travels with toby

Laughter is the best medicine’: we’re always being told that, but there’s actually more to a good giggle than just raising our spirits for a couple of minutes. Research shows that while children laugh up to 400 times a day, adults do it only 17 times a day, on average.

In fact, laughter therapy is a big deal and can improve your health in lots of different ways. Just check out these 10 benefits of chuckling…

• Reduces risk of heart disease. Research shows that laughing expands the inner walls of the arteries thereby increasing the blood flow. Furthermore, this positive effect lasted for 30-45 minutes.

• Checks blood pressure. When you laugh, the blood flow increases and the blood pressure rises. But when you stop laughing, blood pressure drops back to its baseline. This relaxing effect helps bring down blood pressure.

• Laughing boosts the immune system