A smile is a brain tonic

Laughing at people or even watching 20 minutes of humor on TV every day can help improve short-term memory.

Smiles can help improve short-term memory in older people.(Photo: impowerage)

The study was conducted at Loma Linda University in Southern California (USA) on a healthy group of healthy adults. They are comfortable watching a funny entertainment video in 20 minutes. Meanwhile another group sat quietly and did not watch the video. They then performed memory tests and hormone analyzes that caused stress in saliva samples.

The results showed that people who laughed a lot when watching comedy videos had higher scores in short-term memory tests. And the amount of cortisol (hormone that causes stress) in saliva also decreased significantly in the comedy group.

When there is less stress, the memory will work effectively. Laughing action or simply enjoying some funny stories will increase the amount of endorphins, helping to bring a feeling of joy, comfort, and mood improvement. Also when smiling, the immune system will also work better.

"The ability to perceive and remember things will decrease as we age. Smiling at people or even watching just 20 minutes of funny shows on TV every day will help older people significantly limit those straightforward in life, " said Dr. Gurinder S. Bains, research author.