Rejoicing begins as a gesture of shared relief at the passing of danger or difficulty. Since the relaxation results from a bout of rejoicing, it inhibits the biological fight-or-flight response. This results in smiling or laughing, indicating trust in one’s companions or environment. The purpose of rejoicing is related to making and strengthening human connections.

There are three basic brain functions that contribute to our ability to laugh: Cognition, emotion, and motion. The interesting thing about rejoicing is that, unlike most of the other emotions, it is created by the functions from several parts of the brain. Laughing engages various parts of the brain. Dr. Peter Derks, from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg (Virginia, USA), showed that laughing pulls the various parts of the brain together rather than activating a component in only one area.1 Although most of the activity is in the frontal lobe, the center of emotional activity, there are also many electrical impulses in the occipital lobe or the motion center of the brain. The limbic system of the brain is where most of the functions essential to a living organism are stimulated.

You naturally rejoice when you are comfortable with another person, when you feel open and free and express it through a smile or a laugh. “And the more laughing [there is], the more bonding [occurs] within the group,” says Mahadev Apte, cultural anthropologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.2

The physiological study of laughing has its own name - gelotology, from the Greek word gelos and it is exactly that - the physiological study of humor and laughter. And we know that certain parts of the brain are responsible for certain human functions. For example, emotional responses are the function of the brain’s largest region, the frontal lobe. In earlier articles in The Reformation Herald we mentioned that the frontal lobe is the seat of morality, spirituality, and will power. It has long been established that the ability to laugh is helpful to those coping with major illness and the stress of life’s problems as well as in developing the frontal lobe.

Laughter is the physiological response to rejoicing. Laughing consists of two parts - a set of gestures and the production of a sound called laughing. When we laugh, the brain pressures us to conduct both of those activities simultaneously.

When we laugh, 15 facial muscles contract. Stimulation of the zygomatic major (a muscle of facial expression) occurs and our upper lip lifts up. Meanwhile, as the Encyclopedia Britannica explains, our breathing is disrupted by the epiglottis (at the back of the throat), half-closing the larynx, which makes us gasp. In extreme cases, the tear ducts are also activated, so that while the mouth is opening and closing and the struggle for oxygen intake continues, the face becomes moist and often red. The noises that usually accompany this behavior range from mild giggles to energetic laughing. Again, when you smile, you use 15 muscles. But when you frown, you use 34 muscles. Why, then, use 34 muscles?

When you are joyful, you express it with a smile or a laugh. When you laugh, the neurons (brain cells) release two types of chemicals that fight cancer.

One type of chemical is called a nerve protein. The other chemical opioid which enhances the immune system.

God has created us wonderfully. Our body, mind, and spirit are so well connected, that when the mind senses true joy and happiness, it send out opiods into the bloodstream which then connect with monocytes. When monocytes receive the message from the opiods, which triggers a response, they begin to eat bacteria and viruses that tear down our immune system.3 Just learn to laugh. It is your free flu shot.

When you are gloomy, you allow fear, worry, stress, and anger to take over, and you are opening the door to sickness and suffering. Your body is not secreting what it needs in order to keep you vibrant. Do not be gloomy or brooding over anything. Because worry can create emotional stress and cause anxiety disorder. As part of his preaching, Martin Luther advised depressed people not to isolate themselves, but to surround themselves with friends who could make them laugh.

Smiling and laughing shift the ways in which we think. Laughing activates the chemistry of the will to live, and it increases our capacity to fight disease. Laughing relaxes the body and reduces problems associated with high blood pressure, stroke, arthritis, and ulcers.

“The relation that exists between the mind and the body is very intimate. When one is affected the other sympathizes. The condition of the mind affects the health to a far greater degree than many realize. Many of the diseases from which men suffer are the result of mental depression. Grief, anxiety, discontent, remorse, guilt, distrust, all tend to break down the life forces and to invite decay and death.”4

Distress is greatly associated with the way we think. It is not actually some situations that generate our stress - it is the meaning we place on the situations. Laughing adjusts the meaning of an event so that it is not so crushing. Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that can impact your body by bringing more stress into your system and decreasing your immunity.

In contrast, positive thoughts actually release neuropeptides that help fight stress and potentially more serious illnesses. When you start to laugh, it doesn’t just lighten your load mentally, it actually induces physical changes in your body, beginning with your face. Laughing can:

Protect the heart. Historically, research has shown that distressing emotions like depression, anger, anxiety, stress, and gloominess are all related to heart disease. Research also suggests that laughing or smiling is a good cardiovascular workout that reduces the risk of heart disease. According to a recent study by cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, laughing helps protect you against a heart attack. During laughter, the heart beat quickens and blood pressure rises; after laughter, both heart rate and blood pressure drop to a point that is lower than its initial resting rate. In addition, after the laughing subsides, the cardiovascular system goes into a state of relaxation.5 The study that indicates that laughing and rejoicing may help prevent heart disease, found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease.

“The old saying that ‘A merry heart is the best medicine,’ definitely appears to be true when it comes to protecting your heart,”6 says Michael Miller, M.D., director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, in his paper presented at the Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology on March 7, 2005, in Orlando, Florida.

The ability to laugh at stressful situations helps mitigate the damaging physical effects of distressing emotions. That is why God inspired Solomon to write Proverbs 17:22.

Remove stress hormones. Rejoicing may indeed be the best medicine. In the words of Dr. Patch Adams, “Seriousness has no healing qualities at all.” Too many people confuse seriousness with professionalism. Stress, according to many physicians, is the number one killer today. More than 70% of such difficult illnesses as high blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety, depression, frequent coughs and colds, peptic ulcers, insomnia, allergies, asthma, menstrual difficulties, tension headaches, stomach upsets and even certain forms of cancer, have some connection with stress. Two studies done at the Loma Linda (CA) University School of Medicine in 1989, showed that laughter removes stress hormones, lowers serum cortisol levels and stimulates the immune system counteracting the immunosuppressive effects of stress by raising levels of T-cells, disease-fighting proteins called Gamma-interferon, and B-cells, which produce disease-destroying antibodies.7

Trigger the release of endorphins, that is, the body’s natural pain killers, and produce a general sense of well-being.

Soothe tension and stomach aches. Laughing can also ease digestion and improve circulation, which helps reduce some of the physical symptoms of stress.

Lower blood pressure. People who laugh heartily on a regular basis have lower blood pressure than the average person. When people have a good laugh, initially the blood pressure increases, but then it decreases to levels below normal. Breathing then becomes deeper which sends oxygen enriched blood and nutrients throughout the body.

Give our bodies a good workout. Laughing can be a great workout for your diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles. It massages abdominal organs, tones intestinal functioning, and strengthens the muscles that hold the abdominal organs in place. Not only does laughing give your midsection a workout, it can benefit digestion and absorption functioning as well. It is estimated that hearty laughing can burn calories equivalent to several minutes on the rowing machine or the exercise bike.

Improve brain function. Laughing activates both sides of the brain, increases the endorphins that are released by your brain to enhance learning. It eases muscle tension and psychological stress, which keeps the brain alert and allows people to retain more information.8

Improve mental and emotional health. A merry heart is a powerful emotional medicine that can lower stress, dissolve anger, and unite families in troubled times. Laughing also helps us avoid loneliness by connecting with others who are attracted to genuine cheerfulness. The good feeling that we get when we laugh can remain with us as an internal experience even after the laughing subsides.

Provide social benefits. Smiling and laughing are essential in our work, marriage, and family. We all need laughing and rejoicing as much as record-keeping and problem-solving. These bind us together instead of pulling us apart. They lighten our burdens and help us keep things in perspective. A merry heart is the best medicine. When you look at someone or see something even mildly pleasing, practice smiling. The simple act of considering the good things in your life will distance you from negative thoughts that are a barrier to rejoicing and cheerfulness.

A word of caution. There is often a tendency for happy laughter to descend into comical foolishness. In social gatherings, the loud, shrieking laughter commonly heard becomes painful to the ears. Laughter is not wrong, but foolishness is - causing the conscience to sleep, and drowning out the voice of the Holy Spirit.

“A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken” (Proverbs 15:13). God is not pleased to have us pass our life in despondency and gloom; it is God’s will that we should be cheerful. He would have us open our heart to the sunbeams of heaven. “The cheerfulness of the Christian is created by the consideration of the great blessings we enjoy because we are the children of God. . . . Christians should be the most cheerful and happy people that live.”9