How important sense of humor for healthy aging, shows a study from Norway. However, it has to be the right kind of humor to have a positive effect.
Humor: This kind is conducive to you
A long-term study from Norway with more than 50,000 participants shows that people can stay healthy and live longer through humor alone.
But those who make fun of other people and amuse themselves at their expense are not included. Because not every kind of humor has a positive effect on a healthy long life. It’s more about “friendly humor”. According to the researchers led by Solfrid Romunstad, those who have it can live at least 20 percent healthier and longer.
However, no positive effect could be detected in subjects aged 75 and over. The reason: genetics and biological age play a bigger role at this point.
study and follow-up study
The researchers developed a specific test procedure for friendly humor. In this way, they were able to determine humor and lack of humor in the test subjects in the same way. The scientists then divided the subjects into groups and observed them between 1995 and 1997 in terms of health and mortality.
They published their results in 2010. They then conducted a 15-year follow-up study with 53,556 participants. They then also concluded:
“The results show that a sense of humor is a health-protective cognitive coping resource.”
Solfrid Romundstad et al.
Not only humor can help you to live healthier and longer. According to a new study, optimistic people live longer. You can also increase your life expectancy by integrating five simple things into your everyday life.
Sources: A 7-year prospective study of sense of humor and mortality in an adult county population: the HUNT-2 study (National Library of Medicine, 2010), A 15-Year Follow-Up Study of Sense of Humor and Causes of Mortality: The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study” (2016, National Library of Medicine)