A daily dose of laughter can bring serious health benefits, says Judith Kupersmith, M.D., of Texas Tech Medical Center's neuropsychiatry department.
Laughter often yields social acceptance, which diminishes anxiety and bolsters our emotional health.
When someone says funny things, the listener feels relaxed and calm, but the person using the humor also relaxes and feels less anxiety. Humor is also a form of relaxation or stress reduction, said Dr. Kupersmith. With gallows humor we relieve anxiety by saying very base, crude but humorous things that we normally would not say in public. In addition to anxiety, humor helps some people deal with aggression. Kupersmith emphasized that stress can be a substantial threat to psychological health, depending on the individual's ability to deal with stress.