What They Don't Tell You About Laughter.

The average adult laughs seventeen times daily, which is roughly equivalent to two minutes and thirty seconds on an exercise bike. Laugh it up for twenty straight seconds and you may have done the equivalent of rowing for three minutes. Vigorously. Yes, exercise is good for you.

But maybe the gym is safer… for all involved.

What they don’t tell you about laughter is that the brain thinks it’s dying.

Fifteen facial muscles contract. The epiglottis half-chokes the larynx, leaving the comically afflicted subject gasping for air. The tear ducts sometimes activate (science has yet to definitively determine why), whence comes the tragicomic combination of laughter and tears.

As a response, the brain sends out serotonin, which helps to regulate mood (it’s the reason Prozac works), and endorphins, which act in the body as painkillers, just like morphine. The chemicals produced by the simple act of laughing increase immune function: B cells and T cells (special kinds of disease-fighting white blood cells) and gamma interferon (that thing House prescribes nearly every episode).

Alright, so laughing actually heals you, whether it’s due to incongruity, relief, or schadenfreude.


That is, if it’s you doing the laughing.