That old saying about laughter being the best medicine gets repeated for a reason. Laughter truly is a good thing and not just because it’s fun to laugh. There are a lot of ways that laughter helps to improve health and well-being in the short run as well as in the long run. Finding ways to add laughter to your daily life is a lot easier than you might think and it can pay off in big ways.
Laughter Helps to Release Endorphins
Endorphins are hormones released by your body that help to relieve stress and anxiety. Activities that make your senior happy, like laughing, eating foods she enjoys, and even exercise, are the best ways to encourage her body to produce endorphins. These chemicals can be even more effective than pharmaceutical chemicals in relieving pain.
Laughing Releases Tension
The physical act of laughing helps to improve blood circulation, increase respiration, and relax muscles. As your elderly family member laughs more, she may find that her body holds less tension overall. This is true for you, as well. Pay attention to how often you laugh and find ways to make laughter a much bigger part of your everyday life.
Humor Helps to Improve the Immune System
With all of those happier chemicals and hormones getting released in the body, many of them go to work on helping the immune system to get stronger. So laughing a little more often could actually help you and your senior to be healthier than you would have been if you weren’t laughing so much. Since those hormones also help to relieve pain, that’s less inflammation than your senior was battling before.
Laughing Together Is a Bonding Activity
When you and your senior laugh together, that’s a bonding activity. You’re cementing that relationship even more than you do with other activities that you engage in together. When you’re able to laugh together, even if you have a difficult relationship with each other, you and your senior are able to relax more and to find ways to compromise more readily.
Finding ways and reasons to laugh with your aging adult is a huge part of helping her to stay as healthy as possible. Laughing with other people is good, too. Home care providers can help her with practical issues and they can be excellent companions, as well. In fact, having a great time with her home care providers can make accepting their help easier for your senior.
If you or an aging loved one are considering home care in Billings, MT, please contact the caring staff at SYNERGY HomeCare Billings today at 406-839-2390.
