Comment 20

 Laughter is a non-verbal emotional expression and these sounds, which we typically make when in the grip of quite strong emotions, are more like animal calls than they are like our normal speech. If we ask someone what they usually laugh at, they will say that they laugh at jokes or humour, but we laugh very often. Experts say that in an informal conversation we laugh an average of 7 times every 10 minutes. We also make very strange noises when we laugh – from wheezes and squeaks to gasps and snorts – and each sound simply reflects the muscles in the chest squeezing out air from our ribcages under very high pressures.


On the one hand, laughing is very normal, not only humans do it, but also other animals like monkeys or rats. Besides, we have heard many times the sencence “laughter is the best medicine”, and on one side this sentence is true. Laughing causes your body to secrete some substances that make you feel better. Also, we usually associate laughter with a state of happiness, so if you’re laughing you’re probably happy too. What’s more, laughing makes you lose weight because you’re contracting your muscles and it helps tone your abs and lose weight. Therefore, laughing helps you look better. Last but not least, laughing can help you solve mental illness such as stress or anxiety. Having a good time laughing with your friends helps you forget your problems and feel better.


On the other hand, there are bad things about laughing too. The physical problems of laughing include the force of laughing can dislocate jaws, prompt asthma attacks, cause headaches and make hernias protrude. Besides, it can provoke cardiac arrhythmia, syncope or even emphysema. Moreover, we all know that there are moments when you shouldn’t laugh because they are serious but… what about the times when you shouldn’t laugh because you might die? For example while you’re eating. There are choking hazards, such as ingesting food during belly laughs. In addition, some people can develop mental illnesses like depression from laughter. Many people don’t know the difference between laughter and happiness and euphoria. They want to be in a state of maximum happiness all the time even though happiness is momentary; we can’t be happy all the time. That’s why many people end up in states of maximum sadness like depression.


All in all, laughing is good but we must be careful because sometimes it can be dangerous. From my point of view, laughing is very important and we should do it every day.