Study says that Laughter may be the best medicine
September 14th, 2011 - 8:21 pm ICT by Aishwarya BhattLondon, Sept 14 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Researchers from University of Oxford have identified that laughter is the best pain killer. The study identified that laughter helped the body to release chemicals which acts as pain killers in the body.
The research which is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B states that the ability to laugh from the belly of the body is solely available to humans. After recruiting the volunteers for the experiment, the researchers tested their pain thresholds. With the pain threshold of each respondent identified, the researchers divided them into two groups.
The members of the group were shown comedy materials for 15 minutes. The other group members on the other hand were shown materials which the researchers identified as boring. After the period of 15 minutes, the researchers then subjected the subjects to another pain test.
They realized that the group which watched the comedy had up to 10 percent more tolerance for pain when the data was compared to their threshold values. On the flip side, the pain threshold of the other group dropped making them react to pain faster.
The researchers say laughter helps the body release the chemical endorphins which dulls pain in the body.
Study researcher Professor Robin Dunbar explained that, “It’s exactly what happens when we say ‘I laughed until it hurt’. It seems to be extremely painful and it’s that pain that produces the endorphin effect.”
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