Can you reduce the risk of bad health by laughing with others?

They say that laughter is the best medicine, but just how far does that old adage really go?

According to new research conducted in Japan, it could go quite far indeed.

A new study, published in the journal Preventive Medicine, looked at more than 12,500 Japanese people who were 65 or older.

All of them were enrolled in the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study that started in 2010 and aimed to untangle the factors associated with well-being in older adults.

Participants filled in questionnaires on how frequently they laughed.

They also had to divulge whether they mostly laughed alone, like while watching TV, or with other people.

They were then monitored for an average of six years each, with 1,420 of them developing health issues during that time that led them to needing support to complete daily tasks.

The scientists found that those who laughed regularly in conversations with friends benefited from a 29 per cent lower risk of needing assistance for health issues later in life compared to those who mostly laughed on their own.

Meanwhile, those who mostly laughed with grandchildren benefitted from a 38 per cent decrease, while those who laughed with a partner enjoyed a 39 per cent drop.

“This prospective cohort study of independent older adults demonstrated an association between laughter in daily life and the onset of functional disability, indicating that participants who laughed with others were at reduced risk of developing functional disability,” the authors wrote.

“Similarly, after carefully controlling for potential confounders, the number of situations in which people laugh with others was inversely associated with the risk of functional disability. In particular, laughing in a conversation.”

In conclusion, they noted: “Overall, laughing with others was associated with a reduced risk of functional disability.

“Having more situations to laugh with others or at least the situation to laugh with friends might contribute to reducing the risk of functional disability later in life.”

It’s not the first time a scientific study has pointed to the health benefits of laughter.

One study published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine from 2016 found that laughter and humour can also have deep and long-lasting psychological effects.

“Currently, research is indicating that the physical act of laughing, even without humour, is linked to chemical changes in the body that potentially reduce stress and increase pain tolerance,” the authors wrote.

Consider, too, the rise of laughter yoga, an Indian practice based around a series of physical exercises intended to generate fits of laughter that has made its way firmly into the Western world thanks to Madan Kataria, and his wife, Madhuri Kataria, who have written several books on the subject and run Laughter Yoga International.

“The brilliant thing about laughter is that it doesn’t matter if you’re genuinely laughing,” said Emma Jennings, 51, a laughter yoga leader in Brighton on the East Sussex coast in a recent interview with The Times. “Pretending to laugh has the same benefits.”