5 scientific reasons to smile more often. It can help your health

A big smile is not only a sign of good mood. Evidence-based medicine shows that, as it turns out, it can bring invaluable benefits to our health. Together with an expert, we tell you how it happens.

Practical psychologist, field therapist

Smiling is a mimic movement that can involve up to 53 facial muscles. And if you remember that there are 57 facial mimic muscles, you realize how complex this movement is and how diverse a smile can be.

Smiling is a powerful prophylactic tool that can prevent many diseases and critical conditions. Although laughter and smiling form an important part of human nonverbal communication, they have received far less attention than they deserve in both the experimental and observational literature.

Hope: Scientists identify more than 50 types of smiles, but the most sincere of them all is specifically the Duchenne smile. “The Duchenne smile is named after Guillaume Benjamin Aman Duchenne de Boulogne. He discovered that there are muscles near the eyes that are difficult to control and are integral to an involuntary smile. Duchene collected a gigantic amount of data on facial muscles that is supplemented by researchers to this day.

To avoid having to smile insincerely, develop the skill of positive thinking. We’ve written about it before.

Smiling is a painkiller

Even a forced social smile increases the production of endorphins, the happy hormone. Endorphins have a calming and pain-relieving effect comparable to that of opiates.

Hope: I would not recommend resolving all internal conflicts and issues with an insincere, strained smile. Because people do often try to block out the load inside and artificially reproduce joy, but one can only truly cope with difficulties by solving the problems at the source. In any case, smiling is very supportive, but you should not make a panacea out of it.

Studies show that pain thresholds increase significantly after smiling compared to the control condition before. This pain tolerance effect is due to the smile itself, which, due to its endorphin-mediated opiate effect, can play a crucial role in social bonding.

Smiling improves memory

Researchers from Loma Linda University Medical Center (California, USA) conducted an experiment. They divided up people aged between 60 and 70 and asked them to memorize the contents of several cards. Then they were divided into two groups: the first one just rested, and the second one was turned on to watch funny videos.

After 20 minutes, the participants were asked to recall the content of the cards shown to them. Those who watched the videos and smiled recalled on average twice as much information as those who were just relaxing. This suggests that smiling can improve at least short-term memory.

Smiling boosts immunity

Scientists have proven that smiling reduces stress and produces neurotransmitters that improve health. Smiling promotes faster production of white blood cells – white blood cells that are responsible for the strength of the immune system, repelling attacks from viruses and bacteria.

Smiling is key to a healthy heart

Studies show that smiling and laughing reduces stress on the cardiovascular system. Smiling in a stressful situation lowers your heart rate. This leads to a restoration of calmness and confidence. In addition, stress with a smile puts less strain on the cardiovascular system, with almost no negative impact on its health.

Those who prefer to keep a serious expression in difficult situations, the heart continues to pound, and it is more difficult for them to calm down.

To realize that there are problems with the heart, and timely consult a doctor, check yourself on the list.

Laughter prolongs life

People who smile often have an average 70 percent chance of living to 80 years, while in less smiling people this chance is only 50 percent. These are the results of a study by scientists from the United States.

Scientists came to this conclusion after analyzing old photographs: they highlighted smiling and frowning faces, and then traced the fate of the people depicted in the photos. The link between smiling and longevity was proven in most cases.

Hope: Try smiling and feel the difference between when you smile and when you don’t. Apart from all of the above, smiling increases confidence and creates a favorable background for communication and any activity. Therefore, it is important and necessary to smile.