Smiling Prolongs Life, Seriously!

• July 13, 2016

A good smile goes a long way. Actually, it is so effective that there is a very good chance that if you do it often, it may extend your life.

To explore the relationship between smiling and longevity, scientists turned to Major League Baseball players. They first visited the database of player photographs preserved in the Baseball Register. The researchers evaluated the smile intensity of individual athletes, sorting them into three major categories; players with no smiles, partial smiles or full smiles. The scientists then determined the survival pattern of each of these three groups.

The athletes with full smiles lived on average 7 years longer than those with no smiles in their photographs. What is interesting about this number is the parallel with the research we quoted in the previous blog about laughing. People with a well-developed sense of humor live on average 7 years longer than their non-laughing peers! The full statistical analysis of the smile study showed even more astoundingly that the athletes with full smiles were half as likely to die during any specific year as their non-smiling colleagues.

Laughing and smiling have a very strong association with positive physical and emotional health. Not surprisingly, this relationship is true even for the hardest of measures – life span.

My trademark greeting seems more appropriate than usual …

Have fun,

Roddy