As a child, we all tend to smile often, up to about 400 times a day. However, by the time adulthood reaches our doors, the smiles have gone down to a paltry 20 smiles a day.
However, it turns out smiling is actually good for health and heart as well!
Here are the wonders smiling can do for you.
Makes you a better runner: Researchers at Ulster and Swansea universities found that club-level runners who smiled for six minutes while pounding the treadmill had a more economical running movement. They also felt like they had made less effort.
Sparks creativity: A study found that students who watched a film that made them smile and laugh were then better at performing mental arithmetic tasks. It also concluded that happier workers were 12 per cent more productive.
Reduces stress: Even just forcing a smile, as 169 students were told to do in a University of Kansas study, is enough to lower heart rate, which is a clear indicator of the body’s stress response. They were asked to perform a difficult multi-tasking activity during which they had to smile to a greater or lesser extent. Those who smiled reported the biggest drop in heart rate.
Improves decision-making: In a study published in the journal Cognition And Emotion, older adults were made to smile by being given a bag of sweets and a thank you card when they arrived. They then performed significantly better during a decision-making experiment than those who weren’t greeted with anything at all.
Makes a person trustworthy: According to researchers, humans smile to gain trust.This was backed up by US research, which found that people were more willing to share money with someone who smiled while trying to persuade them to do so.
