Emotions and Health: Part 2

The previous blog post mentioned the effects of negative emotions on our mental and physical health. Not only do negative emotions affect our health and life, so do our positive emotions.

Positive emotions are in direct opposition to negative emotions in how they affect our health. They are able to keep our body in a positive state that boosts its healing ability and overall performance.

Love is a form of positive emotion that is shown to provide many health benefits. Research done on the subject “falling in love” revealed that love is able to increase the amount of nerve growth factor (NGF) in our system for about a year. The Nerve Growth Factor is a gene that is inserted into protein structures to be incorporated into larger structures. They provide instructions and components that are used for the growth, repair, and wellbeing of the body’s nervous system. NGF provides a calming effect on the body and mind. It is known to provide the feelings of being in love along with contentment. Unfortunately the levels of NGF is shown to drop after about a year after first falling in love.

Positive physical contact with another person has shown to provide positive health benefits. The act of cuddling together releases the hormone oxytocin referred to as the bonding hormone or love hormone. This hormone acts as a neurotransmitter, a chemical messenger in the brain. It increases the feelings of empathy, generosity, and trust and is considered a type of cure for depression feelings and reduces the stress response and anxiety.

The act of laughing is shown to have many positive health benefits. Laughter, and even the anticipation of laughter, is able to reduce the levels of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenalin. It is able to relax tense muscles, reduce the production of stress hormones, lower blood pressure, increase oxygen absorption in the blood, increase levels of the mood boosting beta-endorphin by 27%, and increase levels of human growth factor, helping in how well we sleep. Laughter’s stress reducing ability is able to reduce the risk of heart attacks since it prevents the effects of stress from harming the protective lining of the blood vessels. Cellular repair is shown to increase by 87% from laughing. Laughing is good for our face muscles. Over 400 muscles are used for the activity. There has been some research that estimates laughing 100 times is able to burn the same amount of calories as doing a 10 minute aerobic workout on a rowing machine or doing 15 minutes on an exercise bike.

The emotional aspect of gratitude such as feeling thankful for what we have, what we are given by others, and for being alive as well as the positive feeling associated with achievements are shown to lower blood pressure, boost immunity, and speed up the healing process throughout the entire body. Feelings of gratitude along with love and other positive emotions increases the release of oxytocin. The effects of gratitude is shown to boost the function and performance of the heart and brain by increasing their harmonious electric activity.

In most cases, stress is shown to negatively impact our health. While this is true for many forms of stress, especially when experienced long-term, there is an exception. Short bursts of stress are actually able to provide a boost to immunity and raise the level of cancer fighting molecules. This positive effect is shown to last for weeks after the stress situation. Long term stress is the opposite and will cause harm to our body. Thus, we need to find a way of removing long-term stressful situations.

In the next blog post we will discuss ways in preventing, removing, and overcoming the harmful negative emotions so that we can keep our mind in a positive mindset to push us forward in life.