Can you still remember the last time you had a healthy laugh? Do you know that laughter is the number one antidote to blood pressure?
Most of us are too busy due to some life challenges that we don't even remember to have a good laugh.
Laughing helps in lowering your blood pressure. Read down and see how laughing can lower your blood pressure.
(1) Reduces Stress
Stress is the leading cause of high blood pressure; it causes your blood pressure to spike up temporarily. Laughing happens to be an excellent medication for stress.
As we laugh, our blood flow rises, and the blood pressure increases, and when we stop laughing, the blood pressure drops down to normal, which lowers the blood pressure.
It is a fact that people should frequently laugh, especially when they are in the midst of daily problems. Comic movies and good songs can go a long way to help you achieve this.
(2) Helps in Maintaining a Health Endothelium
The endothelium is a thin membrane that covers the heart and blood vessels.
The endothelium cells release a substance that controls vascular relaxation and contraction and enzymes that control the blood. Laughing helps maintain a healthy endothelium and decrease the risk of any cardiovascular problem like stroke and heart attack, which occurs due to high blood pressure.
So when we laugh, it goes a long way to make the endothelium strong and prevent blood pressure. Doing this will help to lower down your blood pressure.
(3) Drops Down the Baseline
When we laugh, our blood flow rises, and the blood pressure increases, but when we stop laughing, the blood pressure drops down to the baseline, which is normal.
When we do this, our blood pressure becomes routine, and with this, the blood pressure is lower.
(4) Makes the Muscles Work
When we laugh, it leads to the initial increase in blood pressure post which there is a sustained drop in it. The blood vessel also dilates, followed by the increasing amount of oxygen entering the circulation.
In a nutshell, laughter relaxes the muscles, thereby causing less strain on the blood vessels; it reduces pressure.
(5) Reduces the Four Stress-Related Hormone
As we stated earlier in the first part, stress is the primary cause of high blood pressure, and some related hormone also leads to high blood pressure. Those hormones include epinephrine hormone, dopamine hormone, growth hormone, and cortisol hormone.
The epinephrine hormone is located mainly on the medulla of the adrenal glands; its primary function is to increase cardiac output and raise blood glucose levels.
When we laugh, it goes strength to the epinephrine hormone and calms it down. Laughing also does the same thing as the dopamine, growth, and cortisol hormone, and it helps lower blood pressure.
(6) Increases the Blood Circulation
When we laugh, it delivers oxygen and nutrients efficiently and helps the immune system.
When someone laughs, the blood flows into the body circulation, and when the person stops laughing, the blood pressure drops down to baseline. In other words, laughing is just an exercise that helps in blood circulation in our system.
When there is adequate blood circulation, the blood pressure becomes normal.
(7) Good For the Heart
Heart doctors suggest that laughing for about 15 to 20 minutes per day is good for the health of our hearts. And again, we should know that the heartier the laugh, the better for us.
The heart is what pumps the blood to the whole body. When we laugh, our heart rate shoots up considerably, just as we take deep breaths. More oxygenated blood is circulated through our body, improving our vascular function.
Laughing helps to prevent heart disease. Conclusion: it improves vascular function and circulation and can help reduce our heart disease, in which blood pressure is one of the main ones.
(8) Helps in Respiration
After a healthy laugh, we will notice an exhalation of air, which lowers the heart rate and blood pressure, making us feel at peace.
Laughing also provides a workout for the cardiovascular, pulmonary, and respiratory systems.
When someone laughs, the lungs get stale air allowing oxygen to enter the body. Laughing helps to expand alveoli, the remote airbase in our system.
(9) Laughter Strengthens the Immune System
Laughing also goes a long way to strengthen the immune system by increasing the number of antibody-producing T cells in the body.
A cell known as the "T Cell" helps to fight infection in the body. So we are less likely to come down with certain diseases that affect the immune system.
The above process fortifies the immune system and lowers the chances of high blood pressure.
(10) Laughter is a Jogging for the Soul
Based on scientific discoveries, just as one run or exercise in other to keep the body healthy and strong, we need to laugh often in other to keep our soul healthy.
Still, on the doctor's report, they noted that mirthful laughter is as good as internal jogging because when we laugh, it means something has tickled our body system, and after the laughing, we feel rejuvenated.
When the soul gets to relax, the blood pressure calms down and becomes normal.
Is Laughing Good for the Heart?
One of the questions people usually asks about this topic. Yes, laughing is good for the heart.
Because when someone laughs, the heart rate increases, it will also make the person take more breaths, making it easy for more oxygenated blood to circulate through the body and improves vascular function.
Again, it prevents heart disease, improves vascular function, and reduces the risk of disease diagnosis. Other benefits are:
- Boosting the immune system
- Decreases the risk of heart attack
- Preventing heart disease
- And finally, it also helps one to lose weight.
What is the quickest way to lower your blood pressure?
Apart from laughter, there are other quickest ways to lower blood pressure, including exercising your body most days of the week. Also, you have to consume a less sodium diet because salt causes blood pressure to rise.
Again we have to limit the rate of our alcohol intake to 1 to 2 bottles per day, and finally, we have to try as much as possible to make stress reduction our foremost priority.
Bottom Line
After a successful discussion on how laughter can lower blood pressure and various questions people ask, we can now see that laughter plays a vital role in the body.
Again the more we laugh, the better and healthy it will be for the body. We also found out that laughing is the best exercise the body needs to be healthy.
Since there are many benefits of laughing, we advise that people should develop the habit of laughing in any situation and make it their priority.
Finally, we should look for a way to minimize stress as it is the number cause of high blood pressure.