pain relief. This benefit increases the more often you laugh!

Boost your immune system- Laughter may increase the number of infection-fighting antibodies and boost immune cells. Likewise, positive thoughts and feelings — such as those released with laughter — have the potential to release neuropeptides, which help fight illness and stress.

Improves blood pressure

-Laughing at jokes and stand-up comedy can improve blood flow and reduce your blood pressure. Studies have found that laughter improves the flow of blood through dialating the body’s arteries, thus reducing blood pressure as well as subjects’ risk of heart disease. Most amazingly, one study indicated that watching a funny movie improved blood pressure “for a full 24 hours” after the program was viewed.

Stimulates Your Brain

-Cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Scott Weems shares that “Comedy is like mental exercise, and just as physical exercise strengthens the body, comedy pumps up the mind.” Telling jokes also requires verbal skills and creativity, so the more jokes you tell, the more you can improve those skills!

Improves Quality of Life

-Telling at jokes and laughing help connect you to others socially, and strong social ties are closely linked to a better quality of life.

It’s A Good Workout!

-Laughing burns calories, and 10-15 minutes of laughing can burn about 50 calories. Laughing also works your stomach muscles by causing them to expand and contract. It also works out your shoulders and exercises the diaphragm and heart. Who needs the gym for a good ab workout when you can tell jokes?!