Smiling is a natural and universal process that is instantly understood by all human beings regardless of language and cultural differences. The process of smiling involves a variety of muscles in the human face as well as certain functions of the brain. Apart from creating instant social bonds, smiling has a variety of health benefits to the person smiling. This is why the smile makeover industry has grown in leaps and bounds over the last few years. In this blog article, we examine all the health benefits of cracking a beautiful smile.
Lifts Your Mood
Smiling has been known to drive away dark feelings and make a person happy again. This happens even when the person smiles for no reason at all. If you break into a smile, even without a reason, you can slowly feel your mood changing for the better. This is the reason why scientists recommend making an effort to smile even when one does not feel like smiling.
Smiling Lowers Blood Pressure
A scientific study in 2009 found that smiling helps lower blood pressure and lowers muscle tension. Smiling, as well as laughter helps slow down the heart rate. All these things lead to lower blood pressure and a healthy heart.
Smiling Reduces Stress
Are you stressed? Smiling often can significantly lower you’re your stress levels. This is especially true when you are performing stressful activities. Experts recommend smiling even when you don’t feel like smiling to lower stress. This, in turn, leads to a host of positive outcomes including better health. Employers who run stressful workplaces could get more out of their employees if they got them to smile more. This would be in terms of productivity but also the fact that there would be fewer employees taking sick days.
Healthy Relationships
Human beings instantly feel connected to people who smile a lot. In fact, studies have shown that people perceive ‘smilers’ as more approachable and likable as compared to people who don’t smile. This, in turn, makes for stronger relationships as a 2010 study showed. There is a positive correlation between positive emotions and marriage stability. Smiling and laughter are a great way to promote these positive emotions and lead to very healthy relationships.
Improved Immunity
Scientific studies have associated smiling and laughter to improved immunity. Smiling releases chemicals from the brain that bolster the immunity function and help the body to fight infections. This lends credence to the saying that laughter is the best medicine.
Pain Relief
Smiling is thought to trigger the release of the body’s own natural painkillers that help combat pain. Smiling and laughter were also found to raise a person’s pain threshold, allowing them to tolerate higher levels of pain.
Want to have a great smile? Dr. Alex Rubinov has years of experience helping patients get the smile they desire through smile makeovers. Dr. Rubinov is a highly trained and licensed cosmetic dentist as well as a general orthodontist. Contact his practice at (718) 253-0800 for an appointment.