Laughing with friends releases feel-good brain chemicals, which also relieve pain, new research indicates.

Until now, scientists haven't proven that like exercise and other activities, laughing causes a release of so-called endorphins.

"Very little research has been done into why we laugh and what role it plays in society," study researcher Robin Dunbar, of the University of Oxford, said in a statement. "We think that it is the bonding effects of the endorphin rush that explain why laughter plays such an important role in our social lives."

Chuckle it up
Dunbar and colleagues thought our guffaws might turn on the brain's endorphins, a long debated, but unproven idea. These pain-relieving chemicals are created in response to exercise, excitement, pain, spicy food, love and sexual orgasm, among other things.

In addition to giving us a "buzz," these endorphins raise our ability to ignore pain. So the researchers used the endorphins' pain relief to determine if laughter causes an endorphin release. They first tested participants for their pain threshold, then exposed them to either a control or a laugh-inducing test, and then tested pain levels again.

The tests included humorous videos (clips of the TV shows "Mr. Bean" and "Friends") and a live comedy show during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Because laughter is such a social activity (it's 30 times more likely to happen in a social context than when alone), the participants were tested both in groups and alone.

The lab-based pain tests included wrapping a participant's arm in a frozen wine-cooling sleeve or a blood-pressure cuff. The pain tests were administered until the patient said they couldn't take it anymore. At the live shows, the researchers tested pain by having participants squat against a wall until they collapsed.

Why laughter releases endorphins
Across all tests, the participants' ability to tolerate pain jumped after laughing. On average, watching about 15 minutes of comedy in a group increased pain threshold by 10 percent. Participants tested alone showed slightly smaller increases in their pain threshold.

"When laughter is elicited, pain thresholds are significantly increased, whereas when subjects watched something that does not naturally elicit laughter, pain thresholds do not change (and are often lower)," the authors write in the paper. "These results can best be explained by the action of endorphins released by laughter."

The researchers believe that the long series of exhalations that accompany true laughter cause physical exhaustion of the abdominal muscles and, in turn, trigger endorphin release. (Endorphin release is usually caused by physical activity, like exercise, or touch, like massage.)
The study was published today (Sept. 13) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

© 2011 TechMediaNetwork.com. All rights reserved.

• 10 Things You Didn't Know About You
• 8 Humanlike Behaviors of Primates
• The Top 5 Benefits of Play

17 Comments

1. 1. dj95401 04:19 PM 9/14/11

   "Until now, scientists haven't proven that like exercise and other activities, laughing causes a release of so-called endorphins." That's strange, Reader's Digest has had a section in their publication called, " Laughter is the best Medicine" for over forty years and now your trying to say this is some thing new?? Sounds like I need to find Robin Dunbar's Grant writer, I too could make some new discoveries,( or make it sound like), on already known facts!! Give me a break
   
   

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. timbo555 05:06 PM 9/14/11

   So I talked to my psychiatrist, and he said I was crazy.
   I said I wanted a second opinion, and he said "ok, you're ugly too".....

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

3. 3. Marley 05:16 PM 9/14/11

   Yes, it helps with pain. Only someone who prioritizes catchy headlines over factual information and who is free from chronic pain would suggest it's the BEST pain medicine.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

4. 4. timbo555 05:19 PM 9/14/11

   This is one part of the human condition that should never ever be studied too closely. Something elemental is lost when I find out WHY something is funny, or what happens with my endorphins when I laugh. What seems most important is that I laugh, not why or how; that information just gets in the way.
   
   Although, the idea of inflicting pain on someone to see if their threshhold elevates when watching "Mr. Bean" must be close to the ultimate absurdity, and is itself a pretty funny concept. Maybe somone should get hold of Rowan Atkins' publicist.....

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

5. 5. lump1 07:14 PM 9/14/11

   Laughter releases endorphins. This is a SciAm story? In 2011? I'm finding that ... sad.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

6. 6. timbo555 09:07 PM 9/14/11

   Marley,
   
   Your response had such a curmudgeonly feel to it, that I'm guessing you have chronic pain yourself.
   
   Is this your walking around everyday attitude? Do you get to laugh often? Or would you prefer not to?
   

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

7. 7. Marley 11:29 PM 9/14/11

   timbo555, I'm one of the millions of people with chronic pain. That's not the reason for my annoyance, though it might make me a bit more likely to show it.
   
   I read SciAm in the hope of finding quality science writing. This article was weak on detail but otherwise OK, but the title sacrificed accurate reporting for a catchy phrase. Since I can get that just about anywhere, I became annoyed.
   
   Perhaps it was chronic pain that drove me to actually comment instead of rolling my eyes and moving on.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

8. 8. RedRoseAndy 12:00 AM 9/15/11

   Some laughter therapists have found that just making the noise of laughter without finding anything funny to laugh at is enough to improve health. The body cannot differentiate which is which. I have been interested in humour since a child and find it to be the next best thing to being in love, and have come up with two inventions that give a large dose of laughs without the need of wit to start it off. The first is based on two warnings I got as a child not to put alcohol into a 'Soda Stream', and not to drink alcohol through a straw. I decided that I would try both at the same time to see what happened. Wine was put into the Soda Stream, which then added CO2. When drunk through a straw hysterical laughter ensue, and when the laughter subsides you feel much better than you did before you started.
   
   The second way to achieve hysterical laughter is to blow one lung full of cigarette smoke into a party balloon, and then to hyperventilate with the balloon. Again laughter ensues and you feel much better for the experience. Both of these methods of improving emotional well being are legal at the moment, although I have had balloons confiscated by the British police on several occasions.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

9. 9. timbo555 in reply to Marley 06:56 AM 9/15/11

   Let me suggest that it was your attitude, and absolutely nothing else, that led you to comment the way you did. I agree it is a stupid article and a goofier title, but your ability to take in this information and process it is informed by your attitude, your world view, if you will, and not the the other way around.
   
   That's the reason for the question: Would you prefer not to laugh?

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

10. 10. jtdwyer in reply to timbo555 09:49 AM 9/15/11

    Thanks - I needed that!

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

11. 11. jtdwyer 10:29 AM 9/15/11

    Great comments, but I also have to agree with Marley. First, this news article was provided by an agency called 'LiveScience' (see the author attribution), copywrited by something called 'TechMediaNetwork.com'.
    
    Secondly, as current science news this story about laughter releasing endorphins hardly seems newsworthy.
    
    Lastly, there is no scientific research referenced by any supplied link, only links to livescience.com articles unrelated to the statements being made:
    
    http://www.livescience.com/9430-study-laughter-contagious.html
    http://www.livescience.com/6532-meditation-dulls-experience-pain.html
    http://www.livescience.com/9818-meditation-boost-mood-mental-toughness.html
    “Meditation exercises could boost mental toughness in soldiers readying for war, keeping them from becoming overly emotional, according to new research” involving 48 marines headed for Iraq.
    http://www.livescience.com/6338-laughter-affects-body-exercise.html
    - about appetite suppression.
    
    These kinds of 'news' stories self-generated by (even 'science' related) news agencies would be fine for your local newspaper or People magazine or something, but how much does this kind of fluff contribute to what used to be a reasonably serious scientific publication?
    
    I did like your joke, though.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

12. 12. paerki 11:32 PM 9/15/11

    I don't think it's the best pain medicine, but it helps - at the right time.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

13. 13. maxsmart 07:35 PM 9/16/11

    Which explains why comedians are in worse pain than most people.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

14. 14. openeyes999 07:57 PM 9/18/11

    DORKIEST image ever.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

15. 15. danielvsqz94 01:50 AM 9/19/11

    So after reading that laughing is sort of an abdominal exercise. I'm going to laugh until i get a six-pack.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

16. 16. arunkagg 12:32 PM 9/22/11

    It will give a new impetus to Shri Shri Ravishanker who promote laughter in his 'brand' ''Art Of Living''.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

17. 17. james_stev 08:28 AM 11/24/11

    Thank you for sharing this knowledge. Health is very important think in human life.
    <a href="http://www.onlinemedicalstore.net">Generic Viagra</a>
    <a href="http://www.onlinemedicalstore.net">Caverta</a>

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this