The Age-Well Project

Change the way you age

Get our posts direct to your inbox

  • About The Age-Well Project
  • Books
    • Our Books
    • Reviews
    • References
  • Blog
  • Recipes
    • Recipes By Ingredient
    • Breakfast
    • Dessert
    • Dinner
    • Drinks
    • Family
    • On The Go
    • Soups and Salads
    • Treats and Snacks
  • Contact
  • Events
  • Press

CAN LAUGHTER HELP YOU LIVE LONGER? ONLY IF YOU’RE FEMALE…

March 29, 2019 2 Comments

We’re a mere five weeks away from the 2019 World Laughter Day. Here in the UK we desperately need some light-hearted laughter. Three years of Brexit wrangling has resulted in a 20% surge in the purchase of self-help books: it seems we’re all feeling gloomy and doomy.

So roll on World Laughter Day, I say. Didn’t know such a day existed? No, nor me. I unearthed it, innocently enough, at a session of laughter yoga as I researched the healing powers of laughter. Assuming a laughter yoga class would include some yoga, I turned up in my gym kit only to find everyone else was in normal clothes. So my first laugh was a mortified guffaw.

The session felt oddly like a toddler music class – where you sit on a cold mildewed floor in a church hall, clapping, grinning and singing ‘The wheels of the bus go round and round.’ But without any toddlers. We played grandmother’s footsteps; we batted balloons around; we spoke in gibberish (actually that was quite liberating – I’ve always liked a bit of nonsense-speak). Oh, and we laughed. A lot. We ended with a laughing meditation, a peculiar experience which brought to (my) mind Mr Rochester’s mad wife in Jane Eyre. We lay on the floor, eyes closed, and faked howls of laughter. I couldn’t quite manage it. Too uptight. As I listened to my fellow howlers all I could think of was Bertha Rochester laughing manically while poor little Jane Eyre trembled in her four poster bed.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND LAUGHTER AND HEALTH

Laughter yoga has sound scientific origins, however. It was ‘invented’ by an Indian doctor who realised that laughter relaxed his patients, causing their blood pressure to drop. He also noticed that they could tolerate greater pain when they were laughing. Laughter releases endorphins and there’s evidence that it doesn’t need to be genuine either. As our instructor told us, ‘fake it until you feel it.’

Neuroscience support the words of my laughter yoga instructor (the perfectly named Lady Ha-Ha). In Dr Sabina Brennan’s new book, 100 Days to a Younger Brain, Brennan (an Irish neuroscientist) highlights the role of laughter in positive thought. Thinking positively, she tells us, is one of the best things we can do for our brain. She argues that negative thoughts – and negativity in general – are detrimental to tip top brain health, and that laughter is one of the best antidotes.

‘If, like me, your resting face is not a smiling face you need to make a conscious effort to smile,’ she explained in The Times. ‘Smiling activates reward circuits in your brain and boosts brain health by releasing hormones that lower blood pressure, boost immune function and protect against stress, depression and anxiety.’ Smiling can trigger happiness as well as be the consequence of it, she adds, suggesting that it’s especially important to smile at tough moments.

Dr Brennan’s comments on happiness reflect a recent report from Singapore which found happier people were 19% less likely to die, over a given period, than their gloomier counterparts. “Our findings indicate that even small increments in happiness may be beneficial to older people’s longevity,” explained Assistant Professor Rahul Malhotra, Head of Research at Duke-NUS’ Centre for Ageing Research and Education.

Studies of laughter therapy in elderly people have linked humour with all of the afore-mentioned health benefits, while other studies suggest laughing reduces cortisol levels and distracts from pain. A 15-year study from Norway found that women with good senses of humour lived longer, in spite of illness.  Humour didn’t have the same protective effects for men. This 15-year study – involving 15,556 people – linked sense of humour and mortality, finding that for women, high scores on humour were associated with 48 percent less risk of death from all causes, a 73 percent lower risk of death from heart disease and an 83 percent lower risk of death from infection. In men, a link was found only for the risk of death from infection.

WHY OUR BRAINS ALSO LOVE A SMILE

Smiling is almost as good as laughing. Pulling one’s mouth into a (sculpted) smile is a simple effective way to lift your mood. According to Dr Isha Gupta, a neurologist, when we smile we trigger a chemical reaction in the brain, releasing feel-good dopamine and serotonin.  Not only that, but if we smile at someone else, they also benefit.

So would I recommend laughter yoga? I certainly laughed.  But I laughed an awful lot more over a game of Scattergories in which The Husband tried to convince us that hedgehog ice cream and horse soup were genuine ‘foods beginning with H’.

Humour is highly subjective (we like puns and games in our family), but anyone can smile. Or sculpt a smile. So have a go. Let us know if a big smile makes you feel any better.

Back to laughter yoga…We also clapped a lot. Apparently the palms of our hands are full of pressure points and when we clap, we release energy. Clapping, I realised, is quite invigorating. As is laughing. Both are best done in the company of others, but I’ve been experimenting entirely on my own (like Bertha Rochester).

You can find out about laughter yoga at http://www.laughteryoga.co.uk/ if you’re in the UK or https://laughteryoga.org/ if you’re elsewhere.

And World Laughter Day can be investigated here http://www.worldlaughterday.com/

Annabel

PS Air purifier post coming later. Not forgotten… And more on laughter in our upcoming audio (yes, The Age-Well Project is being recorded as an audio book so you can listen as you walk, cook etc) and book.

 

  • Conditions: Ageing, Depression
« GRAIN BOWLS: MEALS THAT HAVE IT ALL
10 ESSENTIAL DIET TIPS TO LIVE LONGER (AND A BIG REVEAL) »

Comments

  1. Beverley Blanning says

    March 29, 2019 at 8:55 am

    ‘Three years of Brexit wrangling has resulted in a 20% surge in the purchase of self-help books’

    This comment throws into question all your earlier reporting on scientific studies (which til now I’d thought pretty good). Unless someone has actually done a study and questioned the purchasers of the books to establish their motivation for doing so, this is a sweeping throwaway remark worthy of any politician. Please tell me there’s a study out there and you are not sinking into the general science reporting mediocrity. Keeping my fingers crossed.

    Reply
    • Annabel Streets says

      March 30, 2019 at 5:07 pm

      Hi Beverley, yes it was the talk of London Book Fair a fortnight ago (you can read an account at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/09/self-help-books-sstressed-brits-buy-record-number) although it’s publisher and book seller speculation as to the causes, of course. But most of the research we cover involves speculation as correlation rarely means causation. Either way, laughter appears to be a harmless means of cheering ourselves up. Glad you’re enjoying the blog (mostly!)…

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Welcome to The Age-Well Project

Welcome to The Age-Well Project!
Here you’ll find easy changes for a longer, happier life. We’ve immersed ourselves in the science of longevity and distilled the research to make it work in our everyday lives. You can change the way you age: here’s how.

Favourite Posts

WHY I’VE THROWN OUT ALL MY BEAUTY PRODUCTS (nearly…)

Why Alzheimer’s Is A Women’s Issue

HOW HAVING A DOG CHANGED MY LIFE

GREEN SPACE IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH

SUGAR, CHOCOLATE, SADNESS AND BRAIN-BOOSTING BISCUITS

WHY ‘INFLAMM-AGEING’ COULD START IN THE GUT AND HARISSA-ROASTED VEGETABLE SALAD

POLYAMINES – THE NEW SECRET WEAPON FOR AGEING WELL & MOROCCAN SPINACH AND CHICKPEAS.

THINNING AGEING HAIR – WARM CHICKEN LIVER SALAD

About The Age Well Project

This site is for anyone who wants to make the second half of their life as healthy, happy and disease-free as possible. Sign up to get the latest research on ageing – and delicious recipes to match – direct to your inbox.

agewellproject

⭐️Change the way you age
📚The Age-Well Project + Age-Well Plan ⭐️Get tips & recipes on our blog - sign up ⬇️

The Age-Well Project blog
We all want plenty of ‘energy’ but what does t We all want plenty of ‘energy’ but what does that mean?

We’ve got the low down over the blog - what is energy and how we get more?!? 

We’re covering:

🥗The nutrition we need to fuel our mitochondria (the ‘batteries’ of our cells)

⚡️The ‘good stress’ (hormesis) that creates more energy 

🧘‍♀️The importance of breath work 

😴Why we need to rest 

and 

👩‍🍳A whole load of great recipes 

It’s all on the blog - link in bio 

#agewell #ageingwell #agingwell #longevity #womenover50 #postmenopause #fitover50 #over50 #over50blogger #energy #mitochondria #hormesis #breathwork #wimhof #hypoxictraining #hypoxia #pranayama #wakefulrest #rest #womenwhowalk #selfcare #healthyrecipes
We spend a lot of time suggesting that you get up We spend a lot of time suggesting that you get up and move 🏃‍♀️🚶‍♀️💃 But we were fascinated by recent research into the power of ‘wakeful rest’, particularly if we rock while we do it. 

It seems Granny and her rocking chair were right all along - rockers sleep better. Hammocks are great too, as Annabel is demonstrating here!

And students who take some time to rest after learning something new consolidate their new knowledge better than people who go to sleep, or just get on with their lives. And it seems ten minutes of down-time is enough to deeply embed new memories.

So now we’re rocking and resting! There’s more on the blog - link in bio

#agewell #ageingwell #agingwell #healthblog #longevity #longevityblog #healthyageing #healthyaging #fitover50 #postmenopause #healthyeating #rest #hammock #rockingchair #powernap #memories #dementia #alzheimers
We are delighted to announce that Annabel now has We are delighted to announce that Annabel now has a regular column in @psychologiesmagazine with her first column in the July issue (out now) on the joys of following a river. Grab a copy and find out why following a river was the walk of choice for our female ancestors … 

#agewell #walk #walking
A bottle of beer a day can improve our microbiome A bottle of beer a day can improve our microbiome according to new research published by the @amerchemsociety.  Four weeks of a daily lager (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) improved intestinal health without impacting weight, the researchers speculate that the additional bacteria produced by fermentation might positively interact with the polyphenols contained in lager to enrich the gut. Good news for beer drinkers!  We’re fans of alcohol free beers, particularly on hot days… like this dainty bottle from @brewdogofficial 

#agewell
Isn’t she ageing well?! Yes, yes, we know our Qu Isn’t she ageing well?! Yes, yes, we know our Queen has incredible advantages when it comes to longevity: palaces, retinues of staff, the country’s best doctors…. but there are longevity lessons we can all learn from Her Majesty as we head into the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend 🇬🇧👑🇬🇧

So a trumpet voluntary, please, for our right royal Age-Well celebration….

It’s all on the blog - link in bio 

#agewell #ageingwell #agingwell #healthblog #longevity #longevityblog #jubilee #platinumjubilee #nonagenarian #healthyageing #healthyaging #fitover50 #postmenopause #senseofpurpose #healthyeating #dopaminedressing #queenelizabeth 

📷 @theroyalfamily
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Contact Us

For any enquiries please email theagewellproject@gmail.com.

Copyright © 2022 The Age-Well Project