Table of contents:
- What effect does happiness have on the body?
- Positive affect higher risk of heart disease
- Various ways to feel happier
Happiness is considered to be the best emotion a human has ever felt. When someone is happy, the body will release the hormone dopamine which will make you feel better. However, did you know that the effect of happiness can not only improve mood but also overall body health?
What effect does happiness have on the body?
There have been many studies that reveal that a person's level of happiness also affects the health of the body.
This is not without reason. Various hormones that are released when feeling happy or happy will appear and have an effect that makes the cells in the body work better.
Some of these hormones include:
- Dopamine. The dopamine hormone alone can not only make you feel better. The dopamine hormone also functions as a neurotransmitter which is an important part of the brain's work system. The pleasant sensation produced by the hormone dopamine will encourage the brain to be more focused and help improve motor function of the body.
- Serotonin. Similar to the hormone dopamine, the hormone serotonin which also acts as a neurotransmitter helps regulate mood and affects sleep time, appetite, and the brain's ability to store memories.
- Endorphins. This hormone is a natural pain reliever that can be produced by the body itself. You can increase this hormone when you are doing things that focus your attention and make you happy, such as eating and exercising.
- Oxytocin. Also known as the love hormone, oxytocin is usually produced by the body when a person is doing affectionate activities such as hugging, kissing, and having sex. Usually women have higher levels of oxytocin than men.
Apart from that, happiness is also followed by the effect called positive affect (PA). Several studies have observed the effect given from positive affect to the health level of the participants.
Research is generally carried out by asking various questions related to the emotional state of the participants and how long they have felt these emotions.
It aims to see whether the participants' emotional experiences can influence the emergence of various disease conditions.
Positive affect higher risk of heart disease
It turns out that from these various studies, the heart is the organ most often affected.
Research also yielded results that participants had positive affect people who are higher have a lower risk of heart disease and stroke.
Even positive affect also affects a person's susceptibility to viruses that cause flu-like illnesses.
For example, participants with lower levels of PA before exposure to the virus had more signs of disease. Meanwhile, participants with higher PA had more resistance to the virus.
This was also shown in other studies that gave hepatitis B preventive vaccines to 81 students who participated.
Happier students had almost twice the antibody response compared to less happy participants.
These results suggest that happiness may have an impact on a stronger immune system.
Not yet known exactly how the relationship between the two. But chances are, happiness has an influence on the activity of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis as a regulator of the body's immune system and stress control so that it works better.
Various ways to feel happier
Emotions can indeed affect the health of your body. In this case, feeling happy more often will actually make your life expectancy higher as well.
In fact, there are a number of things you can do if you want to feel happier.
Moving more actively by leaving time for exercise, spending more time outdoors, meditating, and eating nutritious food can generate happy hormones.
However, true happiness also comes from the emotions that are felt by oneself. Sometimes, happiness can also be obtained from small influences such as chatting and joking with the people around you.
The thing to remember is to focus more on the things that make you feel good.