Sometimes all you can do is laugh. That might actually be good for you

Laughter May Offer More Than a Momentary Escape

Healfromzero.com – When life feels heavy, laughter can seem almost out of place. Yet a genuine laugh may be one of the few immediate ways people can ease tension, reconnect with others and briefly regain perspective.

For one father, the material comes courtesy of his sons. During their teenage years, they quietly collected videos of his most embarrassing moments: attempting to carry a mattress overhead before colliding with a wall, or being caught grooming nose hairs while preparing for work. Now that his sons are in college, the family still revisits the clips. Even when he knows what is about to appear, the absurdity continues to make everyone laugh.

That kind of shared humor can feel especially valuable during periods dominated by political division, war, rising household costs and anxiety about climate change. Laughing cannot resolve those problems, but it may help people cope with the stress and helplessness they create.

A physical response, not only an emotional one

A strong laugh affects far more than mood. Deep laughter expands the chest, increases oxygen intake and stimulates circulation. It can also prompt changes in blood vessels that support better blood flow.

“You’re pumping blood, your lungs are expanded,” American comedian Craig Shoemaker said before a show in Atlanta. “Everything happens when you’re laughing. It’s as good as a workout!”

The comparison should not be taken as a replacement for exercise, but it captures how active laughter can be. Anyone who has left a comedy performance with sore cheeks or a tight stomach understands that laughing hard is a full-body experience.

Humor has long been linked with healing in popular wisdom. Proverbs 17:22 describes a cheerful heart as good medicine. At the birthplace of 19th-century English poet Lord Byron, visitors can find a plaque bearing a line often credited to him: “Always laugh when you can. It is a cheap medicine.”

What research has found about stress

There is scientific interest behind those old observations. Endocrinologist Dr. Caroline Kramer and colleagues examined eight small, short-duration studies carried out from 1989 through 2021. Their systematic review found that laughter was associated with an approximately 30% decline in cortisol, a hormone involved in the body’s stress response.

Kramer is an associate professor at the University of Toronto and a clinician scientist at Mount Sinai’s Leadership Sinai Centre for Diabetes. Her team’s 2023 work focused on spontaneous laughter and stress response, and its findings impressed her.

“Even 10 minutes of laughter can reduce cortisol significantly,” Kramer said. “Our results were of greater importance than I thought they would be.”

The evidence does not mean that humor is a cure for illness, nor does it suggest people should treat a comedy show as medical care. The studies reviewed were small and short-term. Still, the findings support a practical idea: experiences that improve well-being can have measurable effects on the body as well as the mind.

Why laughter can be easy to overlook

Simple forms of relief are sometimes treated as less serious than interventions involving medication or formal treatment. Kramer noted that people often focus on outcomes such as mortality, hospital stays or other clinical measures, while undervaluing actions that make daily life more bearable.

“I think overall people tend to undermine interventions that just increase well-being,” Kramer said.

Shoemaker offered a more comic explanation for the lack of attention.

“It’s so important to our wellness, and yet we completely dismiss it, because laughter doesn’t have a lobby,” he said.

The comedian built a career in the 1990s around an alter ego called the Lovemaster, an extravagantly self-assured ladies’ man with a gravelly voice, daring pickup lines and oversized relationship advice. Shoemaker has said audience members sometimes told him his performances had changed their lives in unexpected ways, including one couple in Michigan who thanked him after they had been told they could not have a child.

Making room for humor

Not every day lends itself to laughter, and forced cheerfulness can be unhelpful when someone is grieving, frightened or overwhelmed. But humor does not have to deny reality to be useful. It can coexist with concern, sadness and anger. A funny message from a friend, an inside joke at work, a family memory or a night at a comedy club can offer a temporary reset.

Shared laughter may also strengthen relationships. In families, it can turn an awkward mishap into a story that becomes funnier over time. Among colleagues, it can interrupt a stressful day. Between friends, it can create a reminder that difficult circumstances are not the whole of life.

That may be the most accessible lesson from laughter research. People do not need to earn a moment of levity, and they do not need a perfect reason to laugh. The problems outside the room may remain, but a good laugh can make the room—and the people in it—feel a little more manageable.